Quorum
From Free net encyclopedia
- This article deals with the legal definition of quorum; for other meanings, see Quorum (disambiguation).
In law, a quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative body necessary to conduct the business of that group. Ordinarily, this is a majority of the people expected to be there, although many bodies may have a lower or higher quorum. Two countries that have had previous troubles with quorums are the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
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Quorum as a tool
When quorum is not met, a legislative body cannot hold a vote, and cannot change the status quo. Therefore, voters who are in favor of the status quo are able to use an obstructive strategy called, in the United States, quorum-busting. If a significant number of voters choose not to be present for the vote, the vote will fail due to lack of quorum, and the status quo will remain.
United Kingdom
The House of Lords of the Parliament of the United Kingdom can decide on procedural issues with only three members present.
United States
According to Article One of the United States Constitution, the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate each have a quorum of a simple majority of their respective members. The Senate has the additional requirement in Rule VI of its standing rules of a "majority of the members duly chosen and sworn."
The IRS requires 501(c)(3), non-profit organizations to have a quorum present at their required, yearly meetings. If it is not, then not only can they not vote, they must have another meeting.
Quorum-busting in the United States
A prominent example of quorum-busting occurred in 2003, when the Texas House of Representatives was going to vote on a redistricting bill that would have favored the Republicans in the state. The House Democrats, certain of defeat if a quorum was present, chose not to be present in the House that day, but instead took a bus to Oklahoma, preventing the bill from passing due to a lack of a quorum. Legislative bodies often have rules to discourage quorum-busting. In many U.S. legislative bodies, such as the United States Senate and House of Representatives, if there is no quorum present a call of the house could be ordered, which would cause absent members to be arrested and brought to the floor of the body. This was the reason that the Texas Democrats fled to Oklahoma, which is outside of the jurisdiction of Texas law.
The technique of the disappearing quorum (refusing to vote although physically present on the floor), was used by the minority to block votes in the US House of Representatives until 1890.
Online communities
When votes are held in large online communities, where it may never be the case that a majority of the members are "present", the effect of quorum is different. Being absent from the vote no longer requires particular effort, but is the default case: voters are usually assumed to be absent unless they cast a vote. Online communities therefore tend to have quorums that are much less than a majority of the members.
In such votes, a non-monotonic aspect can be introduced: a voter can inadvertently swing a vote from failing to passing by voting "no", if a majority has voted "yes" and that "no" vote is the one that causes quorum to be met. With no penalty for being absent, voters are faced with a strategic choice between voting "no" and not voting.
The Debian project has addressed this issue in its voting mechanisms with the idea of per-option quorum. A quorum is not set on the total number of votes, but on the number of votes a particular option (besides the status quo) must receive before it is considered. For example, in a yes/no vote, the quorum may say that at least 40 "yes" votes are required, along with "yes" having a majority of votes, for the vote to pass.
Sub-Quorum
Sub-Quorum is a method, permitted by the governing rules of some organizations, allowing meetings to make decisons with only half the required number of people present. A decison made using Sub-Quorum would have to be ratified at a meeting with a full quorum. The system is widely used in Student Unions.[1]
External links
- Quorum in the Debian Voting System
- Voting and Quorum Procedures in the U.S. Senate [pdf ~ 55k]
- Seattle PI article on the Texas Democratic walkoutcs:Kvórum
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