Conduct of ballots
Regulations for the conduct of the ballot for officers and ordinary members of the Board of Trustees (as amended by resolutions dated 23 May 1985 and 12 November 1996)
1. All members who are entitled to vote shall vote by writing the name of the candidate who is first in their order of preference in the space provided opposite ‘1st choice’ on the ballot paper, by writing the name of the candidate who is their second preference in the space provided opposite ‘2nd choice’ and so on. They may stop where they please or continue to indicate their order of preference for all candidates.
2. The ballot papers shall be returned so as to reach the chief executive or a nominee not later than 35 days after their issue by the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees shall take such steps as they consider expedient to ensure the secrecy and validity of the ballot.
3. At one of the ordinary meetings, the members present shall nominate scrutineers for the purposes of the ballots. The ballot papers shall be delivered unopened by the chief executive or nominee to the scrutineers, who shall open them and count the votes in the manner prescribed in paragraph 5 hereof.
4. The following method of counting the votes shall be adopted on each occasion when dealing with the votes cast for candidates for the offices of Deputy-President, Vice-President, or ordinary member of the Board of Trustees.
5. In each election, the scrutineers shall:
(a) (i) Count the number of ballot papers received.
(ii) Sort the ballot papers into heaps according to the first preferences
recorded for each candidate.(iii) Reject any papers that are invalidly marked.
(b) Count the number of valid papers in each heap, credit each candidate with the number of votes equal to the number of first preferences they have received, and then ascertain the total number of valid papers. This shall constitute the first count.
(c) Divide the total number of valid papers by the number of vacancies plus one and (disregarding any fraction) add one to the result. The figure so obtained, termed the ‘quota’, shall be the number of votes sufficient to secure the election of a candidate.
(d) If at the end of the first count the number of votes credited to any candidate is equal to or greater than the quota, thereupon declare that candidate elected.
(e) If at the end of the first count any candidate is credited with more votes than the quota, transfer the surplus to the continuing candidates for whom the next available preferences have been recorded on the ballot papers of the elected candidate. For this purpose all the papers of the successful candidate shall be examined on the assumption that all their votes are to be transferred.
But the number actually transferred shall be distributed to each of the next available preferences in the ratio of the successful candidate’s surplus to the total of transferable first preferences, and the papers not so transferred retained as the quota of the elected candidate.
(f) If more than one candidate has a surplus of votes, transfer each surplus in the order of its magnitude, beginning with the largest.
(g) If after the transfer of the surpluses of all successful candidates there remain vacancies still to be filled, declare defeated the candidate then lowest on the poll and transfer the votes to the unelected candidates for whom the next available preferences have been recorded on the ballot papers of the defeated candidate, setting aside, in a separate parcel, as non-transferrable any such papers on which no further preference has been marked.
(h) Continue to declare defeated and transfer in the same way the votes of the candidates becoming in succession the lowest on the poll until at the end of any count the number of elected candidates is equal to the number of vacancies to be filled, when no further transfer of votes shall be made.
6. Together with the chief executive the scrutineers shall then prepare a list of the names of the successful candidates in alphabetical order, and this list shall be published as the result of the ballot.
7. In the event of the scrutineers being unable to report the election of the prescribed number of persons to fill the vacancies owing to an equality of votes, they shall submit the names of the candidates having the same number of votes to the President of the Institution.
In the President’s absence then to any one of the Deputy-Presidents or in their absence to any one of the Vice-Presidents to be selected by the scrutineers by lot, who shall determine by their casting vote or votes which such candidate or candidates having such an equality of votes shall be elected.