Majority - A majority, in parliamentary procedure, refers to the number of votes needed to pass a motion. A simple majority is one more than half the voting members. A 2/3 majority requires that 2/3 of the votes be in favor to pass the motion.

For example, if 100 people are voting, 51 yes votes would be needed for a majority. 67 would be needed for a 2/3 majority.

Things become a little more complicated if there are "abstentions," or members who register as voting neither yes nor no (after the "nay" votes, they may call out "abstention" at which time the presiding officer would call for other abstentions to be counted). If there are, for example, 100 people voting, 49 vote yes, 48 vote no, and 3 register an abstention, the motion fails because a simple majority is 51, not 49.

A person who simply does not vote is not an abstention. If a show of hands vote in a body of 100 is taken, and the vote count is 48 yes, 40 no, and 3 abstentions, the motion has a simple majority. Although 100 people were entitled to vote, only 91 did, so a simple majority is one more than half of 91, or 46.

Here are some examples. See if you can tell whether the motion passes or fails. Scroll down for answers:

Example 1: A 2/3 majority is required to pass Motion A in a group with 70 voting members present. By show of hands, 46 vote yes and 20 vote no. Does the motion carry?

Example 2: A simple majority is required to pass Motion B. There are 12 voting members. 5 vote yes, 4 vote no, 1 abstains. Does the motion carry?

Example 3: 50 people are voting on Candidates C, D, and E for office. Candidate C gets 23 votes. Candidate D gets 20, and Candidate E gets 7. Who won?

Example 4: Okay, get a pencil. A written ballot is taken on Motion F, which needs a simple majority. A total of 135 ballots are collected. 61 ballots are marked "yes", 55 ballots are marked "no", 4 ballots are marked "abstain", 14 ballots are blank, and one is marked "yo." Does the motion carry?

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Answers:

1. Carries. 2/3 of 70 is 47, but only 66 voted, so 2/3 majority requires only 44 yes votes.

2. Fails. A simple majority of 12 is 6. Although more voted yes than no, the abstention counts toward majority, so that 5 is not sufficient to pass.

3. Probably no one. Robert's Rules calls this a "plurality." No one got 26 votes, which would be a majority. Even though Candidate C got the most votes of any single candidate, the majority (27) voted against him. Unless an organization has specific rules allowing for a plurality election, what would usually happen is that the candidate receiving the least votes would be dropped from the ballot and another vote held, until a majority is reached.

4. Trick question! The motion carries, and here's why: 135 ballots were collected, which suggests that 68 is a majority. However, blank votes are not abstentions ... they're simply dropped. So is the vote marked "yo," since there's no way to tell what the voter intended by that. The votes marked "abstain" DO count. So, in this case, although there were 135 ballots, there were only 120 actual votes (61+55+4). That means majority is 61, and the motion just passed!