Matt has discussed this before, but google failed me because, surprise, Matt uses the words “50″ and “majority” in roughly 3/4 of his posts. Anyway.
Have you ever given thought to the different ways that “majority” is defined? Matt points out that some people say 51%. They may say it, but very rarely do they actually MEAN that. The two real options are 50%+1 and >50%.
CKI, in its infinite wisdom, has chosen 50%+1 to be it’s standard of majority. Now, once you get enough voters the difference between these two is small and almost negligible. At the lower ends of the voting spectrum, however, things get silly.
For example… if there are 11 people voting, how many should it take to pass something by majority? In CKI, if you said six, you’re wrong. It takes seven. Why? Because 50% of 11 is 5.5. 50%+1 is 6.5. Six votes is not more than 6.5, hence… it would fail. Seven is required.
It gets worse. If you have 7 voters, do the math. It takes five votes. In CKI super majority is defined as 2/3. Not > 2/3… and not 2/3 + 1. Just 2/3. So with seven voters, five are required for majority… and super-majority (2/3) is the same. 50%+1 = 4.5. 2/3 = 4.67. Both require five votes… so with only five voters, there’s no difference between the two.
When the count gets down to three voters — when 2/3 and majority should be the same, it’s actually easier to get a super majority because majority requires three votes (50%+1 = 2.5) while 2/3 of three is simply two votes.
The worst thing about this is that it’s often exploited by those with a greater policy knowledge to kill things they don’t like that are close to failing but conveniently ignored when the tables are turned. I’ve seen it happen.
I don’t think it was implemented for that purpose, however. I simply think that whoever wrote the policy was trying to sound policy-minded and thought that 50%+1 was equivalent to “more than 50%” and sounded a little more intelligent. And, because it’s a rare occasion for CKI folks to really investigate their policies and word choices, it stuck around.
Pete, I think you’re right on here. Just for the record, I have used the word “majority” in a total of 12 posts on Matt Schuh Online. That doesn’t even approach 50%+1
Here’s the link for you:
http://mattschuh.blogs.com/.....tly_is.htm
It’s really simple, actually. The definition of majority is:
“More votes for one choice than for all other choices combined”.
Ex. If there are 11 votes, 6 is majority because 6 is more than the rest combined (5)
In an election, if a majority is needed, there are 17 votes, and they are:
Alex - 3 votes
Bill - 2 votes
Charlie - 3 votes
Donald - 9 votes
Donald wins because he has rec’d a majority (9>(3+2+3))
Many, many Kiwanians use the 50 percent plus 1 as their (incorrect) standard. They do believe if you have 17 votes, majority is 17/2 = 8.5 + 1 = 9.5 = 10 votes.
I actually got in an EXTREMELY heated argument a few years ago with a district administrator over the definition of majority in a officer election. So maybe CKI was just (incorrectly) codifying a Kiwanis practice.
Anyone who wants to run for CKI office, or is in an office, should read the following (since international often has trouble figuring out what correct parli pro is)
http://www.parlipro.org/faqanswers.htm
Seems like it’d be much easier to say “greater than 50%” because, mathematically speaking, if one option has more votes than all other options combined, it will have to have more than 50%.
I figure I count more than anybody else, therefore a majority is whoever sides with me.
That’s a good point, Brandon. Unless you’re on the opposite side from me, in which case you’ve clearly lost your mind.
Pepitos this week?
I believe CKI takes its info from Robert’s Rules of Order which definte simple majority as 50% +1
I don’t have the latest revision, but the 1915 version defines “majority” as “more than half the votes cast, ignoring blanks” [source]
Also, Parlipro.org answers this in their FAQ (#28) and cites the 10th edition. [source]
Also: if they were using Robert’s Rules, it wouldn’t have to be stated expressly in the docs like it is, since KI/CKI default to Robert’s.
Yes… Pepitos. Give me a call sometime and we can get together, except Tuesday.
I always keep my 10th edution of RRoO handy by my desk (somebody tell me if they ever update it, you can bet I’ll be preordering that one!). Anybody looking for reference to the primary source:
Sec. 1 (page 4): “more than half of the members present and voting on the particular issue”
Sec. 44 (page 387): “The word majority means ‘more than half’; and when the term majority vote is used without qualification–as in the base of the basic requirement–it means more than half of the votes cast by persons legally entitled to vote, excluding blanks or abstensions, at a regularly or properly called meeting at at which a quorum is present.”
Wow, I’d hate to use that system where only 1 person was voting.