Most disputed association elections are not disputed at the count. They are disputed at the nomination: a member who was not eligible ended up on the ballot, a candidate says they never agreed to stand, or a nomination arrived and nobody can now find it.
A nomination window that holds up has four parts: a clear call, a check against the rules, recorded consent from the candidate, and a file of all three. None of it is complicated. It just has to be deliberate.
1Write the call so it answers every question in advance
The call for nominations goes to everyone eligible to vote, and it should say which seats are open, who may stand for each, who may nominate, how to submit a nomination, whether a seconder is required, when the window closes, and what happens if a seat attracts no candidates.
The qualifications matter most. Write each one as a sentence you can apply to a name without a judgement call: a candidate must be a member in good standing on the record date; a candidate for this seat must currently hold a regional office; a candidate must not be more than 60 days in arrears. If a qualification cannot be written that way, it will be argued about later.
2Check every nomination against the rules, and write down the answer
Check each nomination as it arrives rather than in a batch at the end, and record the outcome with the reason. Two sentences is enough: this nomination meets the conditions for this seat, or this nomination does not meet the condition that the candidate hold a regional office on the record date.
Tell the nominator and the nominee the same day. The worst version of this is the member who learns weeks later, in front of everyone, that their nomination never counted. It also protects you: a written determination made before anyone knew the result is very hard to characterize as bias.
3Ask the candidate, and keep the answer
Consent means the candidate said yes, in writing, after being told what the seat involves. An email from the nominee that says they accept is enough. What is not enough is the nominator saying the candidate agreed, or a silence you have chosen to read as agreement.
Give a deadline for the answer and say what happens if it passes without one, which is normally that the nomination lapses. Keep the declines as well as the acceptances. A decline is the answer to the question of why a name people expected to see is not on the ballot.
4Handle seconders, if your bylaws require them
Where a seconder is required, the second is part of the nomination and not an afterthought, so record who seconded and when. Decide in advance whether a member may second more than one candidate for the same seat, and whether a candidate may second their own nomination. Silence on either point is an argument waiting to happen.
5Close the window and publish the slate
At the deadline, close the window and publish the candidates for each seat to all members, with the nomination record available to anyone who asks. Publishing the slate before ballots go out gives members a chance to raise a problem while it is still cheap to fix.
If a seat has one candidate and your bylaws allow election unopposed, say so explicitly rather than leaving members to work it out from a ballot with one name on it.
What to keep for each nomination
- Who nominated, and when.
- Who was nominated, and for which seat.
- The seconder and the time of the second, if your bylaws require one.
- The qualification decision, with the reason, and who made it.
- The candidate's acceptance or decline, in their own words, with the time.
- Any withdrawal, with the time and what was communicated to members.
- What members were told, and when: the call, the slate, and any change to it.
In Ballot this is the part that is automated rather than remembered. Conditions are written once per seat, a nomination that fails one is recorded as ineligible with the reason instead of reaching the ballot, and every nominee is emailed and has to accept before their name appears. The acceptance, the decline, and the timestamps end up in the audit file without anyone having to keep a separate log.
General guidance, not legal advice. Your bylaws and, for some organizations, state or federal law set the actual nomination requirements. Where your bylaws are silent, the board can usually adopt an election rule that fills the gap. Do that before the election rather than during one.