In law, a quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative body necessary to conduct the business of that group. Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society A deliberative assembly is an Organization, comprising of members that uses Parliamentary procedure for making decisions Ordinarily, this is a majority of the people expected to be there, although many bodies may have a lower or higher quorum.
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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. Status quo is a Latin term meaning the present existing state of affairs or "the state in which" Therefore, voters who are in favor of the status quo are able to use an obstructive strategy called, in the United States, quorum-busting. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the 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.
A quorum in a legislative body is normally a majority of the entire membership of the body. A majority, also known as a simple majority in the US, is a Subset of a group that is more than half of the entire group If there are vacancies, that fact is not considered. Thus, a quorum of a legislative body that has 100 seats would be 51 (more than half of 100), even if some seats are vacant. However, it is also common in a legislative body to have a rule that the lack of a quorum does not affect the proceedings unless a point of order is raised. For the 1964 documentary film see Point of Order (film. For other uses see Point A point of order is a matter raised during consideration
United Kingdom
The House of Lords of the Parliament of the United Kingdom can decide on procedural issues with only three members present (out of 753). The House of Lords is the second house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords" The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories Procedural, as an adjective refers to the concept of Procedure.
A quorum in the House of Commons is forty. The House of Commons' is the Lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords
Justices of the Peace
The Quorum was a select group of the Justices of the Peace in each county in the Early Modern Period. A Justice of the Peace ( JP) is a Puisne Judicial officer appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace In theory they were men experienced in law, but many of quorum were appointed because of their status. Some legislation required the involvement of a member of the quorum, (e. g. granting a licence to a badger). A Badger was in English, a term of uncertain derivation (possibly derived from bagger a bag or person carrying one for a dealer in Food or victuals which he had In practise increasingly were not qualified, as the proportion in the quorum rose faster than proportion who were called to the bar or practising lawyers. By 1532 an average 45% of Justice of the Peace nationally were of the quorum. In Somerset the proportion rose from 52% in 1562 to 93% in 1636. By then most of those not on the quorum were new to the bench. Sometimes Justice of the Peace were removed from the quorum as a disciplinary measure less drastic than removal from the bench. [1]
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. Article One of the United States Constitution describes the powers of the legislative branch of the United States government, known as Congress The United States House of Representatives is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress; the other is the Senate. The United States Senate is the Upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the Lower house being the House of Representatives The Senate has the additional requirement in Rule VI of its standing rules of a "majority of the members duly chosen and sworn. Rules of order, also known as standing orders or rules of procedure, are the written rules of Parliamentary procedure adopted by a Deliberative assembly An oath (from Anglo-Saxon āð, also called plight) is either a Promise or a Statement of Fact calling "
The IRS requires 501(c)(3), non-profit organizations to have a quorum present at their required, yearly meetings. 501(c is a provision of the United States Internal Revenue Code ( listing 28 types of Non-profit organizations exempt from some federal If it is not, then not only can they not vote, but they must also 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. Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. The Texas House of Representatives is the Lower house of the Texas Legislature. Redistricting, a form of redistribution, is the process of changing of political Borders in the United States The House Democrats, certain of defeat if a quorum were present, chose not to be present in the House that day, but instead took a plane to Oklahoma, preventing the bill from passing due to a lack of a quorum. The Democratic Party is one of two major Political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. Oklahoma ( is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. 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. The United States Senate is the Upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the Lower house being the House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress; the other is the Senate. A call of the house is a motion which can be adopted by a Deliberative assembly that has the authority to compel the attendance of its members in the absence of a This was the reason that the Killer D's fled to Oklahoma, which is outside of the jurisdiction of Texas law. The Killer Ds are a group of Texas House Democrats who left the state of Texas for Ardmore, Oklahoma during the week of May 12 The Killer D's effectively killed the legislation by staying in Oklahoma long enough to let the legislation expire.
The same year, the Texas Eleven, of the Texas Senate, fled to New Mexico to prevent a quorum of the Senate to prevent another redistricting bill during a special legislative session. The Texas Eleven were a group of Texas Senate Democrats who fled the state of Texas for Oklahoma and New Mexico for 46 days in 2003 Though the Democrats stayed in New Mexico for 46 days, one democrat returned to Texas, creating a quorum; because there was now no point in staying in New Mexico, the Texas Eleven Minus One returned to Texas to oppose the bill with votes in opposition. The bill ultimately passed both the House and the Senate as the 2003 Texas redistricting legislation, which was ruled constitutional by the US Supreme Court in 2006, though Congressional District 23 was deemed an unconstitutional case of gerrymandering. The 2003 Texas redistricting refers to a highly controversial congressional Redistricting plan appealed to the United States Supreme Court in League of United Gerrymandering is a form of redistribution in which electoral district or Constituency boundaries are manipulated for electoral advantage
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. The disappearing quorum was a practice used by the minority party to prevent voting in the United States House of Representatives.
Ordinary societies
In an ordinary society (such as a local club), if the quorum is not specified in the organization's bylaws, it is a majority of the members[2]. A bylaw (sometimes also spelled by-law or byelaw) most commonly refers to a city or municipal law or ordinance passed under the authority of a Charter This can cause problems because, in most such organizations, only a smaller portion of the membership usually comes to meetings, and without a quorum, no business may be done. It may be impossible to correct this problem within the bounds of parliamentary procedure. Parliamentary procedure is the body of Rules Ethics, and Customs governing meetings and other operations of Clubs Organizations For this reason, it is a good idea to include a provision in the bylaws setting the quorum at some smaller number.
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. This article is about a voting system criterion See Monotonic function for a mathematical notion 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. Debian ( pronounced) is a computer Operating system composed entirely of Free and open source software. 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 decisions with only half the required number of people present. A decision made using Sub-Quorum would have to be ratified at a meeting with a full quorum. The system is widely used in Student Unions. A students' union, student government, student senate, students' association, or guild of students is a Student Organization [1]
Etymology
The word "quorum" is Latin, genitive plural of the relative pronoun qui, and means "of whom", taken from a phrase meaning "of whom such-a-number must be present". In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another Plural is a Grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the Referent in the real world A relative pronoun is a Pronoun that marks a Relative clause within a larger sentence.
Quotes
Quorum, n. A sufficient number of members of a deliberative body to have their own way and their own way of having it. In the United States Senate a quorum consists of the chairman of the Committee on Finance and a messenger from the White House; in the House of Representatives, of the Speaker and the devil.
-- Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1913) The Devil's Dictionary
References
- ^ Gleason, J. Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24 1842 &ndash 1914? was an American Editorialist Journalist, short-story writer and Satirist. The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce, is a satirical book published in 1911 H. The Justice of the Peacein England 1558-1640, Oxford, 1969
- ^ "In any other deliberative assembly with enrolled membership whose bylaws do not specify a quorum, the quorum is a majority of all the members. " — Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, 10th edition, Perseus Books Group, Cambridge MA, 2000, page 335, lines 12-14. Robert's Rules of Order is the informal short title of a book containing Rules of order intended to be adopted for use by a Deliberative assembly.
See also
- Constitution of the Roman Republic
- Minyan - the quorum of 10 men above the age of 13 that need to be present for some Jewish prayers
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 walkout
- Washington Post article on the 2004 elections in Texas and Texas Politics (under the results tables)
- Entry in The Devil's Dictionary for Quorum
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