I believe that absentee voting would be extremely beneficial especially for a larger church since it is obvious that many members of most churches will not be present during the annual meeting. However, it would probably need to be done through an online form rather than a general email for security purpose.
Perhaps the time has come to allow absentee balloting. I think that probably one of the reasons absentee balloting wasn't allowed in the past was because of the old pastoral recall method. At one time pastors had a recall vote by the congregation either every year or two years.
Not allowing absentee voting helped protect pastors from disgruntled members campaigning to vote a pastor out. With the method we have now of recalling pastors I don't think this woud be a problem.
The method of conducting the absentee vote would have to be fairly broad and could not be limited to voting via email and internet. We still have many that do not or will not use a computer.
Yes for absentee balloting! With many church members working different shifts, they should be able to vote and have a voice in their church, but because of work or helath reasosn many cannot! A much needed change!
I wonder if we could have church votes over a few weeks or an early vote system for those who know that they are going to be gone that Sunday morning. It might be a little more complicated, but in the long run it wouldn't actually be that hard to administer.
I agree with Doug that it was our fear in regards to voting out pastors which seemed to restrict us in regards to absentee voting. So combining all of the ideas in these posts what might a resolution look like for our General Assembly?
You know something that has just came to my mind is stockholders. I believe Stockholders vote for Boards in businesses. They do this absentee, I wonder what the difference would be in a local church. Jim, you are right, but our votes have to be legally binding, since we are Incorporated. Or at least should be incorporated.
