I am a board member of a small (200 members) nonprofit religious organization. We have an annual membership meeting where we elect 3 new board members (among the usual annual meeting items). One general member each year insists that it is perfectly okay to get a bunch of members to vote for only 1 of the candidates (usually there is slate of 5 candidates) although 3 new board members must be chosen. This stragic under-voting effectively guarantees that his candidate of choice will be on the board and deprives the other candidates of votes. Under-voting is not outlawed in our by-laws and Robert's Rules of Order (which we follow if something is not covered in our by-laws) does not outlaw it either. We have recently changed our by-laws to allow our election committee to set policy each year on voting procedures and they announce well ahead of the election that members must vote for three candidates (no more, no less) for a ballot to be valid. Still, the arguments arise. In a large organization, under-voting would not have a great effect. In a small organization, this can throw an election. We are looking for best-management practices of small organizations that would specifically address this issue. Does anyone know of such practice guidelines?