Voting at the Special Electing Convention
A Special Convention to elect the 14th Bishop of the Diocese of Arkansas will take place this Saturday, August 19, at Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock, beginning at 10 a.m. with a service of Holy Eucharist.
Those clergy who are eligible and certified lay delegates from each congregation will be seated and allowed to vote. Alternate delegates will also be seated and granted voting privileges, if necessary, as outlined in the Constitution and Canons of the diocese. Lunch will be provided for registered clergy, delegates, and alternates. Visitors are invited to attend and observe.
Voting by Orders
The church canons require that a bishop be elected by Orders. That means that members of the clergy will vote as a group, and all lay delegates will vote as a group. A Bishop is elected when a majority of clergy and a majority of lay delegates vote for the same candidate on the same ballot.
In order to facilitate voting by orders, there will be a roped-off area in the Cathedral for eligible voters to sit—clergy on one side, lay delegates on the other. Visitors and alternates will sit outside of the roped-off area.
Ballots
Each Order will have a different colored ballot—clergy ballots are blue, and lay delegate ballots are orange. Having different colored ballots ensures that the votes of the two Orders are kept separate. The ballots will be pre-folded in half for privacy.
Counting of Votes
After all ballots have been distributed, marked, and returned, the eight members of the Election Committee, under the supervision of the Election Committee chair, will retire to a private room. First, they will count the number of ballots, making sure that the number of ballots does not exceed the number of eligible voters. Then, all ballots will be counted by each of the four two-person counting teams, separately. The outcome from all four teams must match before the counting is considered complete for each round of the election. The Election Committee chair will then report the outcome of the vote to the officers of convention.
If a Bishop is not elected on the first ballot, there will be additional ballots until a successful election occurs.