LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — April 1–2, 2016, Page 2

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I therefore ask the following question of the commission: “When there are more nominees with the
same vote count than are needed to finalize the slate of five candidates for a regional position, will
it be permissible to use a blind draw to determine the order in which nominees will be contacted,
continuing to do so only until the bylaw requirement of five candidates has been met?”
Opinion: In response, the Commission notes that Bylaw 3.12.2.7 specifies the process for nomination and
election of regional vice presidents and applies the same process also to “all other regional elections.”
In the specified process, regional member congregations can each nominate two individuals for each regional
position. When nominations are closed, the five nominees who received the most nominating votes (and are
willing to serve) form the slate of candidates “from which the Synod convention shall select by majority vote”
the regional board member. Historically, in the case of a tie for the fifth slot among regional vice president or
board of directors nominees, the Secretary has, for lack of any Bylaw-sanctioned procedure to select only a
sufficient number of these nominees to fill the slate to five, applied the principle of Bylaw 3.12.2.1(b) to include
all names involved in the tie. This forms the slate. No additional floor nominations are permitted (Bylaw
3.12.2.7[d]).
The 2016 convention marks the first broad application of this procedure to regional board positions. Early
tabulations show a marked decrease in congregational participation with regard to nominations for these
positions. The distribution of nominations among nominees is generally such that reasonably complying with
the bylaw in the most obvious way (that is, selecting the five or a few more, in case of a tie for “last place,”
nominees with the most nominations) is impossible. After tabulations of the results of the nominations ballots
for six positions, there are no positions on regional boards with sufficient nominees with multiple nominations
to fill a slate of five. In all cases, to fill out the slate of five with all remaining nominees, counting them as a tie,
would include potentially dozens of nominees for many elective positions. For one position, for example, only
one nominee has multiple nominations and a dozen other individuals received single nominations. In other
cases, two or three nominees have multiple nominations and ten to thirty have single ones. It is not feasible for
the Secretary to contact between ten and thirty candidates for each position and determine their willingness to
serve in the time frame allotted, also incorporating all their biographical material into the preconvention
mailings. Likewise, accommodating initial ballots of possibly ten to thirty candidates at the convention seems
not in keeping with either the spirit of the Bylaws, which call for ballots of five, or with the normal process of
elections. The historically applied solution, most readily inferred from Bylaw 3.12.2.1(b), of including all
nominees tied for the last slot on the ballot simply will not work. The current Bylaws are inadequate, providing
no other explicit or readily inferred remedy.
The commission notes that this is an area for serious consideration that should be addressed by the Commission
on Handbook (or by one of the boards having regional elections) before the upcoming convention so that this
serious discrepancy between the requirements of the Bylaws for regional elections and the reality of
congregational participation in the process specified might be corrected for future convention cycles.
An immediate solution, however, is required. On encountering this conundrum, the Secretary of the Synod
consulted immediately with the commission to determine a course of action that was both feasible and best in
keeping with the spirit of Bylaw 3.12.2.7—that is, that the convention would be provided with a reasonable
slate of candidates, whose selection would respect the principles of truly regional nomination. Although
extremely reticent to do so, the commission has agreed that the Bylaws present an unworkable process and also
that the following is the best available emergency remedy until a workable process can be specified in the
Bylaws by a convention.
For each of the positions of a respective board, the Secretary will, as necessary, contact those nominees with the
most nominations to obtain their consent to serve, beginning with the nominee(s) who received the most
nominations and working downward. Those who consent to serve will be placed on the ballot. Whenever more
than one person has received the next-highest number of nominating votes for a next or final position on the
ballot, the Secretary will then use an audited blind draw as specified in the Bylaw section 1.10 Standard
Operating Procedures Manual1 for dispute resolution to establish the sequence by which he will contact the
multiple individuals. Following that sequence, the Secretary will contact those individuals for their consent to
serve, and, having received their consent, place them on the ballot until five names appear on the ballot. After
five names are on the ballot, no more individuals will be contacted for that particular regional position. In the
event that the Secretary is unable to receive consent to serve from five individuals, the ballot for that regional
board position will be presented to the convention with the number of individuals who have consented to serve.
CCM Minutes – April 1–2, 2016 – Page 116