LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — April 24, 2020, Page 3

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Online-interactive entry of data by congregational officers will allow errors to be detected and
corrected at time of registration / nomination, as opposed to a delayed and expensive process
afterwards. E.g., e-mails of registrants can be confirmed almost immediately by the system, and
users can select precisely which ordained ministers from the roster they mean to nominate,
definitively identifying them by their own selection, rather than relying on a later ballot counter to
correct misspellings and incorrect or outdated locations.

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Elimination of postal transit and data entry time will improve tabulation time, the window for which
is now reduced in the case of the presidential election by two weeks due to the election opening
six, instead of four, weeks before the convention.

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Elimination of postal transit and data entry time will allow timely and accurate reminders to
congregations that have not yet registered or cast nominating ballots. This is particularly important
as districts are now asked to encourage registration and need to be timely informed of registration
status. Automation of the system will allow “reminder” communications to be carried out
automatically or (in the case of the nomination system) by a reliable, impartial election contractor.

Relevant bylaws have been designed, with the clear intent of the convention, to support the use of electronic
processes in both these regards, but this possibility has either not been fully worked through all relevant
bylaws or has been obscured by subsequent modifications. The following questions request an
interpretation of to what extent the implementation of the contemplated electronic systems would be either
prohibited or constrained by potentially contradictory elements of the governing bylaws. In any case, the
contemplated electronic system would make every reasonable attempt—as present processes do—to ensure
that the actions reflected are valid acts of the congregation, taken according to its governing documents and
resolutions, properly registered by officers of the congregation.
A. Nomination of President, First Vice-President, and Regional Vice-Presidents
Bylaws 3.12.2 and 3.12.2.7 govern the nomination of the President and vice-presidents of the Synod.
Bylaw 3.12.2, treating the nomination of the President and First Vice-President, was amended by 2010 Res.
4-07 (Proceedings. 124–27), acknowledging “the availability of electronic communication tools that allow
for timely and economical distribution of materials,” to allow for the use of any “secure and verifiable
method,” including electronic methods (cf. the use of “secure and verifiable method” in Bylaw 3.12.2.4).
Bylaw 3.12.2 today reads as follows (annotated with changes made in 2010):
Nominations of President and First Vice-President
3.12.2

Nominations for the offices of President and First Vice-President shall be made by the
member congregations of the Synod.
(a) Each member congregation shall be entitled to nominate from the clergy roster of
the Synod two ordained ministers as candidates for president, and two ordained
ministers as candidates for First Vice-President.
(b) The Secretary of the Synod shall provide a secure and verifiable method that will
offer opportunity to every mail to each congregation of the Synod to submit
nominations ballots for nominating these candidates. He shall, with the approval of the
Board of Directors of the Synod, obtain the assistance necessary to accomplish this
task.
(c) The Each nominating process ballot shall be completed signed by the president
and secretary of the member congregations not later than five four months prior to the
opening date of the convention. There shall be no opportunity provided for additional
nominations. [2010 Res. 4-07, Proc. 124–27]

CCM Minutes – April 24, 2020 – Page 9