LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — April 24, 2020, Page 4

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(d) The Secretary of the Synod may engage, with the approval of the Board of
Directors, an external auditing firm to tabulate the nominations and shall report in
the Convention Workbook the names and tallies of all ordained ministers who have
received nominating votes.
Bylaw 3.12.2.7, treating the nomination of regional vice-presidents, was added by 2010 Res. 8-14A
(Proc. 165–66, Today’s Business 306). Again, Bylaw 3.12.2.7 today reads as follows:
Nominations and Elections of Regional Vice-Presidents
3.12.2.7 After the results of the first-vice-presidential election have been announced, the
convention shall elect five regional vice-presidents according to the following
nominations and elections process.
(a) Each member congregation of a region (including any non-geographic-district
congregations in that region) shall have been given opportunity to nominate two
ministers of religion–ordained from the clergy roster of the Synod with residence in its
designated region as candidates for regional vice-president.
(b) The Secretary of the Synod shall receive such nominations (signed by the president
and secretary of the nominating congregation). [See 2010 Res. 8-14A, Proc. 165–66,
TB 306, where the foregoing procedure is put in place.]
(c) The names of the five ministers of religion–ordained residing within the
boundaries of each geographic region who receive the most nominating votes shall
form the slate from which the Synod convention shall select by majority vote each
regional vice-president.
(d) No opportunity shall be provided for additional nominations from the floor of the
convention. …
Note that the change made to Bylaw 3.12.2, to allow an electronic method for nomination of the President
and First Vice-President, was not propagated to the newly-created nomination process for regional offices.
Note also that the bylaws specifically allow the use of an external tabulator in the case of the President and
First Vice-President nominations, but indicate receipt of the signed ballots in the Office of the Secretary in
the case of the regional vice-president nominations. (It is noted that the 2010 procedure also called for
nomination of a number of board positions by the same regional process; it was likely felt that the auditor
could not be expected to absorb all this activity.)
The present intent to create a coherent electronic process, taking care that it is as secure and as verifiable
(or moreso) than the paper ballot process, requires a few questions of the commission:
Question A.1: May the process for nomination of regional vice-presidents be adapted from the use of
paper ballots to the same secure, verifiable, online system being contemplated for use with
the offices of President and First Vice-President?
Opinion: The current wording of the Bylaws, on its face, specifically requires that the ballots for
nominations of regional vice-presidents must be signed by the president and secretary of the congregation
submitting the nomination. This process was added to the Bylaws following the 2010 convention of the
Synod, which adopted several resolutions. Resolution 8-14A resolved that vice-presidents two through six
be elected regionally and added Bylaw 3.12.1, describing how the regions were to be formed. Resolution
8-16A specified that there were to be five regional lay members of the Board of Directors. Resolution 808A established a Board of National Mission and a Board of International Mission, also with regional
membership. Resolution 8-08A also adopted 2010 Bylaw 3.12.2.5 (TB 305–6, today numbered 3.12.2.7),
establishing the process by which all regional nominations and elections were to be done. 2010 Bylaw
3.12.2.5 (b) required that all nominations were to be signed by the president and secretary of the nominating
congregation and submitted to the Secretary of the Synod.
CCM Minutes – April 24, 2020 – Page 10