First District Republicans

1st District Republican Convention Rules
April 17, 2010

GENERAL
1. The order of business of this Convention shall be as listed in the official agenda of the Convention, subject to the discretion of the Chair.
2. Robert’s Rules of Order, Newly Revised, shall be the parliamentary authority on all points not covered by the Constitution of the Republican Party of Minnesota, the Statutes of the State of Minnesota, the Official Convention Call of the Convention, or the Rules adopted by this Convention.
3. A quorum shall consist of a majority of the delegates registered at the Convention as given in the preliminary report of the Credentials Committee and shall be superseded by a majority of the delegates and seated alternates as given in the final or most recent report of the Credentials Committee. Once a quorum has been established, there shall be no further question as to the quorum.
4. These rules, once adopted, shall not be amended nor suspended except by a two thirds vote of the Convention.
5. Pagers and cell phones shall be set to either “off” or “vibrate”. Subject to an appeal to the convention any items determined by the chair to be a disruption of the convention may be removed from the Convention floor.

SEATING OF DELEGATES AND ALTERNATES
6. The permanent roll of the Convention shall be constituted as follows:
a. The delegates (which means the duly elected delegates of each BPOU) which are registered and credentialed.
b. If any delegate to this Convention is absent, then an alternate (which means a duly elected alternate of each BPOU) shall be seated in his/her stead.
c. If no delegates or alternates from a BPOU are present, that BPOU shall have no representation.
d. When a registered delegate returns to the floor of the Convention, they shall be immediately seated.
e. The order of seating of alternates shall be as follows:
(1) In the order specified or ranked by the BPOU.
(2) If the alternate vote count from the BPOU convention is available, alternates shall be seated in order of the votes received.
(3) If no system of seating has been designated, the vacancy shall be filled by a majority vote of the delegates of that BPOU.
(4) If no delegates are present and seated, the Credentials Committee Chair shall fill the vacancy.
7. The voting strength of each BPOU shall be the number of delegates and seated alternates present on the floor.
8. Any delegate or alternate shall be permitted to register with the Credentials Committee at any time prior to Convention adjournment.

SPEAKING
9. A delegate or seated alternate wishing to speak shall rise, address the Chair, state his/her name and BPOU and the purpose for which he/she rises.
10. Debate on any motion or subject shall be limited to 1½ minutes by each speaker. No person shall be allowed to speak more than twice upon the same subject. No person shall be allowed to speak a second time until all those desiring to speak have had a first opportunity to do so. Total debate on any motion or subject is limited to 9 minutes (not more than 4½ minutes pro and 4½ minutes con).
11. The Chair shall appoint a timekeeper for the purpose of timing discussion, debate and speeches during the Convention.
12. The Chair at any time may invite any office holder, candidate or distinguished guest to address the Convention for a period not to exceed three minutes. At the discretion of the Chair, State and Federal office holders may be exempted from this time limitation.

VOTING
13. There shall be no voting under the unit rule at this Convention
14. Only delegates and seated alternates registered and present at this Convention shall be permitted to vote. There shall be no voting by proxy.
15. The vote on all questions shall be by voice or rising/”show of hands” vote at the discretion of the Chair subject to the following restrictions:
a. A counted division of the house vote may be taken at the discretion of the Chair, and shall be taken if requested by least 15 delegates or seated alternates.
b. A roll call vote by BPOU shall be taken if requested by five or more BPOU’s.
c. Voting for officers, delegates and alternates, and for endorsement of candidates shall be by secret ballot for all contested elections.
16. If there is a dispute as to the vote of any BPOU, the Chair shall appoint a judge and two tellers to canvass the vote of said BPOU and the judge shall report the same to the Convention.
17. Any question before the Convention that is divisible into two or more separate questions shall be so divided when requested by any delegate or seated alternate and supported by at least 15 additional delegates or seated alternates, or at the discretion of the Chair when he/she deems it will advance the flow of convention business.
18. Movement of the previous question shall not be in order until at least one pro and con speaker, if any, have been heard. The same right of debate shall be allowed whenever a motion to lay on the table has been made on any proposition on which there has been no debate.

ENDORSEMENT PROCEDURE
19. The procedure for endorsement is as follows (Note: see State Party Constitution, Art V, Sec 3 for further
mandatory procedures for endorsements):
a) Prior to the Convention proceeding to consider endorsement, a motion to consider endorsement for 1st District Congress must be adopted by a majority vote of the Convention.
b) To be nominated, candidates for congressional endorsement must meet all legal requirements and submit a nominating petition to the chair of the Nominating/Search Committee containing the printed names and signatures of a minimum of 10 Convention Delegates and/or Alternates by 10:00 AM the day of the convention. The chair of the Nominating/Search Committee shall then report to the convention those candidates who have met the petition and legal requirements to be nominated.
c) A candidate is considered to be nominated after submitting the proper nominating petition and no further nominating or seconding motions are required. There will be no nominations from the floor.
d) Nominated candidates will have a total of fifteen (15) minutes for candidate speeches, nominating and seconding speeches, demonstrations and videos. The order of candidate presentations shall be determined by the drawing of lots.
e) Each nominated candidate may have up to five (5) floor passes for campaign workers who are not delegates or seated alternates plus an additional floor pass for the candidate. They must register with the Credentials Committee to obtain floor passes.

f) Endorsement of a candidate shall require 60% of the valid ballots cast provided the 60% vote is greater than or equal to at least a majority of the delegates and seated alternates as established by the last report of the Credentials Committee preceding such vote.

Votes may be cast for any person who by law is eligible for election to the office under consideration and who is eligible under this constitution to seek the endorsement, even though he/she has not been nominated or has withdrawn from nomination. Ballots may also be cast stating “no preference” or “undecided”, or indicating no endorsement. Blank ballots or abstentions, unintelligible ballots, ballots only checked or marked “X”, or ballots cast for an ineligible person or a fictional character shall not be included in determining the 60% vote needed for endorsement. No preprinted ballot shall be allowed unless options for ‘no preference’, ‘undecided’ and ‘no endorsement’ are included. (Republican Party of Minnesota Constitution, Article V, Section 3, A3)

Any candidate for any elective public office may be granted pre-primary endorsement by any state, Congressional District, BPOU or other authorized convention if he/she receives a 60% vote of the convention and if the 60% is greater than or equal to at least a majority of the registered Delegates and seated Alternates as established by the last report of the credentials committee preceding such vote. (Republican Party of Minnesota Constitution, Article V, Section 3, B2)

g) Unless a rising vote is authorized by Rule 15, the chairpersons, and/or designee of each BPOU shall collect the ballots from the delegates and seated alternates of their BPOU, verify the ballots as to number and deposit them with the teller.
h) BPOU chairpersons shall not open and tally ballots. Only a teller shall open and tally the ballots. After the tellers have all the ballots, the ballots shall be commingled before counting.
i) If there is a dispute as to the number of votes cast by a BPOU before commingling, the election judge and tellers shall decide the dispute and, if necessary, shall canvass the vote of the BPOU by separate written ballot, which ballots shall then be used by the BPOU.
j) Each campaign is allowed to have one observer present in the teller room while ballots are being counted.
k) A motion for no endorsement shall not be in order until after the fifth ballot provided that on any ballot round a no endorsement motion shall be considered adopted if a majority of the valid ballots cast for “no”, “none”, or “no endorsement”.
l) Any candidate failing to receive less than 5% of the vote on the first or second ballot, 10% of the vote on the third or fourth ballot, or 20% of the vote on the fifth ballot, or any subsequent ballot, shall be dropped and considered withdrawn from nomination. After the fifth ballot and every second ballot thereafter, the Convention Chair may allow each remaining candidate five minutes to address the convention in an order determined by drawing of lots.

RESOLUTIONS
20. Resolutions from the floor must be submitted in writing by a delegate or seated alternate to the Convention Secretary prior to 10 AM. The Convention Secretary will immediately forward them to the Resolutions Committee for consideration.
21. No resolution shall be considered on the floor of the Convention unless reported to the Convention by a majority of the Resolutions Committee or a minority signed by at least two members of the Committee and designated a minority report.
22. The Resolutions Committee may designate certain resolutions for a written ballot which will contain a box for each such resolution to vote “Yes” (in favor), “No” (against), or “debate” (desiring a floor debate and separate vote of the Convention).
23. Each resolution voted on by a written ballot:
a. that passes or fails by at least 60% of those voting on that resolution will be eliminated from discussion on the Convention floor and deemed passed or failed as the case may be.
b. that does not pass or fail by 60% of those voting on that resolution or at least a 40% vote of those voting on the resolution vote for further debate, then in either of these events the resolution will be brought to the Convention floor for discussion and will require a simple majority vote to pass.
24. Debate on any single resolution shall not exceed four minutes and debate must alternate between pro and con at one minute intervals.

OTHER
25. Handouts may be distributed in the Convention but must contain the name of the organization or the name and physical address of the individual paying for said material. The sergeant-at-arms will confiscate any material not having such disclaimer.
26. All representatives of any form of media must register (free of charge) and be properly credentialed by the Credentials Committee. The media includes anyone who is recording all or parts of the convention by any electronic means. Only mainstream established media, official Republican Party or candidates will be allowed. So called “trackers”, DFL party and pseudo party “recorders”, bloggers, etc. will not be credentialed or allowed.
27. A motion to adjourn or recess the convention shall be debatable until all items on the agenda have been considered on the convention floor.