Voting at General Conference

[Gregory Matthews]

Pundits of past General Conference Sessions have sometimes asked how many delegates actually perform their primary duty to vote on the proposals.  The implication has been that some engage in sightseeing in the nearby communities while others may spend time in socialization with other delegates.  To my knowledge no study has ever been given to this question.

I will note that one important issue related to the establishment of a position on individual Church Boards to foster the so-called Spirit of Prophecy.  A total of 943 people voted in favor of that position, while 480 delegates voted against it.  Thus, a total of 1,423 person voted out of a total of 2,673 delegates.  IOW only 53.24% of the delegates voted.

 I did the count on a couple of other proposals.  On one 50.69% of the delegates voted and on the other one only 39.24% people voted.

One would think that the election of the GC President would be an important vote on which every delegate would vote.  Ted Wilson was elected President by 1,284 people who voted for him, while 431 voted against him.  This was a total of 1,715 people who voted or 64.16% of the people eligible to vote.    In other words, some 958 of the delegates did not vote at all.

This is not acceptable.  This Church spends large sums of money to establish a system where elected representatives may vote on denominational issues.  People who are not going to vote on the issues should not be elected.