People have a right to have an opinion and a right to have no opinion. If I do not care about an issue or would be happy with the outcome either way, I have the right to abstain from voting.
Like Sphinxpoet said, in most cases abstentions should not be called for nor counted. Decisions are most often determined by the majority, two-thirds or whatever of the number of people present AND voting. Someone who abstains is not voting. This is not new in Robert's Rules--it has been in at least the 3 last editions but most folx don't know that.
However, there are some exceptions. There are times when an organization has in their rules that a motion is decided by a certain percent of the number of members (whether they are present at the meeting or not.) For example: There are 10 members of a society. Their rules say that a vote is determined by a majority of the membership. That means that 6 people must vote yes for a motion for it to pass. If 5 people vote yes, 3 vote no, and 2 abstain or are not at the meeting to vote, obviously the vote fails. But if the rule had been that the decision is based on the majority of people present AND voting, then only 8 people actually voted, 5 voted yes and the motion passes. In the above scenario an abstention has the EFFECT of being a vote for the prevailing side.
Lastly, abstentions should be called for and recorded in legislative votes. Why? Because the public does have a right to know if their elected representative is voting their wishes or if he or she consistently dooesn't care one way or another about issues. If the latter is the case then maybe they need to elect a new representative.
Have I thoroughly confused everyone?
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