Page:Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies (1876).djvu/162

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162
MOTIONS.
[§ 60

except by a motion to “reconsider the vote” on that question. This motion can only be made by one who voted on the prevailing side, and on the day the vote was taken which it is proposed to reconsider.[1] It can be made and entered on the minutes in the midst of debate, even when another member has the floor, but cannot be considered until there is no question before the assembly, when, if called up, it takes precedence of every motion except to adjourn and to fix the time to which the assembly shall adjourn.

A motion to reconsider a vote on a debatable question, opens to debate the entire merits of the original motion. If the question to be reconsidered is undebatable, then the reconsideration is undebatable.

If the motion to reconsider is carried, the Chairman announces that the question now recurs on the adoption of the question, the vote on which has been just reconsidered; the original question is now in exactly the same condition that it was in before the first vote


  1. In Congress it can be made on the same or succeeding day; and if the yeas and nays were not taken on the vote, any one can move the reconsideration. The yeas and nays are, however, ordered on all important votes in Congress, which is not the case in ordinary societies.