re: #237 Interesting Times

I don’t understand that part - if they abstain, it counts, for all intents and purposes, as a “yes”?

No. An abstention (voting “present”) is a blank vote. It does not count either way.

Abstentions are normally used to bow out of a bill involving personal interest (I frequently vote “abstain” on my village board on bill payments because of payments made to me for mileage for water samples).

A simpler example would be my board, which only has five people. If two people vote “aye” and two people vote “nay,” and one abstains, the vote is 2-2-1. The bill fails.