parliamentary procedure Parliamentary procedures are the accepted Procedural law, rules, ethics, and Norm (sociology), customs governing meetings of an deliberative assembly, assembly or organization. Their object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of inte ...

, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "by live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as

legislature A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial power ...

s) in which a group

vote Voting is the process of choosing officials or policies by casting a ballot, a document used by people to formally express their preferences. Republics and representative democracies are governments where the population chooses representative ...

is taken on a topic or

motion In physics, motion is when an object changes its position with respect to a reference point in a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed, and frame of reference to an o ...

by responding vocally. Despite not being the same thing, voice votes and votes by viva voce are often confused because they have the same Latin roots. Voice votes gather the vocal response of the full assembly at once whereas viva voce are often done by roll call and record the response and name of the individual voters. The voice vote is considered the simplest and quickest of voting methods used by deliberative assemblies. The presiding officer or chair of the assembly will put the question to the assembly, asking first for all those in favor of the motion to indicate so orally ("aye" or "yea"), and then ask second all those opposed to the motion to indicate so verbally ("no" or "nay"). The chair will then make an estimate of the count on each side and state what they believe the result to be. Voice votes have inherent disadvantages and the method has major shortfalls in close contests. The volume of the voices is typically only estimated and not actually measured with

sound level meter A sound level meter (also called sound pressure level meter (SPL)) is used for acoustics, acoustic measurements. It is commonly a hand-held instrument with a microphone. The best type of microphone for sound level meters is the condenser microp ...

s, giving a chair enough

plausible deniability Plausible deniability is the ability of people, typically senior officials in a formal or informal chain of command, to deny knowledge or responsibility for actions committed by or on behalf of members of their organizational hierarchy. They may ...

to falsify the result if they disagree with it; even if such a vote can be objectively quantified in terms of

decibel The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a Power, root-power, and field quantities, power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whos ...

s, the method gives an unfair advantage to those who have louder voices. The need to make an audible signal also compromises any situation in which a

secret ballot The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote ...

may be desired. The method is suitable in most cases where unanimity is required. If there is any doubt as to the outcome, any member of the assembly may request another vote by a method such as division of the assembly (a standing or rising vote), or a

roll call vote Deliberative assemblies – bodies that use parliamentary procedure to arrive at decisions – use several methods of voting on motions (formal proposal by members of a deliberative assembly that the assembly take certain action). The regular me ...

. Voice votes are usually not recorded, but sometimes are. Voice votes are also used in non-governmental settings, such as battles of the bands and

spectator sport A spectator sport is a sport that is characterized by the presence of spectators, or watchers, at its competitions. Spectator sports may be professional sports or amateur sports. They often are distinguished from participant sports, which are mor ...

s where a

most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player (MVP) award is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particular competition, or ...

Man of the Match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

or Best in Show award is chosen by the audience.

Ancient Greece

Methods of voice voting were employed in

ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

as early as seventh century BC. The election of the members of the

Gerousia The Gerousia (γερουσία) was the council of elders in ancient Sparta. Sometimes called Spartan senate in the literature, it was made up of the two Spartan kings, plus 28 Spartiates over the age of sixty, known as gerontes. The Gerousia ...

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

's Council of Elders, was conducted by shouting. From the assembly, few persons were selected and locked up in a room close to the election, so that they could only hear the noise of the audience, but not see the candidate put to vote. The candidates were then presented to the assembly one after another without speaking a word. The favor of the assembly towards one candidate was assessed by the selected persons who established a ranking of all candidates with respect to the loudness of the assembly. Those candidates who have received the most and loudest acclamations were eventually elected.

Australia

Members vote by saying "aye" or "no", and the Speaker of the House (or President of the Senate) judges the result. If two or more members demand a recorded vote, known as a division, one must be held.

Canada

Members vote by saying "yea" or "nay", and the Speaker judges the mood of the House. If five or more members demand a recorded vote, one must be held.

New Zealand

The initial decision on any question is by voice vote, members saying "aye" or "no", and the Speaker declaring which side has won. Members of the losing side (or abstainers), but not supporters of the side declared to have won, are entitled to demand a formal test of opinion.

India

The voice vote (ध्वनि मत) is used in the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

, the

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

and state assemblies to vote for certain resolutions. It is used when there is a wide agreement on issues and in some cases where the house is not in order. It was used during the formation of the Indian state of

Telangana Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ele ...

in 2014.

United Kingdom

A voice vote is held to decide if a bill can progress through to the next stage. The Speaker of the House of Commons will then propose the question by saying, for example (second reading): "The Question is, that the Bill be now read a second time". The Speaker then invites supporters of the bill to say "aye" and then opponents say "no": "As many as are of that opinion say 'aye' upporters say 'aye' of the contrary 'no' pponents say 'no'. In what is known as ''collecting the voices'' the Speaker makes a judgement as to the louder cry. A clear majority either way will prompt the response "I think the Ayes/Noes have it. The Ayes/Noes have it!" (this can be forced to a division by continued cries either way). If the result is at all in doubt a division will be called and the speaker will say "Division, Clear the Lobbies!" In the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

, the

Lord Speaker The Lord Speaker is the presiding officer, chairman and highest authority of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The office is analogous to the Speaker of the House of Commons: the Lord Speaker is elected by the membe ...

will propose the question by saying, for example (second reading): "The Question is, that the Bill be now read a second time". The Lord Speaker then does similarly to the Commons Speaker, by saying, "As many as are of that opinion say 'Content' upporters say 'Content'and of the contrary 'Not Content' pponents say 'Not Content" The Lord Speaker then decides. In the result of a division, the Lord Speaker will say "Division. Clear the Bar".

United States

'' Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'' (11th edition) provides that: In Congress, "the vast majority of actions decided by a voice vote" are ones for which "a strong or even overwhelming majority favors one side," or even

unanimous consent In parliamentary procedure, unanimous consent, also known as general consent, or in the case of the parliaments under the Westminster system, leave of the house (or leave of the senate), is a situation in which no member present objects to a propo ...

. Members can request a division of the assembly (a rising vote, where each sides rise in turn to be counted), and one-fifth of members can demand a recorded vote on any question, after the chair announces the result of a voice vote. It is estimated that more than 95 percent of the resolutions passed by state legislatures are passed by a unanimous voice vote, many without discussion; this is because resolutions are often on routine, noncontroversial matters, such as commemorating important events or recognizing groups.

Other methods

Humming A hum ( /hʌm/ ) Latin: murmur, The sound of giraffes humming () is a sound made by producing a wordless tone with the mouth closed, forcing the sound to emerge from the nose. To hum is to produce such a sound, often with a melody. It is also ...

is used as a voice vote method at the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) to estimate the participants' positions on some issues.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Voice Vote Parliamentary procedure Voting sv:Acklamation