Reconsidering a vote

What it is for

Reconsider does what the name says: it brings a vote the board already took back onto the floor for another vote. Picture this: the board votes 4 to 1 to approve a landscaping contract. Fifteen minutes later, someone remembers the vendor's insurance lapsed last month. Nobody caught it before the vote. A motion to Reconsider is the tool that lets the board revisit that decision in the same meeting, while there is still time to choose differently, instead of treating a five minute old vote as untouchable.

Reconsider is not Rescind

Reconsider and Rescind get confused constantly. Reconsider brings back a vote from earlier in the same meeting. Rescind undoes a decision from a past meeting, sometimes months later. If the board wants to undo something it approved last quarter, Reconsider is the wrong tool: see Rescinding previous action.

Exactly who may move to reconsider, and by what deadline, is set by your adopted parliamentary authority and your bylaws, not by habit or by whoever remembers first. Look up the rule before you rely on it.

The revote follows the same math

A vote to reconsider is still a vote, so the usual rules apply. Majority means more than half of the votes cast, not fifty percent plus one, which miscounts whenever the number of votes is odd.

"The word 'majority' in this context means, simply, more than half."

Source: Robert's Rules of Order, Official FAQ, The Robert's Rules Association

An abstention is not a vote against, and not a vote for. It simply is not counted.

"The phrase 'abstention votes' is an oxymoron, an abstention being a refusal to vote."

Source: Robert's Rules of Order, Official FAQ, The Robert's Rules Association

Who actually makes the rule

Robert's Rules does not outrank your governing documents. The order runs from state statute, to the declaration, to the bylaws, to board resolutions, down to whatever parliamentary authority the documents adopt, usually filling whatever gaps those documents leave open.

"Most community association documents require the board to use parliamentary procedure at annual and special meetings."

Source: Parliamentary Procedure: Why Robert's Rules HOA Meetings, CAI / HOAresources

If your bylaws are silent on reconsideration, the adopted parliamentary authority fills that gap, but only because the documents said so. For the specific mechanics of Reconsider, read the quick reference guide from the Robert's Rules Association, then check whether your bylaws override it.