MRSC generally takes the position that proxy and absentee voting is not allowed under Washington law for local governments and special purpose districts. The definition of action in the OPMA in RCW 42.30.020(3) includes the term “actual vote.” Casting a vote prior to an open public meeting would constitute action outside an open public meeting. Note, however, that if a member attends a meeting remotely, we count this the same as if they were physically present for purposes of quorum and voting. The OPMA was amended in 2022 to confirm that a member of a governing body may attend a meeting remotely. See RCW 42.30.230(5).
We are not aware of any court decisions that have addressed the issue of proxy voting in the context of local governments or special purpose districts. Absentee voting is addressed in AGO 51-53 No. 283 in the context of a school district board member. There, the attorney general concluded:
We are therefore of the opinion that a member of the board of directors of a first class school district must be personally present in order to participate in the proceedings of a meeting of such a board, and that the written statement transmitted by the absent member to the meeting of the Richland School Board held March 24, 1952, was ineffective for any purpose in connection with the action of the board taken at that meeting.
Ultimately, the legal staff at MRSC doesn’t think a member of a legislative body can “attend” a meeting by proxy and cannot count towards establishing a quorum by proxy. In addition, we are not aware of any legal authority for an official to exercise a proxy vote on behalf of another official, even if the body had previously adopted a rule allowing proxy voting. It appears that where proxy voting is deemed permissible, such as in corporate settings, it is specifically authorized in state law and established in that corporation’s bylaws. We have indicated that there is no express or implied authorization in state law for proxy or absentee voting by members of a local governing body.
Also, Robert’s Rules of Order strongly disfavors absentee and proxy voting: “proxy voting is incompatible with the essential characteristics of a deliberative assembly in which membership is individual, personal, and nontransferable” (RR 45:70). “It is a fundamental principle of parliamentary law that the right to vote is limited to the members of an organization who are actually present at the time the vote is taken in a regular or properly called meeting” (RR 45:56).