Amending a motion cancels the votes already cast

Somebody changes a word in a motion after voting opened, and every vote
already cast stops counting. This page explains why that is right.

What happens

A vote is recorded against the exact words it was cast on, by their
digest. Change the words and the digest changes. Votes cast on the old
words no longer match, and LEAT refuses to count them.

Why not just carry them over

Because the people who voted read different words.

A trustee who voted yes to "up to 5,000,000 shillings" did not vote yes
to "up to 50,000,000 shillings", and no amount of good faith about the
amendment being minor changes that. The only person who can say whether
a change was material is the person who voted, and asking them again is
what a new revision is for.

What is frozen when voting opens

Everything a challenge would later turn on:

1. The exact motion text and its digest.
2. Who is on the eligible roster, and who is recused.
3. The denominator, and how it was calculated.
4. The quorum minimum, the ratio and the passing threshold.
5. Whether the ballot is roll call.
6. Whether the chair has a casting vote.

After the freeze, the chair cannot change any of it.

Votes are never edited

A vote can be marked invalid later — the person turned out to be
ineligible, a proxy had been revoked before the sitting — and what they
actually cast stays exactly as it was.

A challenge or a recount does not rewrite anything. It is a new fact
pointing at the votes, and the outcome is recomputed under the same
frozen rule.

Secret ballots

Not available. Roll call is the only mode today.

A secret ballot needs an approved profile covering how eligibility is
issued, how ballots are kept unlinkable, how duplicates are prevented,
who holds the tally, and how a recount works — reviewed independently
before it is switched on. Until that exists, LEAT will not claim an
anonymity it cannot deliver.