The fastest district superintendent election I've ever seen

Yesterday at District Assembly, the Metro Manila district elected a district superintendent. I wanted to go and watch because I've seen superintendent elections (well, one anyway) in the States and I was curious to see if it would be anything like my previous experience.

Any ordained elder before the age of 70 (I'm not sure if there is a age floor) can be elected district superintendent. Whether or not the person so chosen accepts the election is another matter, of course. It is typical practice now to use the first ballot as a nominating ballot, then limit successive votes to those persons who received votes at first, in order specifically to prevent Billy Bob Joe Fred from not getting any votes until ballot 17 and then taking just enough to keep Rev. So-and-so from being elected. For the chair to declare an election, one candidate must receive two-thirds of the votes cast in any one ballot. This prevents the parliamentary move of a block of voters geting up and leaving the bar to protest a protracted or especially contentious election. I do not know if this unusual parliamentary move has ever been made, but I think it would be kind of foolish anyway, since it would cause a candidate to suddenly need 20 out of 30 votes--or something--instead of 126 out of 188. For that matter, if all the supporters of Rev. So-and-so got up and left because they and the supporters of Rev. Thus-and-such kept at an impasse, then all they would do is assure the election of Rev. Thus-and-such. And if there was agreement for supporters of both sides to leave in equal numbers, then why couldn't they just agree on a candidate...and so on.

When a DS was elected in Tennessee some years ago, it look eighteen ballots or something, and the person they chose wound up not accepting anyway. In my experience, and this may only be the case in the States, I don't know, one to four candidates may jockey for position at the top of the slate for a few rounds then the eventual winner picks up more and more steam as the voting goes along, sometimes rather limping over the 2/3 tape. But it was not the case here. On the nominating ballot, there was a clear, convincing choice at the top. The person eventually elected was nominated with 70 more votes than anyone else received on the nominating ballot. It only took three rounds to elect him. He was one of my students last semester, but I should think that if that had anything to do with it it was in spite of instead of because of, you know? I did not stay long enough to hear his comments to the assembly, and I haven't heard of anything strange happening like someone rejecting that clear of an expression of a district's will, but I'm sure that means there is a new district superintendent in Metro Manila. Congratulations and God bless.