Quorum: Why Can’t a Few Attendees Decide for the Whole Group?

A quorum is the minimum number of participants required before a group may conduct business in its own name. It comes before voting. If that threshold has not been met, a motion passed two votes to one is merely the preference of two people among the three present; it need not count as the decision of the whole group.

Quorum and majority answer different questions. A quorum determines whether the meeting is entitled to decide. A voting rule determines how much support a proposal needs once the meeting is entitled to act. If only three members of a ten-person committee attend, the majority among those three may be clear, but the decision's claim to represent the committee is doubtful.

A high threshold makes it harder for an organised minority to act while others are absent, but it can also make the group easier to paralyse. A low threshold preserves the ability to act, but may let very few people control the outcome. A quorum therefore does not mean that more people are always more correct, nor does it require unanimity. It is a rule set before the winners are known, defining how much participation is needed before a decision counts as the group's decision.

https://robertsrules.com/frequently-asked-questions/
https://www.eiu.edu/adulted/Chapter%205%20-%20Quorum.pdf