CAB Change Request Prioritization Tips and Techniques

I'm looking for best practices that anyone might have developed with their system change advisory board on how to best approve and prioritize requests for change. In the end we do a ballot and all board members representing each of the 54 states vote on those changes to approve and go forward to the implementation review committee as many of the board members are not as well versed in IT Service Management Practices as others. Any best practices you've found effective would be helpful.