💬 Join us to post & get advice from 50,000 HOA & Condo leaders.

Create Free Account →

⚡ Takes 30 seconds

Already a member? Log in

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,047
Posted:
Our Board just received SPAM e-mail advertising a website for HOAs to use for voting online. Part of their e-mail specified:

The state of Virginia is one of several states that have adopted law allowing HOA’s to vote by electronic ballot.
Why do it?
· Providing E-voting to homeowners increases the chance of making quorum.
· Results are tabulated instantly saving a lot of time over manually counting ballots.
· Results are 100% accurate.
If you think e-voting is something you would like for your association please contact me.

I certainly have zero issue with what the company is claiming. I do have an issue about what the company is not saying.

VA law, 55-515.3, certainly does allow for online voting. However, the law defers control to the CC&Rs. Since my Association (and many others within the State) were created prior to this statute being enacted, there is language within the CC&Rs that require votes to be cast by members or proxies at a meeting held for that purpose.

Therefore, if our Association chose to take advantage of this companies service without amending our CC&Rs, any vote held online would most likely be nullified if challenged.

My word of caution: Board members should be encouraged to embrace new technology but only after they have read and understood the governing documents and laws that affect their Association.

Tim
TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,047
Posted:
All,

I did provide feedback to the company expressing that they might want to disclose that the law defers to governing documents in their e-mails. I wanted to share their response:

"Before we actually sell to any client we ask that they refer to their governing documents and their attorney to be sure it can be used.

Few people are as versed in these things as you obviously are and my first goal is to find out if there is any interest in our service before going into those details.

Especially when most people won’t read more than 3 lines these days."

I must say that I agree with the last comment about people only wanting to actually read the first 2 or 3 lines of any document before they skip over parts of it.

MikeS1
Posts: 521
Posted:
We've been considering this for some time. I would appreciate your insights here. What is the best way to contact you?

🎯 You've read this entire discussion

Join the conversation with 50,000 HOA & Condo Leaders:

  • ✓ Ask follow-up questions
  • ✓ Share your experience
  • ✓ Get expert advice
  • ✓ Access 350,000 discussions
Create Free Account →

⚡ Takes 30 seconds

Already a member? Log in here