multiple voting/multiple assessments

My question is this: Do you lose your right to vote if your behind in your assessments? If this owner decides not to pay his mulitiple assessments, he may lose whatever voting power he may gain anyways. If he wants these votes enough, that means he's got to be willing to keep up to date on all his assessments. That means guaranteed money to the HOA until he decides to get behind.

If this person was a board member, I would be more concerned. The BOD does have a bit more power than a general member. The owner may have 3 votes but if there are 50 other members, he's still NOT a majority vote holder anywhere. With alot of owner apathy, that's the place the "real" danger may occur. His mulitiple votes may indeed change into a majority vote of GENERAL members. General members votes are on different issues than a majority BOD vote. General members tend to have the right to vote on changes in the CC&R's, By-laws, elect BOD members, and remove BOD members. BOD members tend to have voting rights that effect the daily workings of a HOA budget. So this person may not pose much of a threat. However, your HOA may want to consider updating their CC&R's to cover this section and do a general update overall on the documents.

IN NY the case law is one man, one vote.
AS for your suppositions of what could happen or motive. It's more sinister than that. An advantage would come due to apathy. This one person would have more than 10% of the total voting power. The association could be dissolved by a certain vote and that could be operative. Or it could just be the desire for a power trip by some buddy on the BOD. The person with multiple votes could vote for themselves multiple times and no one would know due to secret ballot. In condo associations it is a vote per unit no matter how many units. Is it that way in your HOA?? ANd no, our docs do not address.
Looking to change or elaborate on the CC&R's is food for thought.

Susan - your scenerio that this person could disolve the association is not true. Somewhere in your CC&Rs there has to be a requirement of per cent of owners needed to terminate - ours requires 90%. That doesn't mean 90% of those voting, but 90% of owners.
What actions HOAs take affects each property - not each "man". If a person owns multiple lots, that person is entitled to a vote for each lot. I too would like to see what your CC&Rs state. Harold

SusanB7: I question the meaning of the phrase you have used--
'one man-one vote'. The number of votes is determined by the number of units owned (not men); therefore, 1 unit=1 assessment fee=1 vote; 10 units=10 assessment fees= 10 votes, etc.

I am not familiar with the NY-NPCL but am interested in what your 'organizational documents' state regarding voting. Check your official docs, CC&Rs/Bylaws and give us more info.