Voting for Board Members

Hi, I have a question a few of us are at odds with. That is on voting for Board Members at Annual year end meetings. We have experience last year that proxies were mailed to all owners and were to be deliverd to the Management company or owner could give it to an other owner who was attending the Annual meeting, well what happened was a Board member solictied owner proxcies and had the power to sway the vote her way and did. It is my opinion to prevent this situation from happenning, I feel Ballots should be sent to all owners with a stamped voting ballot envelope to be returned via mail to the Management Company and votes to be counted by owners not Board members. What say you?

Our By Laws so state that owners may vote via proxies on issues before the Association, nothing stipulating proxies to be used for Board member Voting, am I incorrect?

I personally have not read said By Laws as I am out of State for a few months, but management claims it to be true and other owners also interpret them that way as well. What I am looking for is how other HOA's handle voting for Officers.

Thanks

ArtN

Some associations create official proxy forms that have all the information on it, including if it is a general or specific proxy, and the names of the proxy and his/her agent. These proxie forms are requested by the voters, since they won't be able to attend the meeting.

Why your proxy forms were mailed out is not clear to me. Were they part of a package of information about the annual meeting?

Did you mean BALLOTS were mailed out to all member?

Hi, George sorry for the confusion, these were Proxies mailed to each owner saying it was a Proxy to be returned for those owners who could or would not attend the Annual meeting where a Board members would be elected. Instructions were to return to the Management company or to any other owner.

Hi Susan, The Proxies were mailed out to the owners for those who could not attend the Annual Meeting, to be rturned with their vote, but did not conntain a spot to name a person of their choice, only to allow naming another owner to vote at they saw fit to do so. Candidates names were not contained in the Proxy, as it would have become a Ballot.

MaryA1 - Excellent response, agree 100%!!! : )

Thanks Gerald and MaryA1, it is now obvious to me, after listening to you both, rather than change the By Laws, all I and others have to do is get together, go out and get as many proxies as we can and control the vote our way. I think it is wrong, but I suppose you need to play the game with the cards dealt. I would rather see Ballots mailed to each owner with a stamped return envelope and the Ballot put into a separate envelope sealed and to be open by owners or managment company or to the Board only to be open at the Annual Meeting in the presence of all attending. But that will never happen.

If you have a slate of candidates already set before the meeting, then you can provide proxy ballots that allow for direction. This is done regularly in the corporate world. Typically it allows you take any of the following actions:

1. direct that the vote be cast for a director


2. direct the vote notbe cast for a particular director


3. allow for a write in candidate

As a note, if someone directs a vote for a person then it does not allow the vote to be cast for a nominee from the floor. (Nominees from the floor are allowed in my association.)

To be sure, there is no perfect answer to the proxy question. When you think of it, the whole thing is grass roots representative government. If I take a proxy to my neighbor I am asking them to vote to allow me to represent them at the meeting. At the heart this is no different then when I ran for the Board.

I personally did collect a number of proxy votes. We were at the turnover point and part of me wanted to ensure that there would be enough votes to make the event happen. Honestly, part of my motivation was to help elect myself to the Board. And I told every person I asked that I would in fact vote said proxy for myself. And every person encouraged me to do so. I told them I would represent what I believed to be the best of the neighborhood. I also said that if they allowed me that I was at least a fellow owner.

This is an example of a combined proxy which contains the elements of both a "directed proxy" and a "general proxy". Frankly a directed proxy is not needed. The member can just send a mail-in ballot and accomplish the same thing. A general proxy gives the proxy holder the right to vote for whomever he chooses.

The problem is when proxies, mail-in ballots, at-meeting "live" voting, which can include floor nominataions and write-ins, are all combined in one vote. PLUS, there could be a tie and then there would be a re-vote - or - a lst minute drop out candidate.

The HOA should decide how it wants to conduct its election so that there is the least confusion - and that should be in the bylaws. Of all the posts here and in other sites, the "proxy" gives HOA the most problems at meeting and election time.

Keep in mind that eliminating proxies in favor of absentee ballots does not solve the problem of influence. For instance, nothing would stop me from going door to door telling everyone how a certain candidate is either the best thing or worst thing for the neighborhood.

If I were to decide to run for city council, I would spend a large amount of time going door to door meeting people and telling them about myself. In fact, if possible I would even start the process well before filing for office begins.

If you look at the average election, it would take a relatively small number of votes that otherwise would not be cast to swing an election.