Records Request or Secret Ballot

I want to focus on this one issue, to see if any one has any suggestions.

I want to verify our last HOA election. I want to see how the proxies and ballots were validated and counted.

Are Bylaws state, "Election of the Board of Directors shall be by secret written ballot."

Are the ballots and proxies (containing the signatures and addresses of the homeowners who executed them) confidential after an election? I believe the principle of secret ballot applies during the course of the election, but after the election all ballots and proxies become normal records of the HOA and must be made available for Members to review on request.

In response to my five requests over four months, my HOA Board failed to respond for four months and then provided the ballot sections cut out with no identifying information.

What say you lot? Did they do the right thing? What would you do if your HOA failed to respond to a records request that you considered important?

I'm not sure how it is in Texas....but in Florida ballots and proxies are two seperate things. Ballots are used when voting in an election and they ARE kept secret. They do that by using two envelopes. The outer envelope has a name and/or unit number. The inner envelope has no identifying information and contains the actual ballot which also has no names or addresses on it.

Proxies are used to establish a quorum and to also appoint someone to vote for them on association issues---but not elections.

I'm confused as to what information you are looking for. Are you trying to find out exactly who voted for whom? If the ballots were secret in the beginning they'd still be secret now.

Michael writes:

>>>Are (sic) Bylaws state, "Election of the Board of Directors shall be by secret written ballot."<<<

That's pretty straighforward. I'll guess the reasons are so Members can vote without fear of embarrasment, and/or reprisals, and/or breach of privacy.

Before going further in analysis, please tell us how your HOA (attempts to) accomplish this as clearly someone has to validate the proxies as Tracie points out.

And as Anna noted, her process provides both validation of the proxies while keeping the ballots secret.

I'm not sure that Michael wants to see how individual people voted. I THINK he is more interested in making sure that the votes were counted accurately. Along with the proxies.

Yes, TracieS.

My goal is to see if ballots were validated and counted in a consistent manner. That requires the same information as seeing who voted for whom, although the latter is not my goal.

When you have a trustworthy group to tally votes, then generally no oversight is requested. For example,
There are no issues in dispute.
The votes are validated and tallied by the Nominating Committee Chair and the HOA Secretary, who have both earned the trust of all.
The votes are validated and tallied by the Nominating Committee Chair and the HOA Secretary, who have not shown partiality.
The votes are validated and tallied by the Nominating Committee Chair and the HOA Secretary, who have each shown opposing partiality and are observant and vocal.
The votes are validated and tallied by a state election commission composed of both Democrats and Republicans, who are trusted to be watchful of each other and vocal if they catch anything.

When there are valid concerns, then oversight and review should be permitted:
When the people who validate and tally the votes are unknown.
When the people who validate and tally the votes are suspect of ineptitude.
When the people who validate and tally the votes are on the same side of a controversial issue.
When the people who validate and tally the votes have demostrated partisan and/or inappropriate conduct.
When the results are incongruous with express sentiment.
When the results favor the side of those who counted the votes.
When the results favor one side to an unexpected or unlikely degree.

In our case, I believe the votes were validated and tallied by Directors and the Nominating Committee they appointed, who all conspired to rig the election and ended up controlling 100% of the Board.

I think any argument that amounts to, "the ballots are secret, so only the other side gets to see them" is absurd, even if the Board of Directors is the other side.

Here's something else to consider. I don't think I mentioned that:

1) Elections have always been held in February. Dues are do on March 15th. (As with many other HOAs, a homeowner must be current on dues and assessments in order to count towards a quorum or to vote. Of course, they can all attend the meetings.) So eligibilty has always been based on whether a homeowner has paid their dues in the past year. This year, the Board moved the elections to March 29th, so eligibility was based on whether dues were paid in the past two weeks. This was clearly stated by the Secretary, although I have some doubt as to whether it was applied uniformly and consistently.

2) The number of votes the Board tallied in favor of their slate, in addition to depending on proxy ballots that only listed their slate, was also far greater than the number of people who have paid their dues by that date in past years.

3) The Board, in addition to prohibiting discussion or voting by the Members at the Annual Meeting of the Members, also made their own presentations especially long. The Events chair spent almost an hour in an emotional speech about how nice it was to be on the Board and conduct events, and how difficult it is to put signs up. It was obviously contrived. Many homeowners gave up and left prior to the actual voting.

So I ask you: which of things (if any) would you consider a smarmy political trick (i.e., not illegal or inappropriate -- just manipulative and unfair), and which things (if any) are illegal and invalidate the election?

As I said, the proxy gives the designated individual (the HOA Secretary, in the Board's proxy) the authority to vote the proxy on all other issues than the election of Directors. It is both a proxy and a ballot, but it does not allow the voter the opportunity to just sign for the vote without also signing the proxy form in which the vote is contained. There is a line with one signature for both.

The proxy ballot is used at the Annual Meeting where the election takes place.

Yes, they announced the vote tally.

I am sure someone will point out the fact that a Members could vote their choice and cross out the proxy statements (while also voting for the candidates not presented. All that is required is for the Members to be omniscient -- to know the choices that are not presented to them, and to exercise those choices in tandem with any other unknown Members of like mind.

The bottom line is that democracy exists where there are open elections and freely available information. Take away the free press and the other party, and you would still have the trappings of democracy in America, but it would no longer give us any real freedom to choose. That is how our HOA is run.