Websites that Allow Voting by Email

Hello. I'm on the board of directors of a homeowner association in Costa Rica that was formed a year ago. I'd like to know if anyone is aware of a website that allows voting by email (see explanation following). My challenge is this. I've located a couple of free sites that will allow voting one ballot per email address. However, we have several property owners who own more than one property and each property owner is entitled to one vote per property owned. Therefore, I would like to find a free site that would allow one email address to cast multiple votes for multiple nominees. For example, if there is a ballot presented with four names on it, but only two named individuals can be selected, an individual owning five properties should be allowed to cast five votes for two individuals. If anyone has any suggestions, they would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Anna,
If I read this right you must own something in Costa Rica. You are looking for a free download that will provide you with sufficient ballots. You said you found some that supply a limited number free, due to owners owning multiple properties you need more than one per unit. You want to know if their are sites that give these things away. I may be off base here, but if you can get one sample for nothing, why couldn't you just copy as many as you want. But maybe you want the site to provide the service that would handle the ballots, and you want that free also.
I don't know of any that even provide the service so you apparently are one up on us. Tell us if they insure the validity of the ballot and it will pass the legal test in you HOA. Do you know if this site references states that this kind of voting is legalized. I suppose this is coming but I don't think it is very common here in the states and certainly subject to challenge.

Well Anna,
You have only yourself to blame. You were the one that popped up in my thoughts and made me type the wrong name.

I hope you in that lit'al old Mc Mansion condo have a great year. I know about all those HOA's down there also......absolute Mansions, no wonder the economy is all screwed up, all the rich people live in Florida in Lit'al old condo's worth about 10 mil. My question to you is, does the association provide a set of clubs, if you decide to crease a five iron across someone's skull.
As a Board member, what is your advice about what clubs to provide the owners, I don't see why you don't just tell the PM to go do it.

Hello. Yes, we own property in Costa Rica, and things are a bit different here in that there aren't as many rules and regulations as in the U.S. I doubt that this type of thing has ever been, or ever will be, challenged in Costa Rica, but only time will tell. Last year when we had our initial elections, we chose a website that allowed us to vote by email. The problem we encountered was that you could only send one ballot per email address. For example, if a person owned 10 properties and was allowed 10 votes, he/she needed 10 different email addresses, one address for each ballot that was to be voted. We're still researching this and may have found a site that will allow us to send multiple ballots to the same email address.

Janice,

I seems to me mail-in ballots would solve the problem. Instead of using email, use "snail-mail" (USPS)! LOL

I would recommend providing a separate ballot for each property owned. In many assn's a double envelope system is used to insure the balloting is secret. The outer envelope has the lot number or property address and name and signature of the property owner. The inner envelope holds the ballot (which is unsigned). The inner envelope is placed in the outer envelope and mailed. Upon receipt, the info on the outer envelope is verified to ensure the member is in good standing and eligible to vote and check off that particular lot # is voting. The inner envelope remains unopened until all ballots are scheduled to be tallied, usually at the meeting or perhaps a few days before. If a member owns more than one property they could place all the inner envelopes in a large manila envelope for mailing but must be certain to state each lot number or property address being voted on the manila envelope next to their name and signature.

Assuming that the outcome of any such election is legally enforceable (you are on your own with this, I have no idea what the laws are like in another state, let alone country. )

Why not consider simply having the owners who have multiple properties get a hotmail, live, yahoo, gmail etc account for each property they own? they could use a combination of last name and street address to identify the account. FOr example: [email protected]
[email protected]

and so on.

All things considered, you really should make sure that this is a wise approach though. Use of physically mailed ballots would probably be easier and safer in the end.