BOD election Balloting--advice needed

Same on the nominating committee for failing to make known to the candidates that they needed to declare what seat (term of office) they were running for. Lesson for the future.

If the candidates are unwilling to chose the Board should contact each one and, without revealing what the other candidates chose, have them declare which seat. The other option is provided below:

Offical Ballot Of [Associaton]
Date

NOTE: Some Candidates indicated no preference for which seat they were elected to. Therefore, those names will appear in all sections. Please keep this in mind as you cast your ballot. Any candidate elected to two different seats will be placed into the seat with the highest term of office. Vacant seats will be filled by appointment of the newly elected Board of Directors.

For the Position of Director for a Term of 3 years
(choose up to x)

For Name
___ Mr abc
___ Mr def
___ ___________(write in)

For the Position of Director for a Term of 2 years
(choose up to x)

For Name
___ Mr abc
___ Mr def
___ ___________(write in)

For the Position of Director for a Term of 1 years
(choose up to x)

For Name
___ Mr abc
___ Mr def
___ ___________(write in)

BTW: There should be an equal number of write in spaces in each section as there are number of seats being voted on in that section.

Hope this helps.

Tim

additional opinions and advise? please.

I'd like to suggest that ALL candidates run for the board, then draw straws for the "positions"

(Anything else is too complicated. What if someone didn't get a certain position, but was willing to go into the next slot? Consider them all elected Board members and then let them draw at the first meeting for their "term" length)

Sharon, I would have asked for candidates with the understanding that the top 3 vote getters would serve 3 yr, next 3 for 2 years, and next three for 1 yr. And if any of those elected did want their elected term then allow them to barter with other candidates for a different term length.

Or if you do not allow absentee ballots you could first conduct an election for 3 to serve 3 years. Then conduct a second election for 3 to serve 2 years. Then conduct a third election for 3 to serve 1 year. Using this process candidates who are not elected could be eligible candidates for the next subsequent election.

If you are using return ballots you are going to have a mess on your hands trying to figure this out.

Live voters could have the option of voting for another candidate that did not fill the first position, but what about the mailed-in ballots?

For this first organizational effort, put the top vote getters in the "poole" and let them take their chances on the position they get by drawing straws.

(What's the big deal anyway? Just run again in 1, 2, or 3 years)

Our property manager ran this by the attorney and she felt that we cannot allow all the candidates names to be included under every term. Candidates would need to be slated into a certain term for voting.We are also not excepting write in candidates--only candidates who filed forms to run. Election is live

So the next question is--Do we allow the nominating committee to choose the terms for each candidate so that they can balance the terms. We have nine board positions total. There are 6 current board members running for re election. Should two current members be slated into each of the terms ( 3 yr, 2 yr and 1yr ) and then add 2 new candidates to each term as well or would this be unfair? Or just let the candidates themselves choose and deal with lopsided terms.

Thanks Tim, you are right about over thinking it. Since this is first election that we have handled everyone is nervous about getting it right.It doesn't help that we have a couple of grumpy ole homeowners who bird dog us on every little thing. One of the current board members that is not running for re election said he would make some calls and try to "steer some folks into some less crowded terms. It seems everyone wants to run for 3 years and no one wants to run for 1 year. We also decided that we could ask the nominating committee to place folks by the order in which their nomination forms were returned--the early bird gets the worm so to speak.

Again thanks for the advise

The attorney felt if we allowed all candidates to be nominated for all terms then we were circumventing the intent of the bylaw. Her opinion was that this was written to allow transparency for the voters--they would know exactly who they were electing to each term.

So the board sent an email directly to the association attorney and asked her about meeting the bylaw specifically.
We told her that most of the candidates did not declare which term they wanted and many had written that they wanted to be considered for all terms. This is her answer:

It would be helpful for you to clarify how you are obtaining the nominations for the various positions. I will assume for purposes of this response that you are permitting members to simply email/mail in a nomination for the open director positions, instead of having the nominations be done orally at the annual meeting. I am making this assumption based on the fact you are trying to prepare the ballots prior to the meeting. There is no prohibition to this way of nominating and the By-Laws don’t specifically state whether the nominations have to occur at the meeting or prior to, so that could be something determined by the current Board. I will also assume that you are permitting members to nominate themselves based on your statement that “Most of the candidates have not declared a term and want to be considered for all of them.”

Assuming the above, when a nomination is presented, it must “specifically set forth which Director position said Member is nominated for”. So, if a nomination is presented which does not specifically state which Director position said member is nominated for, that nomination would not qualify and that person would not be nominated for any director position in accordance with the By-Laws. So, if I wanted to nominate Tim Smith, the nomination must state “I nominate Tim Smith for the Director 1 position” before Tim Smith can be placed on the Ballot for Director 1. Also, one nomination cannot contain multiple positions based on the language of the By-Laws. Note, the term “position” is singular and not plural in the sentence quoted above. So, if Tim Smith also wants to be considered for Director 2, another nomination must be submitted which states “I nominate Tim Smith for the Director 2 position.” And so on….

Keep in mind, it is not up to the candidates to “declare” a position (director 1, director 2, or director 3), the person nominating the candidate makes that decision. Since there is no prohibition to multiple nominations of the same member for multiple positions nor does it require a candidate elected for multiple positions make a declaration as to which position they desire, I believe the plain reading of the By-Laws would be this:

Let’s say Tim Smith is nominated for Director 1 and Director 2 positions. He would be placed on the ballot for both. If he wins only one, no problem. But, lets also he actually has enough votes to win both positions. Let’s say he received 130 votes for Director 1 and 200 votes for Director 2. He would be elected to the Director 2 position in which he received more votes and then the person receiving the 2nd highest number of votes would be elected to the Director 1 position.

But, as the Board, you have the power to promulgate rules. Since this process is not specifically defined, you could clarify if you do not believe the plain reading I described above is in the best interests of the Association. I understand that the Board has various opinions as to how this should be, so the only thing to do would be to have the Board vote on the specific process each person would prefer and the process receiving the majority vote would be the process to be used. Only by a vote of 2/3 of the majority of members would that rule be overturned should you wish to promulgate a rule to “clarify” this process. If you as the Board do not want members to be permitted to be nominated for more than one position, you can make that rule and require the person nominated for more than one position, declare which position they would prefer prior to the voting. Or, you could make a rule that if a person is nominated for more than one position, the current Board votes as to which position the person will be placed on the ballot for. Or, since there is no specific designation as to the order of the voting, the Board could make a rule to put all candidates in all positions they were nominated for, then vote in a specific order (like you described below. Vote for Director 3, then Director 2, then Director 1 and move the candidates accordingly.)

So, to answer your question…..

It is my legal opinion that because there is no prohibition to multiple nominations for the same candidate in the By-Laws, that candidate could be nominated and placed on the ballot for more than one position. The candidate will then be elected to a position in which he receives the majority vote. If that occurs for more than one position, the higher number of votes would be the position which he would be elected. Meaning, the position in which he received the higher % of the votes of the membership would be the position in which he would be elected.

But, as the Board, if you do not believe this method is in the best interests of the Association, you can change it via majority vote of the Board. BUT, keep in mind that for a candidate to have a qualifying nomination, the nomination MUST state which specific provision the nomination is for. This is not up to the candidate, but up to the person making the nomination. So, when you stated below that “Most of the candidates have not declared a term and want to be considered for all of them.” None of those nominations should be considered or placed on the ballot as they are not in conformity with the requirements of the By-Laws.

We are going to nominate all candidates to all terms(unless they specifically ask not to be considered for every term) The seats will be filled by the candidate who received the highest % of votes for that term. This should please everyone and we have it in writing if it doesn't!

Again, thanks to everyone for your help, this shouldn't have been so difficult but we just couldn't get out of our own way.

Thanks Tim-- she is great. And thanks to everyone else again as well, it gave us many ideas to ponder.

We officially nominated 8 candidates for all three director terms,5 candidates for the three year term and the 2 year term only and 2 candidates for the 1 year term only. So the voters will have the choice of 13 candidates to serve for 3 years (they will elect 3)-- 13 candidates for the two year term ( again, they will elect 3)---and 10 candidates for the 1 year term ( they will elect 3)

Six of the candidates are returning board members and nine candidates are new, so I think it is a really good slate of candidates. All of the candidates live in the subdivision except one who works for the developer.The election takes place on Jan. 25th.

Control of the HOA was just turned over from the developer last January so we are still in the "new" stage with everyone excited to finally be out from under the developer and able to make some changes and improvements. Because this is the first election we have had control over, we wanted to make sure that we crossed all the t's and dotted all the i's. This board has been "watched over" by many!