Pros & Cons of Cumulative Voting

I live in an association that was built in 1975 & governing documents have never been updated. I have been considering recommendation of eliminating cumulative voting & quorum requirements. Does anyone have experience with this?

KerryF

Thank you for the response, Tim.

I have read the section on Cumulative Voting on the Davis Stirling site. We currently have cumulative voting.
It seems to allow certain groups of homeowners to get on the board at the same time who exercise a certain
amount of "control" of what goes on. Seems like eliminating cumulative voting would help in this scenario.

Any down side to eliminating cumulative voting that you know of?

Kerry

Here is what I found on Davis Stirling regarding eliminating election quorum requirements:

ELIMINATING QUORUM
QUESTION: I have an HOA that's had two membership meetings without a quorum. We are on our 3rd meeting and still no quorum. What's next?

ANSWER: Almost all associations have trouble achieving quorum at their membership meetings. Nagging owners to send in their ballots is the traditional method for encouraging participation. Some boards are so frustrated by low turnout that they threaten to fine owners who don't vote (not a good idea). There are three ways to deal with the problem. The board can (i) continue scheduling meetings until it achieves quorum, (ii) go into court for an order lowering quorum to the number of votes cast (which is only good for the meeting in question), or (iii) end your attempts at quorum, leave the existing board in place and pour your energies into amending your bylaws to eliminate quorum requirements for the election of directors.

No Benefit to Quorum. As most associations already know, requiring a quorum only causes aggravation and expense. Many owners will either sign blank proxies or send blank ballots to help meet quorum. That does not make for better elections. Forcing owners to vote may actually decrease the quality of elections if people don't care and simply vote for the first name on the ballot. People who care about the election should decide the outcome.

Normal Election Process. By eliminating quorum requirements for the election of directors, board elections become like all other elections at the municipal, state and federal levels. In other words, elections would be determined by those who are interested enough to vote. This eliminates wasted time and money holding multiple meetings trying to achieve quorum. The Davis-Stirling Act anticipates the removal of quorum requirements:
A quorum shall be required only if so stated in the governing documents of the association or other provisions of law. Civil Code §1363.03(b).
RECOMMENDATION: In addition to eliminating quorum requirements for the election of directors, associations should consider eliminating cumulative voting and proxies. -Adams Kessler PLC

My association has never met quorum the first time around in any of its' elections! Seems we could save ourselves some money by eliminating the election quorum requirement when and if the governing documents are ever updated.

I also like the idea of eliminating the use of proxies.

But, back to Cumulative Voting; our association is over 900 units and it is difficult to get owners to vote. I just wonder if there are any unforseen issues we may encounter.

KerryF