Handling of mail-in ballots

We have an issue with our normally-peaceful, well-run HOA which could turn into a bit of an issue, and I'd like to get some perspectives from other HOA boards as far as how they handle these issues.

Here are the facts:

1) Last month at our regular board meeting, there was not a quorum. However we had an annual meeting and board election coming up; the property management rep asked our president for clarification in the language of the mail-in ballot as far as the proper method for submitting such ballots and voting in general. Because the meeting was coming up so soon, the rep could not wait for another meeting to have a quorum in order to get a decision. At the direction of the president, the mail-in ballot was sent out with language clearly specifying that such ballots had to be either delivered in person to the management company prior to the annual meeting or by mail; no other delivery method would be acceptable and votes delivered in such a manner would not be counted. They could not be delivered by others and mail-in ballots could not be used at the annual meeting. (Presumably, if you're already at the annual meeting you can simply vote in person) The rationale for this rule was to protect the legitimacy of the votes, as we don't try to verify mail-in ballots.

2) The mail-in ballot was sent out with such language, at least three weeks prior to the annual meeting. There were four open positions and four nominated candidates. There was not a space on the ballot for write-in candidates.

(I am presuming that this was due to space; the page was already crowded with instructions. In the previous Board election, there had been five open positions and only two nominated candidates, so there were three empty spaces on the mail-in ballot. Therefore, I am assuming that for the present Board election there was no space for a write-in simply as a result of an oversight and not a deliberate act to exclude write-ins.)

3) A candidate for the Board went around to selected homeowners and collected mail-in ballots, bundled them together and delivered them in person to the property management company.

4) A couple days prior to the annual meeting, a board member who was interested in seeing this candidate elected to the board raised the issue of why the mail-in ballots could not be submitted in this manner.

5) At the annual meeting, the Board carefully and thoughtfully deliberated this issue at length among itself and with the homeowners in attendance. A motion was made to the assembly (not just to Board members) to stick to the ballot language and only count votes which were submitted according to the previously-announced rules; no bundled mail-in votes would be counted. This motion passed. The Board also agreed that the new Board, at its next regularly-scheduled meeting, would discuss rules for future Board elections as far as how such ballots could be handled. The candidate and his allies on the Board were not pleased with the Board's motion and one of the latter has threatened to sue the Board over this.

My questions are the following:

1) what do other Boards do with regards to submission of mail-in ballots? Do they similarly restrict the method of submission? Was our Board unusual in its refusal to accept mail-in ballots not delivered by mail or the homeowner?
2) have other Boards had problems with candidates soliciting other homeowners to fill out mail-in ballots, then such candidates bundling and delivering such ballots? One thing that concerns me (perhaps unnecessarily) is the supplying of the mail-in ballot; I find it difficult to believe that all of the 30some homeowners had their mail-in ballots at hand when the candidate came to their door. I am reasonably certain the candidate photocopied the mail-in ballot and brought copies along while campaigning for votes. By 'problems', I mean issues related to the legitimacy of the mail-in ballots or the manner in which they were collected and submitted.
3) do other Boards make any efforts to verify mail-in ballots, such as having a property management rep call homeowners and verify that they submitted a mail-in ballot, whether it was mailed in or collected and submitted on their behalf by a third party?
4) do any of you see any problems with bundling and delivering mail-in ballots?

Thanks in advance for your thoughtful replies.

I feel the best way to handle an election is to use the inner/outer envelope system. The owner puts their election ballot in an unmarked envelope but then inserts it into another envelope that they have to fill out their name and address on the outside. This envelope HAS TO REMAIN SEALED until the election where they are all opened. When these are received either in person or by mail, the management company will mark off on the roster when those homeowners have returned their vote. You have to have some kind of tracking system to make sure each person only voted once.

Kim:

our mail-in ballots require listing the lot number, name, and address of the homeowner plus their signature. I know that our property management rep does check to make sure only one ballot is submitted by each Lot owner. I am fairly certain no attempt is made to verify signatures.

In my past HOA's we never achieved an in person quorum. The ones we did achieve were based on Proxies (which could be collected and delivered), mailed in ballots, and those that showed up to register and vote in person.

Personally I would have no issues with someone collecting my ballot/proxy and delivering it. I have done that in the past. Nice of them to save me the time, effort, and money. Now were it being collected by someone I was not voting for and/or by someone I did not trust then I might just say thanks but no thanks and mail it in myself.

Overall, I think your BOD might have made it to stifling.

I think voting on-line would be too complicated to set up for a small-ish HOA like ourselves. I know enough about computers and programming that it would require an IT administrator to set it up properly, then we'd have to get people to register an account and someone would need to deal with keeping track of who's eligible and who's not and who's moved out... on top of handling the process of paper ballots.

I wish we could just have enough homeowners show up in person, so that we could have a quorum and have people vote based upon the slate of nominated candidates *as well* as any floor nominations that might come up; submission of mail-in ballots makes it less likely for floor-nominated candidates to win.

I should add that, as it turns out, the bundling candidate would have lost anyway even if we'd have counted his bundled votes. Hopefully this is a one-off issue that won't happen again, as we will establish clear rules well in advance of future Board elections.

I cannot see why your management company and BOD is having such a hard time with this.

Arizona requires that all HOA member votes be taken in person and by absentee ballot. Proxies are not legal.

Absentee ballots do pose a few problems that can be solved easily. You need to ensure that no one votes more than once. You do this by printing a special envelope that the member must sign and date and the ballot must be returned in that envelope. Absentee ballots should not be opened until the in-person voting has taken place. Members who vote in person should sign a voting roster. The envelopes holding the absentee ballots should be compared to the roster. If the person mailed in a ballot and voted in person, you set the absentee ballot aside with a notation that the member voted in person. If a member mailed in more than one ballot, only the most recent one should be counted and the others set aside with a notation that it is a duplicate. After removing those ballots and any others that are unsigned or otherwise not identifiable, open the "good" envelopes, mix them into the other ballots and start counting.

Arizona law (ARS 33-1812) uses the term "absentee ballot" as opposed to "mail-in ballot" and specifies that the board sets the time and place where they may be delivered. The law does not require them to be mailed, so there is no reason why hand delivery to the specified place should not be accepted. Personally, I see no reason why an absentee ballot should not be able to be delivered to the voting place during in-person voting.

Your board was out of line in refusing to accept ballots that had been hand-delivered. The law allows the board to set the time and place when votes may be delivered but noting in the statute requires that they be mailed. In fact, the statute uses the word "delivered" instead of "mailed."

I see nothing wrong with candidates soliciting votes. I have worked on several Phoenix city elections and it is common practice to seek absentee votes directly from voters and deliver the ballots to the elections officers. I also see no problem with photocopying ballots. There is nothing magic about a sheet of paper. The issue I do see is that you need some means of verifying that the delivered ballots were actually voted by the homeowners and not a bunch of guys at the local bar. A signature on the envelope containg the ballot should be enough to verify who cast the vote.

I think your board was negligent by failing to adopt a voting method that prevented fraud. They were negligent in refusing hand-delivered votes. They were negligent in depriving a large number of members of their voting rights because a candidate did what is both lawful and commonplace. I hope that at least one of the members sues your board into bankruptcy.

Arizona has been one of the pioneers in absentee voting in public elections. Look at what the county elections department does and follow that model.

BTW, Arizona does not require secret ballots in HOA voting. My POA allocates votes based on acreage owned and the CC&R's require that all owners of each parcel vote unanamously, so there is no way we could ever have a secret ballot.