Voting by "electronic means"

When my Association started publishing that proxies could be sent by e-mail, we did receive a few (2-3) over e-mail.

I have never tried online voting for Associations. I suspect that it could be done providing specific cautions were taken to minimize potential fraud.

Would this be in addition to or in place of casting votes at an annual meeting?

Tim - Some of the very large HOAs in Northern Virginia have gone this way. There are software companies and specialized HOA webvendors that have this module built in. I did not even know it, but this feature is included in package that we have with our web vendor. Won't say who because of the rules. I know that our attorney and pm are on board with electronic voting, but we'd just never tried it.

It can get tricky. SC law says:

SECTION 33-36-440. Voting.

Each member is entitled to one vote on each matter submitted to a vote at a membership meeting. Voting must be in person, unless the bylaws provide specifically for voting by proxy and the conditions under which proxy voting may be exercised.

Then under proxy voting it says electronic transmission of the proxy is allowed if the proxy can be validated.

I think what it means is one can FAX a proxy but that to me is is not "true electronic voting".

Not sure what our state law says about it, but the (State) Common Interest Ownership Act does not mention anything about voting electronically in HOA elections.

Sorry - Last note was directed to Tim.

But, is your HOA incorporated? What do your state laws governing corporations have to say on the issue?

John,

Yes it does. However, the corporate laws need a little clarifying as well.

The issue would not be with casting a vote for a proposed amendment as both corporate and HOA law in VA allow for electronic voting.

The issue would be using electronic voting to elect Directors. This is because if the governing documents are silent, VA Corporate law requires Directors to be elected at a meeting where a quorum is present.

Most VA Associations have language within their governing documents saying that election of directors are done at the annual meeting. Since polls can't open until all the nominations are in and, in my association and other older Associations in VA nominations are required to be allowed from the floor, I don't see internet voting for Directors being practical until the governing documents are reviewed and likely re-written.

However, setting up a directed proxy on the website wouldn't require amending the governing documents as per VA § 13.1-847 a proxy appointment may be done electronically.

I guess for VA the advice would be it depends on the governing documents.

Mike,

I did see and referenced that section of the statute in my earlier posts. That section defers to the Board concerning electronic voting. However, the Board must still comply with the governing documents.

Of the links you provided only one had governing documents available. In the Bylaws of that association, similar to my Association, it also required election of Directors to be held at the annual meeting and required that the meeting have a quorum of x% in person or by proxy.

However, there Bylaws contain the following sections that allow electronic voting to work:

1) Ballots may be sent by mail at the discretion of the Board
2) If Ballots are sent by mail, all properly completed ballots presented will count toward the proxy requirement.

By doing this, they allow for electronic voting while also allowing the ballots (vs. proxies) to count toward satisfying the quorum requirement at the meeting. Hence the election is held at a meeting where a quorum is present which complies with the governing documents election requirement.

I also noted that those bylaws are silent on nominations from the floor. Therefore, it's not a requirement for that Association. My Association has language that requires nominations from the floor and, honestly, there have been times we haven't had enough candidates except through floor nominations.

It could be that since the larger Associations have a larger pool of potential volunteers vs. smaller associations.

I would like to try and implement electronic voting. I just need to amend the governing documents first. Your links provided some of the wording I would need. Thank you,

Tim

Yep.

E-mail me: [email protected]

Note: as the name implies, I only look at this e-mail when I'm at work.

Tim

Jill,

I think most of them have a module of some sort.

I didn't think our hosting service had one until I started to look for it.

Community123.com, the host of this site (click on the name in the upper left corner), likely has one.

I'm willing to share our service's name with you if you contact me via e-mail but I will not post the name here as it is in violation of the rules for the forum.

Tim and Steve - Thanks for the information! Tim, I will contact you at your work email for specifics. I saw it on another thread, I think.