Election of HOA Directors

John

You have 3 open positions. If 4 or more run then one should be allowed to vote for 3 of the four. If less then 4 run and an election is held then they are on the BOD.

I do not see the question?

JohnH38. Your governing docs, probably bylaws, inform you about voting. As JohnC46 says, no one is required to cast three votes for three positions. But if your docs permit cumulative voting, it's possible that each owner may cast the allowed 3 votes for one candidate.

In CA, results must be posted, but I don't know about SC.

John you really need to READ YOUR CC&R's to see what is required and how elections are to be held. Typically there is one vote allowed per household for any open positions as JohnC pointed out unless cumulative voting is allowed as Carol pointed out then the homeowner could cast all of his votes towards one candidate. After the election (again typically) the Board members hold what is known as an organizational meeting where they decide which of them holds what officer position. Again typically all Board terms are the same length of time (ours are two years) with two members elected one year and three the next. Usually one year terms are only used in the first election to achieve the split term then all subsequent elections are for the same term.

John

Our SC Bylaws say:

"Each Voting Member shall be entitled to cast one (1) vote with respect to each vacancy to be filled from each slate on which such Voting Member is entitled to one vote. There shall be cululative voting."

BOD election. Me one owner. 4 people running for 3 vacanies. I have 3 votes to use (one for each vacancy) and they could be cumulative as in I could cast all 3 of my votes for one person.

I recently early voted in the upcoming national election. In one local election, there were 6 people running for 3 open School Committee positions. The ballot said vote for (b>upto 3 of the 6. So I cast 3 votes. Cunulative voting was not allowed.

I have one vote as a resident of my state.

If we were to follow the above train of logic, it would mean that I could cast a vote for president or I could cast a vote for senator but I could not cast votes for both president and senator as that would mean casting two votes.

John you need to read all of the CC&R's. This section while poorly written is to convey that there is only to be one vote cast per unit. Meaning if you and your wife both own the unit, only one of you is entitled to vote in any election.

"Should each member be allowed to vote for one candidate and one only? And the election results published?"

If I am reading your question correctly it seems that each property owner receives one ballot with three names on it. In our situation if we have three vacancies and three candidates they automatically become Directors, no vote is necessary.

If we had three vacancies and five candidates we again get one ballot per property. We can vote for three of the five but cannot vote three times for the same candidate. I have never heard of "cumulative" voting?

The only thing close to "cumulative" voting for us is if you owned three properties.

Paul T

Paul, our bylaws permit cumulative voting, but we never go that route & will dump it from our bylaws if we can ever get them restated.

In Cali Civil Code, the total number of votes for each must be posted or put in a newsletter. See davis-stirling.com Main Index for more.

Carol,

Right, for the 20 + tears I have been here the vote per candidate was always posted. Last Year they must have "forgotten"? Maybe because they almost lost? It took about 2 weeks after the initial post to include the candidate vote. I think it is called "managing" the news, or something like that?

John,

Didn't know that, seems like a very strange approach, wonder who thought that one up?
Maybe we could set up something like that for national elections, like one vote for each $500 you pay in taxes?

Thanks for the feedback,

Paul T

Paul

From Wikipedia:

Cumulative voting is used frequently in corporate governance, where it is mandated by some U.S. states.It was used to elect the Illinois House of Representativesfrom 1870 until its repeal in 1980and used in England in the late 19th century to elect some school boards. As of March 2012, more than fifty communities in the United States use cumulative voting, all resulting from cases brought under the National Voting Rights Act of 1965. Among them are Peoria, Illinois for half of its city council, Chilton County, Alabama for its county council and school board, and Amarillo, Texas, for its school board and College Board of Regents. Courts sometimes mandate its use as a remedy in lawsuits brought under the Voting Rights Act in the United States; an example of this occurred in 2009 in Port Chester, New York, which had its first cumulative voting elections for its Board of Trustees in 2010.

A form of cumulative voting has been used by group facilitators as a method to collectively prioritize options, for example ideas generated from a brainstorming session within a workshop. This approach is described as “multi-voting” and was likely derived from the nominal group technique and is one of many tools suggested within the Six Sigma business management strategy.

It sent me looking.....LOL

Glad to help. That is one of the best parts of this chat. Helping.

Glen & John,

Very interesting, thanks for the link & info.

Paul T

Kafirs

Let's accept the vote to be cumulative. You have 3 open positions with 3 candidates. Nineteen unit voters out of 20 vote for all 3 candidates, one unit voter votes for only 1, how do you tally the votes:

22 votes (19+3) for the one candidate

19 votes each for the remaining 3

Didn't Stalin say that who counts the vote wins the election ... lol.

Best for now, John

John

I always thought Kafir meant Westerner (western world) as opposed to Levantine, you are suggesting it may not be PC?

What then if you only have 2 candidates for 3 positions? I haven't made the math but again believe only 1 vote for only 1 candidate leads to an identical election result, how does one cast 3 votes for 1 person? Remember my covenants state each unit owner has 1 vote.

JohnH38