Secret Ballot and Nomination from Floor

Started by AndersH • 4 replies • 2147 views

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AndersH (Arizona)
Posts: 30

Posted:

We are an AZ HOA with 108 members.
Request for nomination, to fill one position on the board, were sent by mail to all members on Jan 27 with a deadline of Feb 13.
After the deadline absentee ballots were sent by mail to all members to vote for one candidate or for a write-in.
The secret ballots were to be mailed in or brought in person to the annual meeting.
In the "Notice of Annual Meeting of Members" the election part of the agenda include "Nomination from the Floor".
My question: With the ballots already mailed in or brought to the meeting voting for one candidate or a write-in, it does not seem logical to ask for nomination of additional candidates from the floor.
Our By-laws states: Election to the Board of Directors shall be by secret written ballot.
I appreciate it if someone can explain the correct procedure for this situation.

Thank you very much,
Anders

LarryB13 (Arizona)
Posts: 4,099

Posted:

Anders,

Arizona law prohibits proxy voting in HOA and condo elections but does require that each member be allowed to vote either in person or by mail.

This effectively kills nominations from the floor as it deprives those who are not present from casting a vote. Since it would not allow some members to vote, a nomination from the floor would not be legal. Since all members had an opportunity to throw their hats into the ring and at least some votes will be mailed in by the time of the meeting, I would recommend treating the "nominations from the floor" as a mistake. Whoever prepares your agenda should be admonished to not repeat it in the future.

BTW, the bylaws for my association were copied from some other association in another state and contain a whole raft of provisions that are either illegal, violate the CC&R's, or are just plain impossible to implement. We did adopt an entirely new election procedure that conforms to legal and CC&R requirements but the board has been reluctant to strike out the original bylaws.

LarryB13 (Arizona)
Posts: 4,099

Posted:

Anders,

I do not know why I did not think of this before. Depending on how much time you have before your annual meeting you could remove the "nominations from the floor" from your agenda and send out a revised agenda. With 108 units it should not be too expensive to do that, especially if you can hand-deliver some of them.

In spite of what I wrote above, you could likely treat a nomination from the floor as a write-in candidate. His votes would be limited to those who attend the meeting. This would be consistent with the procedures for running for a public office, where a person whose name is not on the ballot may run as a write-in candidate.

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

Anders

I am not nor do I play a lawyer.

If your election guidelines allow nominations from the floor then they must be allowed.

Granted those that voted absentee will not be there to change their votes but so be it.

Someone nominated from the floor could receive votes from those in attendance. They may not stand a chance of election but so be it. The procedure was followed.

Larry used a write-in analogy. Good analogy.

JanetB2 (Colorado)
Posts: 4,219

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By JohnC46 on 03/07/2014 6:04 AM
Anders

I am not nor do I play a lawyer.

If your election guidelines allow nominations from the floor then they must be allowed.

Granted those that voted absentee will not be there to change their votes but so be it.

Someone nominated from the floor could receive votes from those in attendance. They may not stand a chance of election but so be it. The procedure was followed.

Larry used a write-in analogy. Good analogy.

In some states such as AZ the State Laws will make statements similar to "Notwithstanding any provision in the community documents". With this type statement the State Law would superseed the community documents. I agree with Larry.

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