Electronic Voting for Directors

Our By Laws state that voting for Directors must be by "secret written ballot"
We are an HOA in Maryland. Would electronic voting for Directors be precluded by our by laws?

James,

One issue with electronic voting, which I assume means voting by email, is that it becomes impossible to verify who is submitting the ballots.

My association seldom gets 15% of the members to cast a ballot. If I was a more nefarious sort than I already am I could create email accounts under the names of members who have not voted in the past and stuff the electronic ballot box.

Do state laws in MD permit electronic voting for HOA elections, James?

I thought I'd heard that AZ does permit electronic voting, Larry. Guess I heard wrong?

Electronic voting was in the CA legislature in '13, but didn't make it into law. I don't know the bill's current status.

The Maryland HOA Act says this:
(a) In general. -- Notwithstanding language contained in the governing documents
of the homeowners association, the board of directors or other governing body of the
homeowners association may authorize lot owners to submit a vote or proxy by electronic
transmission if the electronic transmission contains information that verifies that the vote
or proxy is authorized by the lot owner or the lot owner’s proxy.

(b) When anonymous voting required. -- If the governing documents of the
homeowners association require voting by secret ballot and the anonymity of voting by
electronic transmission cannot be guaranteed, voting by electronic transmission shall be
permitted if lot owners have the option of casting anonymous printed ballots.

The two major requirements are the authorization by the voter in A) and the definition of what
is an anonymous printed ballot in B).

You heard right. ARS 33-1812 states in part: "The association shall provide for votes to be cast in person and by absentee ballot and, in addition, the association may provide for voting by some other form of delivery, including the use of electronic mail and facsimile delivery."

I think maybe I will call the 1990's and tell them I want my fax machine back.