Elected Board member not present at election

Hi - new here. We had a bit of commotion the other day during our elections when one of the 5 elected Board members wasn't present. Our property manager insisted that we had to take the person with the 6th highest votes in her absence because in order to be a Board member you have to be at the election and present for the first meeting. She (I think incorrectly) cited the Davis Sterling Act. I'm on the Board and have not found anything in our Bylaws or Articles of incorporation or in the Davis Sterling act to corroborate this. Anyone know the rules here?

Nikhil

There is nothing in Civil or Corporation Code requiring someone who is qualified and self nominated themselves and was placed on the ballot to be present at the annual meeting or election. The only challenge could be if a person was a write-in or nominated from the floor, but wasn't present to accept the nomination, then the inspector could go to the next highest vote recipient.

Have them produce the documentation to prove their point.

Thanks for the responses. We haven't found anything in the bylaws to the contrary, so seems like this question has been answered!

When this happens to us, we announce that "the write in won the election but the Association is unaware if they will accept the position. Therefore, the position will be offered to that person first and if refused, to xyz who had the next highest votes"