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bullet voting with proxies

Started by CharlesG5 • 10 replies • 4227 views

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CharlesG5 (Florida)
Posts: 60
Posted:
Live in FLORIDA in an HOA. Our process to elect board members is as follows. If a homeowner want to run for the board they fill out a candidates form. These forms are send to the homeowners prior to the annual meeting along with a standard proxy.

At this years annual meeting, one homeowner had 80 proxies because she wanted to be on the board and walked the community. She was running against five incumbents and only five will be elected. On her ballot, she gave herself 80 proxies and voted for no one else. She did not want to give her opponents 80 votes which could be used to not get her elected.

Does any other HOA allow bullet voting? If there are six candidates running for five spots must a homeowner vote for five people for their vote to count?

Proxies are another question. How many HOA's use a directed proxy?
LarryB13 (Arizona)
Posts: 4,099
Posted:
Charles,

I have never heard of a requirement that a voter must cast a certain number of votes or one vote for each open seat. The language that appears on the ballots for general elections is "Vote for not more than X candidates." This means that if there are five open seats one can lawfully vote for 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 candidates or he can choose to vote for none of them at all.

In this case, it appears that the homeowner solicited general proxies that allowed her to vote as she saw fit, as opposed to directed proxies that would have required her to vote for specific candidates. It sounds like the homeowner in question knew what she was doing.

NpS (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 4,216
Posted:
In my HOA, HOs have always used a non-vote to indicate dissatisfaction with a particular board member.

Had never heard of bullet voting before. Wonder how prevalent it is?
Sikubali jukumu. Read all posts at your own risk.
TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,059
Posted:
Charles,

Typically, as Larry pointed out, an individual can cast a vote for up to the number of candidates (if there are 5 seats and 6 are running, the voter may vote for up to 5 people - voting for less is fine, voting for all 6 would invalidate the ballot).

Our Association uses a directed proxy. We use one because I initiated their use, as I didn't like the Board having blanket authority a general proxy provides. If the Association doesn't use mail-in ballots, directed proxies are the closest you can get.

It's interesting that the election committee allow proxy holders to simply write the number of proxies they hold on their one ballot (i.e. writing 80 in the yea line). Allowing this, in my opinion, invalidates using "secret ballot," as everyone knows who would have cast that vote. What should be happening is that a proxy representative should receive a single ballot for every proxy they hold.

Keep in mind, that last part is being offered as something to correct in the future. You would not be able to invalidate that one ballot because of this decision. However, if desired, you could invalidate the entire election and require a new election. Since the results would likely be the same, I think choosing to hold another election would simply be a waste of money (printing notices, ballots, etc.). Therefore, if you wish, make those changes for the next election.
HeleneN (Connecticut)
Posts: 84
Posted:
Pursuant to undirected proxies in Ct. someone may not cast votes representing more than 15% of the votes in the Assoc. Each proxy is exchanged for a ballot so the vote is secret and I can see nothing wrong with anyone declining to vote for a particular candidate if they so choose.
RichardP13 (California)
Posts: 1,767
Posted:
It sounds like the association may have cumulative voting, which means that that person, IF they picked up 80 proxies, could in theory have a total of 405 votes, including herself.
KerryL1 (California)
Posts: 14,550
Posted:
I, too, first thought there was cumulative voting, Richard, but it simply sounds like she collected proxys from 80 H/Os and then cast them all for herself.

No, Charles; as others have written, ballots, in your case, may show a vote for each of one up to five candidates. Why should anyone vote for someone they think is horrible just to get the total to five?

Our ballots even have a check point which voters can mark that juste counts them towards quorum only.

I know I saw very recently on this board an HOA that only permits 5 proxys per H/O.
RichardP13 (California)
Posts: 1,767
Posted:
Kerry,

IF, it is a general proxy, allowing her to vote on their behalf, and they have cumulative, which is the norm, then she could have 405 votes. If you have a chance to stack the deck, by all mean go for it. If the proxy is for quorum purposes only, different story.
NpS (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 4,216
Posted:
Quote:
Posted By KerryL1 on 12/12/2014 4:12 PM
Our ballots even have a check point which voters can mark that just counts them towards quorum only.

Interesting Kerry. Can you provide a sample?
Sikubali jukumu. Read all posts at your own risk.
JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265
Posted:
Quote:
Posted By RichardP13 on 12/12/2014 4:02 PM
It sounds like the association may have cumulative voting, which means that that person, IF they picked up 80 proxies, could in theory have a total of 405 votes, including herself.

We recently changed our covenants and removed cumulative voting. Cumulative is basically only used in the corporate world for voting shares .
JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265
Posted:
Quote:
Posted By CharlesG5 on 12/12/2014 2:23 PM
Live in FLORIDA in an HOA. Our process to elect board members is as follows. If a homeowner want to run for the board they fill out a candidates form. These forms are send to the homeowners prior to the annual meeting along with a standard proxy.

At this years annual meeting, one homeowner had 80 proxies because she wanted to be on the board and walked the community. She was running against five incumbents and only five will be elected. On her ballot, she gave herself 80 proxies and voted for no one else. She did not want to give her opponents 80 votes which could be used to not get her elected.

Does any other HOA allow bullet voting? If there are six candidates running for five spots must a homeowner vote for five people for their vote to count?

Proxies are another question. How many HOA's use a directed proxy?

Charles

When voting in a governmental election, are you required to vote for all and everything on the ballot? The answer is no.

There are several types of proxies. Directed, general, and a combination of both. If proxies are allowed, one can not dictate which type the proxy is. They must accept all. Some states/associations do limit the amount of proxies one person can hold.

I love proxies and compliment her on using hers as she did. Seems she is someone that understands how things work and could be a good addition to your BOD. That said, proxies can be easily misunderstood and proxy givers can be easily misled. That is not the fault of the proxy system. Typically it is the fault of the proxy giver not knowing what they are giving.

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