Thoughts on Election Process (Florida)

As election time comes upon us next month, we have been reviewing our governing documents, Florida Statute 720, and the past processes used for the elections. This review has raised a couple of questions but one in particular stands out.

If the by-laws of the association state “nomination for election to the Board of Directors shall be made by a Nominating Committee. Nominations may also be made from the floor at the annual meeting.”

Florida Statute 720.306(9)(a) states that the election MUST be conducted in accordance with with the procedures provided in the governing documents (by-laws in this case). But then it goes on to state “All members of the association are eligible to serve on the board of directors, and a member may nominate himself or herself as a candidate for the board at a meeting where the election is to be held; provided, however, that if the election process allows candidates to be nominated in advance of the meeting, the association is not required to allow nominations at the meeting.”

Does this mean, as some have said, that the statute overrules the by-laws if they allow people to be nominated by the nominating committee?, or

Does it mean that if you nominate yourself to the nominating committee, then you can’t then nominate yourself at the meeting? Not the use of the semi-colon which generally ties the two thoughts together, or

Do the by-laws, as I believe, rule the day because the very first line states they MUST be followed and the second statement would only apply if there there was no procedure identified?

Also, if the association can prevent the nominations, does that mean the board of directors or the membership that is assembled (provided there is a quorum).

If nominations from the floor are allowed, than I say you must allow such. Printed ballot or not. Leave space on the printed ballot for write-ins which would be those nominated from the floor. Rarely does one nominated from the floor win unless there has been a group conniving to do so, which did happened at our last BOD election. A faction got together and managed to get their nominated from the floor candidate to finish 5th in a 5 person race by one vote out of 50 some odd votes.

The Nominating Committee seems like a quaint anachronism. In my HOA it's one of those committees that nobody wants to be on because it takes a lot of time to make phone and house calls trying to cajole people into serving on the board. Perhaps in a more active HOA where more people than vacancies routinely want to get on the board such a committee would be of more use as far as vetting the candidates goes.

Where there are a lot of absentee ballots and/or proxies in play (for some definition of "a lot") then nominations from the floor are practically dead on arrival since the floor candidate's name(s) never get into the election materials sent out ahead of time.

Same for mine. A nominating committee is a tool for ensuring that the incumbents control who may run and is an inherently bad idea.

Our bylaws require a 3-person nominating committee, which includes one board member who's not seeking reelection. After the deadline for all candidates to turn in their bios, the Committee meets with the PM, who states that all meet our only requirement, which is HOA membership, i.e., ownership.

If we ever succeed in rewriting our bylaws, we'll dump that article.