Fair Election Advice

WOW, under qualified candidate? Who made that determination?

If you feel YOU are better qualified, you have the same rights are those you feel are "under qualified". Those willing to put in the time and effort will generally be the ones rewarded.

The only qualifications to be on our Board is to be a homeowner. Anything above that and you are expecting too much.

When I first ran for the Board 9 (!!) years ago, along with individual bios that the HOA sent out, three of us sent a joint campaign letter to all owners. It was factual and didn't attack our opponents. 2 of us were elected. I've been reelected every two years.

32% of our owners don't live here so US mail is best in our css.

Any candidate here can hold an event and invite owners to one of our party rooms and have, say a meet & greet, but no one ever does.

Our Board held a Meet the Candidates event a couple of weeks ago and maybe 25 (about 15 households) attended. A weak candidate, imo, showed her weaknesses in this event, but so few voters attended. Her bio was imilarly weak.

Secret ballots are required in CA. Aren't they in TX? You wrote "permitted," Gary. With secret ballots required here, no one votes by proxy anymore.

If you have favorites, I'd write letters to get out the vote and go door to door if you have a lot of owner occupants and promote your favorites.

Our only qualifications are ownership and in good standing (no uncured violations and not delinquent in dues).

How do secret ballots work? They were just allowed last month in Texas. How do they replace proxies.

Gary,

Your bylaws may not allow owners to vote or run for office if they are in arrears. (And perhaps your State won't allow it.) Also check your Bylaws about voting by proxy and be sure they are followed properly. Often the Secretary of the Board is the default. This can be a problem if the Secretary thinks they are entitled to flip an election and not be sensitive to the will of the people. Very important to study your Bylaws.

You also should try to recruit others to run so there are more choices.

Hopefully you have an honest management company who isn't advocating for any candidate. You should have a couple of people as counters of votes also.

Keep in mind that if it is an "annual meeting" that is a "members meeting." The board members only chair the meeting with permission from the members. You can make a motion to ask for volunteers to count the votes. It would be a good idea to talk to people about this a head of time...perhaps the management company or who ever is chairing the meeting.

Secret Ballot is simply filling in a ballot and turning it in at the polling center (typically the annual meeting) without any identifying features on it as to who cast the ballot.

Voting by mail, although can use secret ballots, is a different process of sending votes to the polling center.

Proxies are a form that identifies someone to cast a ballot on a members behalf.
Two common types of proxies are General and Directed. A general proxy allow the individual to cast the ballot how they desire. A Directed proxy directs the individual to cast the ballot a specific way.

It’s hard to guarantee a good turnout or even that good people are elected – homeowners who are current in paying assessments can also turn out to be unethical, incompetent and downright stupid! The best you can do is ensure the people who are running are qualified to do so per your documents. In other words, if the documents say delinquent homeowners cannot vote or serve on the board, you need to tell those “candidates” right now they’re out unless and until they become current - BEFORE the election is held.

You should also encourage people to come to the meeting and vote, explaining the importance of electing good people (folks who lead by example, are willing to educate themselves on the issues and behave in a professional and transparent manner). I would strongly encourage nominations from the floor and require every candidate to prepare a statement as to why they feel they should be elected, and then have a brief Q and A where people can ask questions (maybe a few pointed questions in front of everyone about how to handle delinquent homeowners without exposing an individual's personal business will do the trick).

As for the proxies, check the documents to see how they are to be used and perhaps set up a committee of homeowners who will be responsible for counting the ballots at the meeting and checking proxies against a list of eligible homeowners to ensure they can vote. Our association has a sign in sheet listing eligible homeowners – if you aren’t listed, it means you’re delinquent and therefore cannot vote or serve on the board (thus turning in a proxy is meaningless), although you can stay and listen to the proceedings