Election packets not sent to some owners

Our building has a 20 year entrenched board - and we are running to replace and obtain a majority. We've found that at least seven owners (out of several hundred) have not received a candidate information packet or a ballot. Many owners live out of state, and we have no way of knowing if they received this information. The by laws state that owners need this information no less than 10 business days before the election. Ten business days passed two days ago. As candidates who are running to replace an entrenched board, who have acted questionably in the past, should we be concerned? What rights do we have to try to extend the election and to ensure that all owners have a ballot and a chance to review all of the candidate information statements? This feels like a huge deal - what can we do?

Marcus

It is an owner's responsibility to keep the BOD/MC informed of their correct mailing address. If, as an example, they rented their unit and the ballot was sent to the renter and the renter did not forward it than so be it. The BOD/MC did as required.

My guesstimate is of the 113 owners we have, that our mail list is not correct. Whose fault? Theirs, not ours. Shame on them, not us.

YOU ARE WRONG!!

The ballots will go to the address that is on file. If the owner rents their unit, their assessment statement is mailed to their off site address. Same goes for all other communications. IF you are fining an owner for the actions taken by their renters, do you send to the renters?

Give me a break!

Let her answer please

Marcus

If allowed, beat them at their own game. Get yourself a proxy and go door to door with the list you have. If you have the off site addresses, mail to them with an explanation.

Exactly what I thought, CLUELESS!

Marcus,

Is there anything that would prevent you from copying the materials in the packet and distributing those copies to owners who have said they did not receive them.

Keep in mind that a lot of stuff comes in the mail and it is really easy to overlook an election packet.

Sounds like your PM wants the current board (who hired her/him) t stay in power If your HOA has no rule about residents campaigning in the lobby, keep doing it. To me, "conducting business" would be selling something like Girl Scout cookies or spa memberships or whatever. The rules in my HOA wouldn't permit me to bring my own furniture into the lobby to talk with my neighbors.

Can you reserve your party room or lounge (if you have one) and host a Meet the Candidates event? Offer wine & munchies? In CA, all candidates must have equal access to these common areas and the HOA may not charge rent to use them.

Send the absentee owners, again, a campaign letter, ballot and stamped envelope to send in their vote. In our recent election, while our absentee owners comprise about 32% of all owners, about 45% of the ballots came from them, which surprised me as I thought they'd be less interested.

Double check your own bylaws & IL state laws to see if you can do anything else.

Can I ask that a moderator edit and remove our building address in my last post please? Thank you

Melissa

Before you continue to post, you need to have the individuals you are "educating" follow the laws within their specific states.

I can't believe how much MISINFORMATION in this last post of yours. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

I'm with you on this one, Richard. Perhaps Melissa is citing Alabama law.

Back to the OP, Marcus. We are are condo high rise of 200+ units. When we sought to make inroads on our abusive & secretive Board of 7, we did send out a personal letter to all Owners. It had little pics on top of us three and a joint statement about what we believed our HOA needed and what we wanted to accomplish. It was factual and was not an attack on the incumbents. Two of us three were elected, so we were a minority on the Board though one some what e independent guy gave us support sometimes.

One year later, we gained a majority on the board via the election.

How many are on your Board, Marcus? How many seats up for (re)election? How many units?

It would have been a waste of our funds to have mailed all of our letters to the condo address as, at that time, 40+% were absentee landlords. We sent every letter to the address the owner specified as their mailing address to our PM. A new law in CA says that Owners may specify two addresses where they want HOA items sent by US mail.

Good story, JohnC--I don't think I've seen it before and it's inspiring: any HOA that can get enough homeowners unified, can get control of a rogue board. Might take a year, or even two.

It makes me wonder, Marcus, if there's an area off your HOA's property where you could set up a table (or the old-time ironing board), perhaps outside of a frequently-used entrance, to pass out pamphlets & maybe have a coffee urn of hot cider or hot chocolate to offer. Guess it's kinda cold there though.

In our case our "small group" was 14 all fairly new Owners, who studied our CC&Rs, bylaws and state laws to learn as much as we could about how an HOA SHOULD be governed.

Thanks Kerry, John and others.

* We have a board of 5, and 3 positions are up for election

* We were provided a list of current addresses by our PM - we used this list to mail out our letter to owners (30% were off property / out of state)
- We avoided sending out letters to people who have been actively opposed to change (to save our resources, and to focus on the 40% of owners who don't vote)

* We are planning one last mailer to the block of owners who don't vote, and new owners, describing why this election is so important

* This is the third year we have run (third time's a charm!) - and consistently come in with 10% fewer ownership interest votes than the incumbents
- A prior board member from several years ago said that when running the only request they made was that they didn't want to lose
- The board replied, if you run, don't worry about the election, we'll make sure you win
- Historically, the election ballot box was locked inside the PM's office, and owners had to slip their vote in under the office door when the office wasn't open
- I contacted our new audit firm and asked that they ensure the lock they provide is not easy to compromise
- The other non incumbent candidates and I were able to persuade the PM to place the ballot box at the front desk, where there is an open circuit security camera, and a 24 hour door person

We are concerned that the board tracks who does and does not vote (as we do at the close of each election) and may vote on behalf of these owners.

Two years ago - the PM was overheard after the election thanking one of the owners for "helping get the word out" -

We just want a fair election, and that only proper votes submitted by owners are accepted.

Finally, the winds of change are with us. I've had so many owners come up to me (when I'm working the lobby), telling me they are voting for change, fist bumping me, and thanking me for taking the time to run and give back to the building. I think we have it this year, but I want to use this last two weeks to bring us over the top.

I don't think the Board can vote for any owner. Our proxies state "I surrender my vote to the Association" or "I delegate my vote to_________." If the vote is surrendered to the association it is counted with the majority vote.

465 units in our building. We had a very successful door, to door, canvass event last night.

We noticed the handwriting was similar, if not identical, on a number of ballots appearing to be the PM's handwriting in the past election. This year, we have provided warning that we will be making copies of all ballots and sending them to owners so they can verify their vote.

BobD4, I did find your post about meeting notices going out 30 days but not less than 10 days before an election in the statute.

There's nothing in it about canvasing. I did however find this:

(17) that the board of managers may disseminate to unit owners biographical and background information about candidates for election to the board if (i) reasonable efforts to identify all candidates are made and all candidates are given an opportunity to include biographical and background information in the information to be disseminated; and (ii) the board does not express a preference in favor of any candidate;

We now have 9 known owners who have told us they received no candidate information packets, or a ballot. We asked the PM who swears she mailed them all out and received none back - so everyone must have received a packet.

Is there anything we can do to encourage the PM/Board to actually verify that everyone received a packet (especially our 150 owners who don't live in the building) to make sure they have what they need? We've done our own mailing but it doesn't include our full candidate statements.

Our thoughts are that the board purposefully did not mail the ballots to a group of owners (who tend to be supportive of us).

I don't think you can force the PM to show you verification that everyone rec'd a package. If your suspicions are right, more than 9 didn't receive ballots.

I guess if I were as s conceded as you, perhaps there's a way to see the count on the postage machine for the day they were mailed. Haven't used one of those in many years, but there should be a way to check the count?

Won't the 9 each simply request another ballot and complete it or, better yet, bring it the night of the election to the meeting? Or give it to you or someone else trustworthy to deliver?

Last year, when I sought reelection, I took my own ballot directly to the election as I didn't trust the then-PM. After the election (I was reelected) I reviewed the list of those who'd been checked off by the PM as having voted and everyone who I expected to vote did except for one condo unit. the number checked off did match the number reported as having voted. And it's three owners who open the double envelopes & tabulate the ballots with any owner watching who wants to, and with our HOA attorney present.

(Ours are secret ballots as required in CA.)

The incumbents sent a rather mean spirited letter to all owners. Here's an excerpt:

"Campaign style including knocking on residents' doors and using aggressive methods of meeting residents in the lobby and the elevator. Many residents have complained that this methodology is intrusive, threatening and a nuisance. No homeowner should be subjected to harassment and if a resident feels that she or he is being harassed, an incident report can be filed to have that issue addressed. This is a violation of the rule on nuisance behavior found on pg. 21 of our Rules. In addition, they have been misleading voters by distributing proxies that do not include all candidates running and providing inaccurate information."

Another resident overheard the PM on a call saying:

"They are getting the majority of the vote; we have to do something to stop this."

From our calculations of proxies, and ballots, we are far ahead. However, this recent mailer really targets personality over policy. We hope the ownership can see through it and make an objective decision.

We feel no response is needed, and have decided to stop meeting with owners in the lobby. We don't want to appear combative, but it's a shame - we've met so many wonderful owners this way and got to understand their concerns.

Remind us, Marcus. When is the election? Any day now?

I'm curious, what does p. 21 of your Rules say? In any case, the incumbents' letter will probably do them no good and shows they're scared!

This happened to me a year a go when I sought reelection, also 3 spots, 5 candidates. another incumbent desperately wanted me off the Board. She placed a very nasty letter opposing me under every unit's door (which IS against our Rules) about 10 days before the election. I did reply because she made some absolutely false, actually erroneous, statements about the budget that'd just been approved. In my short rejoinder, I corrected her numbers & %s (which anyone could have found in approved meeting minutes) and wrote that I was concerned that someone who'd been on the Board as long as she (6+ years) did not comprehend our budget. Her personal attack against me was that I'm "self-indulgent."

I was reelected; she was not. I think her nastinesss backfired and your incumbents' may too! After all that "many" complained could mean two. and those Owners who found the conversations with you & your group interesting will think that the incumbents have gone too far.

I sounds like your group is doing very well!! Please keep us informed!

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