Letter for Elections

It will depend on the wording within your governing documents and applicable State statutes.

Is this to adjourn and reconvene (keeping the same quorum requirements) or is this for a new meeting with new quorum requirement?

I should add that our bylaws state that each reconvened meeting must be given to each member not more than 60 nor less that fourteen days before the reconvened meeting. Each reconvened meeting the % goes down.

Concho

I'm a bit concerned as you may be mixing Annual Meeting notice requirements with electronic voting requirements. Since I do not have access to your Bylaws, my comments below pertain to my experience with HOAs in Texas in which we have lived and which we manage or have managed.

Typically your Bylaws will state that notice of the annual meeting must be given not earlier than some number of days prior to the meeting and not later than a smaller number of days prior to the meeting. In the Notice of the Annual Meeting package you may include a separate notice which states if the quorum requirements for the first meeting are not met, a second or Reconvened meeting will be take place at a specific date, place, and time--generally about five or ten minutes later than the first meeting. The second meeting often has a much lower threshold for a quorum which facilitates conducting an official Annual Meeting.

In my experience, the first meeting would be called to order. The President would ask the Secretary or management company to certify that a quorum was present in person or by proxy. If it is not, the President immediately adjourns the meeting. A few minutes later the second or Reconvened meeting is called to order and, if there is a quorum, the meeting proceeds.

Both the notice of the first Annual Meeting and notice of the Reconvened Annual Meeting may be included in the same Annual Meeting Notice mailing, so long as the notice window--the number of days in advance--is observed. If you include a Proxy in your Annual Meeting Notice package, it should contain language that the proxy is valid for both the Annual Meeting and any Reconvened Annual Meeting. It has been our practice to place the Annual Meeting Notice on one side of a sheet of paper and the Reconvened Annual Meeting Notice on the other side.

With respect to electronic voting, the Annual Meeting Notice Package may contain instructions for electronic voting. It has been my experience that electronic voting is allowed during a specific window of time prior to the annual meeting, with the 'polls closed' a few days prior to the meeting to facilitate tabulation. In Texas, an electronic vote also counts as a proxy for the annual meeting, a separate signed proxy is not required. However, an Association must establish processes to identify which property owners have voted electronically to validate or verify the proxy. The electronic voting service we used had us generate a specific password number for each property owner. Once that number had been used to log in, it could not be used again.

I have not seen Bylaws which specify a specific range of days for notice of electronic voting, hence my concern. However, your Bylaws could have been written recently and may incorporate language which has been added to the Texas Property Code in the last few years.

Concho

I recall your association is in a bit of a muddle from your earlier posts. I have two suggestions and a comment for you:

1) You should not attempt to exclusively use electronic voting. Not everyone has a computer; others are not comfortable with certain on-line activities.

2) Consider using a third party on line voting service. The one we have previously used had a base rate of $79.00 per election; I think the upper limit for the $79.00 was 5000 ballots which I know you do not need. The service provides all the security, tabulating, and reporting.

It is true the Texas Property Code permits on line voting if it is not mentioned in the CC&Rs but it does not supersede your CC&Rs and Bylaws in most instances. It certainly does expand what may be permitted, but it does not mandate on-line voting must be used, only that it may be used.

require new notifications to be sent.