Voting Member Bylaws Unreturned Votes

GerryW1 (Florida)
Posts: 129

Posted:

Hi. Our ancient bylaws for our planned community created voting members for the various subassociations which make up the master association. 1 Voting member for each, some condos, some homes. There is a line in the bylaws (regarding voting matters, including special assessments and amendments) which states (summarized): The Voting member will cast votes as directed in the returned proxies. All other votes may be cast as the voting member deems appropriate. I've been trying to find information about this. In California and a few other places, they call it representational voting. Apparently, unreturned or abstained votes can be used one of 3 ways by a voting representative (1-no use, 2-proportional to other received votes, 3- as the voting representative wants). I understand the logic to this- More often than not related to apathy, it may be impossible to get the mandated 75% vote to impose an important special assessment, or change a law, and one would hope this would expedite passing a much needed item. But there is potential for abuse. My question is: If the founding bylaws allow the subassociation representatives to vote as they want with the unreturned proxies, is that allowable?? There is nothing about this in Robert's Rules (except 1 vote for all, nothing about representative voting), and HOA state laws don't say anything. I'm not asking for a legal opinion, just if anyone here has a similar setup, and if there have been challenges. Thanks

JanetB2 (Colorado)
Posts: 4,219

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By GerryW1 on 07/17/2018 1:08 PM
Hi. Our ancient bylaws for our planned community created voting members for the various subassociations which make up the master association. 1 Voting member for each, some condos, some homes. There is a line in the bylaws (regarding voting matters, including special assessments and amendments) which states (summarized): The Voting member will cast votes as directed in the returned proxies. All other votes may be cast as the voting member deems appropriate. I've been trying to find information about this. In California and a few other places, they call it representational voting. Apparently, unreturned or abstained votes can be used one of 3 ways by a voting representative (1-no use, 2-proportional to other received votes, 3- as the voting representative wants). I understand the logic to this- More often than not related to apathy, it may be impossible to get the mandated 75% vote to impose an important special assessment, or change a law, and one would hope this would expedite passing a much needed item. But there is potential for abuse. My question is: If the founding bylaws allow the subassociation representatives to vote as they want with the unreturned proxies, is that allowable?? There is nothing about this in Robert's Rules (except 1 vote for all, nothing about representative voting), and HOA state laws don't say anything. I'm not asking for a legal opinion, just if anyone here has a similar setup, and if there have been challenges. Thanks

Hi Gerry ... Welcome to the Forum.

It is essentially considered “Proxy Votes”. Keep in mind some proxy votes can have stated the issue and the Owner will note on the proxy how they want that proxy vote to be given. Other proxies can be more open ended ... whereby the individual with the proxy can vote as they deem appropriate on behalf of the owner. Potentially it could be determined by the type of proxy an owner gives to another individual. If they really trust that individual they may give them a more open proxy and if they do not they may limit the proxy to vote one way on a specific item and then open on all other votes.

This also will depend on what your State Statutes allow. There are times where the State Statute can supersede what is stated in your governing documents. Some states will have specific guidelines with regards to proxy votes.