Scriveners Error?

You really want on a board you consider subject to moral and ethical issues? Then fight it. If not, let it go and wait for the next election period. I can see accidently using the wrong dated form. Especially in HOA's. I wouldn't let a 2016 date worry that much. One place I worked they insisted we used "Procedures" that hadn't been updated since 2012!

Per Black's Law Dictionary, Scrivener = A writer, scribe, conveyancer. One whose occupation is to draw contracts, write deeds and mortgages, and prepare other species of written instruments.

So, mistakenly using 2016 on a 2018 ballot could be a scrivener's error. Scrivener's errors are excusable if not intended to deceive.

If you missed the statutory limit for making a challenge, hard but not impossible to overcome. Would have to show some delay in the process that made it near impossible to you to make your claim on time.

Other option, a lot harder, is to try to remove those improperly voted in. If you can get enough votes to recall someone who got in, then you can reverse the effect of the vote but not overturn it.

Of concern to me is:

- You say nothing about the use of proxies
- From the list of attendees, you should have been able to figure out how many votes that should account for. How many votes allowable from the 73 attendees?
- What do you mean by deliberately not provided to me? No reason to withhold ballots once the election is over. BTW, this could be a partial justification for your late filing. But can't say for sure.
- How do you know that there was an extra 24 votes?

Anthony
I'm still trying to understand.
1. You're saying that you were 2 days late but they were late too. Their lateness does not affect your lateness. If you had 20 days after access to info, then you had 20 days.
2. If only in person voting was allowed, and if you could see all the ballots (I don't understand why any should have been withheld), then you should have been able to match up the actual votes to the sign in sheet - Unless, of course, you had blind voting. Did you try to match up the ballots to the signup sheet?
3. If two people from one household signed in - That's 2 bodies but only one vote. If you had a list of owners to work from, you could have matched things up so you wouldn't have to guess. So, it's difficult from what you are saying to tell how many households were represented in person.
4. I don't understand why you only received 49 ballots. If 73 were cast, you should have been able to see all of them. Especially where you lost by only 7 of them.

Leaving the room and returning some time later with additional ballots is enough to taint the entire election. There are any number of DBPR arbitration decisions that make that a no-brainer.

I assume you're in a mandatory HOA under FS 720 because if you're in a condo association there are explicit rules that must be followed for an election. The HOA election "laws" are much looser and depend almost entirely on your Bylaws.


You probably would have prevailed in an arbitration proceding. You missed the deadline for challenging the election so everything else is moot.

The wrong year on the ballots wouldn't be necessarily fatal to the election. Failure to provide you with all ballots is likely not excusable. You may still have a "failure to provide access to the official records" claim. There's rarely a valid excuse to withhold any official records.

What were they claiming was scrivener's error? The wrong date? Like I said, that's probably not fatal to the election. The president taking the ballots in hand and leaving the room to "get more ballots" right away destroys the integrity of the election. I'm not a lawyer but have reviewed dozens of DBPR arbitration cases re. HOA elections. Once the "leave and return with ballots" had been confirmed the arbitration most likely would have concluded with no need to consider anything else since the justification for a new election would have been already apparent.

Various articles online about challenging an HOA election in Florida emphasaize the need to move quickly. You only have 60 days to challenge it and, as you've seen, if you need to do an official records request that alone can eat up a couple of weeks. If there was corroboration that the president left the room with the ballots then you didn't even need the election materials because they were superfluous in the face of the ballots leaving the room.

AnthonyS5, what do you want to get from a challenge: a board seat, or voiding acts done by an illegally-elected board?

The election can be challenged. I don't know if challenging the election as void or whatever would work, but you have enough here to make an issue of. A savvy lawyer could make issues from this. Maybe not winning issues, but enough to bring the board to the table to negotiate, perhaps, but you should have a clear list of your desired outcomes here.

All I want is a fair elective process. This particular board for several years has had thei fair share of improprieties. There are many issues and many unhappy owners, but each year the board members keep getting back in. We can't get enough to show up and vote them out. I will consider another run this year, but it will be hard for sure. Thanks everyone for the input. Have an appointment with an Attorney this week.

Also, AnthonyS5: usually the law and the HOA's governing documents let owners call their own meeting to vote on directors. You can get the attorney to prepare the paperwork to do that. Start now and gather written, legal approvals from enough owners to call a meeting and an election, your way. You can then hold the election the right way, even if the board won't.