Making Tally of votes hoa board election public

I tried looking on treads before posting but there are no current ones on this topic....

I am the president of a small hoa board in Pennsylvania Last week we had our. board election and annual meeting. . It was the first time in many years there were three seats and four candidates

After the election I asked our PM for the tally of votes for each candidate but she said she would not give out this information. I won but still want to see the final tally. Two board members who were not running went into another room to count them with the PM and then she.came out
and announced the results by our names and terms.

Should this info be made available to homeowners and board members who want to see the tally results? I tried searching pa condo law and our gov docs but it is not addressed.

Thank you.

If not addressed anywhere, I say put it up for a Board decision at your next meeting and then do whatever is agreed. If there's an actual reason to keep the tally a secret, then PM rep should explain so the Board can consider it when they decide. And PM should then do whatever the Board directs in regard to tallying and making the results available . . . at that point, it's not up to the PM.

I can't think of any reason that the tally should not be made available to anyone who asks. The tally could even be placed in the meeting minutes for the annual meeting, so the question doesn't even have to be asked or answered . . . would help to legitimize the results of the election a bit as well.

Why were the counts not conducted in the open in front of the all the owners in attendance, and WHY did the board secretary fail to do their job?
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Your PM needs to hand over those records PRONTO, you are entitled to them as those records belong to the association not the PM. The tally for us is read at the meeting and recorded as official record, they are not published in the newsletter, but are made available to anyone that asks.

The pm said that she and the secretary with one other board member would count the votes. She came back after open discussion and announced the 3. Year terms and 2 year term and thanked the board member who lost for her time on the board. She said the votes were close and that is all she said. This was the first year we didn’t have our board attorney at the meeting.

That's absurd. Fire the PM.

The OP said she was the President. If so, the BOD needs a "come to jesus" meeting with the PM.

I will ask my board when I see her. I didn’t want to put it in a text or email. I only speak to the other board member at meetings. He was hoping I wouldn’t be re-elected. Lol.

Everything should be done to protect the secrecy of the voter. It sounds like there was adequate protection of the ballots and accuracy of the counting. This need not become an issue unless the vote is disputed.

A lot depends on a particular's states laws. In Florida all election materials, including ballots, have to be retained for 1 year and be made available for inspection to the owners. Florida HOA law does not mandate secret ballots. If the HOA's bylaws or election procedures allow for anonymous ballots then they can be used, but they're not required in an HOA. Condos are different since the statute spells out exactly how to conduct an election.

There was one case where a couple of homeowners voted in an "anonymous" election and signed their ballots. The board decided not to count those ballots. The voters challenged the election results (those 2 votes would have changed the outcome) arbitrator ruled that the voters' will was paramount and since the signatures did not violate that, the ballots were valid and should still be counted even though printed instructions on the ballots said, "Do not sign your ballot". Additionally, the arbitrator ruled that in an election, any anonymity was for the benefit of the homeowners and they were entitled to waive that anonymity.