Florida HOA 720 Electronic Voting: Email???

I would personally disagree that everything in the statute can be done via email ... LOL the sections below in BOLD cannot be done via email!!. But some will depend on what your Governing Documents state:

(9) ELECTIONS AND BOARD VACANCIES.—

(a) Elections of directors must be conducted in accordance with the procedures set forth in the governing documents of the association. Except as provided in paragraph (b), all members of the association are eligible to serve on the board of directors, and a member may nominate himself or herself as a candidate for the board at a meeting where the election is to be held; provided, however, that if the election process allows candidates to be nominated in advance of the meeting, the association is not required to allow nominations at the meeting. An election is not required unless more candidates are nominated than vacancies exist. If an election is not required because there are either an equal number or fewer qualified candidates than vacancies exist, and if nominations from the floor are not required pursuant to this section or the bylaws, write-in nominations are not permitted and such qualified candidates shall commence service on the board of directors, regardless of whether a quorum is attained at the annual meeting. Except as otherwise provided in the governing documents, boards of directors must be elected by a plurality of the votes cast by eligible voters. Any challenge to the election process must be commenced within 60 days after the election results are announced.

(b) A person who is delinquent in the payment of any fee, fine, or other monetary obligation to the association on the day that he or she could last nominate himself or herself or be nominated for the board may not seek election to the board, and his or her name shall not be listed on the ballot. A person serving as a board member who becomes more than 90 days delinquent in the payment of any fee, fine, or other monetary obligation to the association shall be deemed to have abandoned his or her seat on the board, creating a vacancy on the board to be filled according to law. For purposes of this paragraph, the term “any fee, fine, or other monetary obligation” means any delinquency to the association with respect to any parcel. A person who has been convicted of any felony in this state or in a United States District or Territorial Court, or has been convicted of any offense in another jurisdiction which would be considered a felony if committed in this state, may not seek election to the board and is not eligible for board membership unless such felon’s civil rights have been restored for at least 5 years as of the date on which such person seeks election to the board. The validity of any action by the board is not affected if it is later determined that a person was ineligible to seek election to the board or that a member of the board is ineligible for board membership.

(c) Any election dispute between a member and an association must be submitted to mandatory binding arbitration with the division. Such proceedings must be conducted in the manner provided by s. 718.1255 and the procedural rules adopted by the division. Unless otherwise provided in the bylaws, any vacancy occurring on the board before the expiration of a term may be filled by an affirmative vote of the majority of the remaining directors, even if the remaining directors constitute less than a quorum, or by the sole remaining director. In the alternative, a board may hold an election to fill the vacancy, in which case the election procedures must conform to the requirements of the governing documents. Unless otherwise provided in the bylaws, a board member appointed or elected under this section is appointed for the unexpired term of the seat being filled. Filling vacancies created by recall is governed by s. 720.303(10) and rules adopted by the division.

LOL ...

Your President needs to provide proof of:

1.) Do your governing documents currently allow internet voting ... If not then the DOCUMENTS need to be changed!!! Sorry ... a membership vote to allow for electronic voting does not change your Governing Documents and would make any such voting potentially illegal.

2.) How is a member to be able to nominate himself or herself as a candidate for the board at a meeting where the election is to be held if there is no meeting??? Unless your Governing Documents allow candidates to be nominated in advance of the meeting this item could be an issue.

3.) And yes we cannot forget the all important QUORUM noted in virtually ALL State Statutes including Florida. Hmmm ... so how is a quorum established via email voting???

If the President does not meet your governing documents or State Statutes regarding your election then follow (c) above and submit to the Florida HOA division for arbitration and as noted under 718.1255.

Toni I admit I only skimmed your state law (720) but agree with you. The requirements for authentication alone seems to invalidate mere email voting.

I take it your community is very small with only a gate and road. I have lived in some "microscopic" HOA's (less than 15 houses) that were VERY informal.

Small HOA. Informal. And I get that. And this voting issue is just only one many.

My prior experience is why I should not be on this board. My husband and I moved to this new community in 2019, but have been members since we purchased what was vacant property in 2017. We lived in our prior community for 26 years. It was a private community of 257 homes. My husband served on the transition team when the developer was turning over the HOA to it's members. I served for four years during the late 90's. And then in 2014 when HOA members became concerned about the operation of the HOA by the BOD serving at that time, I successfully led a recall. Following the recall I served as President. As a board we always, as should be, collaborated on all HOA business. We followed our ByLaws, Declaration and Statute. By the time we put our home up for sale, we were totally burned out with HOA's.

Whereas we would love to have nothing to do with an HOA, unless we live on several acres and distance ourselves from our neighbors, we want an HOA to protect our property values. This small community has an HOA, but because it's small, it seems everyone has to serve on the board at some time. Now I do have to say, a few neighbors never come to meetings and are rarely sighted. Smart people! They keep their distance! Yet, we want to be involved and be friendly neighbors. Thus, it means serving our time. YUK!

Anyway, I intend to serve my time, but then intend to step back and not get involved. I know too much to be involved. :-)

Unless you are a board of only two, can you get the other director(s) to vote with you against the prez?? Why does the prez have so much power?

Toni, I empathize with you having been in a small HOA myself a few times. I actually eventually resigned from one of those boards due to the discomfort of it all, retreating to my own home and prepared to pick my battles which I never had to fight because I suspect the remaining board members realized they were suddenly holding the reigns of responsibility all by themselves (all others had resigned as well).

Just a comment. I find it interesting that your By Laws and/or neighbors allow multiple owners from the same home to serve on the board simultaneously (Prez and VP). That's a lot of power at one address!

Then again, back to my earlier comment about the informality of very small HOA's

Best to you in your volunteer service to your community!

My last HOA was similar size regarding number of homes on lots varying from 2 acres to 6+ acres. It is harder on smaller HOA’s because yes everyone needs to be willing to take their turn serving to avoid a few people becoming burned out. We were lucky in that we generally had 100% participation for our annual meetings and voting requirements. Everyone serving in what ever capacity always backed up our decisions with proof of what was stated in our documents or state statutes, and everyone understood it was nothing personal regarding any issues as we were all just trying to follow the laws and CCR’s. I had one individual on ARC who I had to remind that you must treat everyone equally and cannot make excuses for any certain neighbor or friend. He needed to understand there is a fine line between HOA business and friendship and to be sure to keep them separate.

The communication via email is not problem. To vote whether the community would like to hold a BBQ next Saturday and everyone bring a dish isn't a problem. When it comes down to conducting HOA business, there are laws that govern such. The laws govern all associations regardless of it's size. As far as little chance of cheating... and I do not in any way believe that any cheating would take place in our association, I do strongly believe that if the legislature had any reason to believe that voting would take place via email, it would require a clear exclusion in the statute. One of the biggest reasons legislatures took up the governing of HOAs were the problems of boards running amok. I firmly believe they would not approve of a board member conducting association votes via his/her own email program.

But if this association wants to conduct business in such a manner, that is fine. However, I am not willing to participate.

It definitely is not suitable.

I agree. The OP is making it difficult.

I see that you have many postings under your belt so I will assume you have some good experience in HOAs. Why is this an issue? There is this thing in Florida called Florida Statute 720 that regulates HOAs, and that includes my HOA. Yes, I get it. Some people, some HOAs have no problem with disregarding rules and laws. But for some reason... I like to follow them. That's about all I can say.

Thank you. Yes, I served several years in my prior HOA and would love to have nothing to do with this one. But it is small, so I'm trying to do my part. And I agree with you. Business and friendship needs to stay separate. I'm trying my best to do just that! :-)