NOMINATIONS FROM THE FLOOR

The bylaws of our condo association in ski country in Utah state that the election of officers shall be by secret ballot. Our practice is to mail to the qualified unit owners of record, a ballot, a blank envelope, and a return stamped, addressed envelope marked "BALLOT". The outside of the "BALLOT" envelope has a space for the signature and unit number of the owner. The ballot is then marked, placed in the blank envelope, and placed in the "BALLOT" envelope and returned to the secretary.
At the annual meeting, before the "BALLOT" envelopes are opened, a call for nominations from the floor is made. If any floor nominations are made, and anyone present wishes to change their vote in light of the new floor nominations, their "BALLOT" envelope is destroyed and a new one issued.
The "BALLOT" envelopes are then verified against the master list of qualified owners, opened, and then the blank envelopes opened and the votes tabulated.
My question is if a member present is representing an absent owner as their proxy designee, do they have the option to change the original ballot choice or choices of the absentee owner who has previously voted by the original secret ballot?

TomW

NancyD1,

I too have been at election meetings where someone is nominated from the floor. The purpose of doing that is way beyond me because by then, if Proxies are allowed, they are already filled out
We also do a "Meet the Candidates Night" All who are interested in running are allowed 3 minutes for their reasons why they are running. We also ask for any nominations from the floor but like I said, I don't know why. Then we open the floor up to questioning of those candidates.
And as you said, chances of the entire membership being present with the ability to change their votes is probably zero.
An association of which I have a rental, has removed proxy use entirely from it's Docs because of election time misuse. Someone holding several proxies voted in a very unworthy candidate onto the Board and there was a huge amount of infighting for his tenure. Now, everyone has to be more proactive and at least mail in votes on items to ensure a quorum is obtained. So far, so good.

Need an opinion on noms from the floor. If our Bylaws provide that self nominations for the BOD "may" be made from the floor at the annual meeting; however, we receive a mail-in ballot advising that the election will be done by mail (and per our bylaws voting by mail "may" be done, also) with a cutoff date to receive the ballots, does this mean nominations do not have to be accepted during the annual meeting?

Your advice is appreciated!

RobertR1,

Apologize for older posting inclusion, perhaps I don't understand the culture of this forum, but I've seen on numerous occasions where people post a brand new thread and are typically advised to go to "search" and review other similar threads. Not trying to be a PITA, just doing research on other posts as well and instead of starting a new post on a same subject, just added my comments to an older thread of same nature.

The annual meeting is in three weeks. The mail in ballot states cut off is two days prior to the annual. Four including myself self-nominated at the last BOD meeting and were included on the mail ballot. This action was prompted by a current BOD member who after a year has gotten several Members together just over the past couple of weeks to address a plethora of issues that indicate things are not being run to the bylaws and statutes. Yes, the year I have lived here I was among many that were content to just go along until someone asked for help and here I am now seeking yours.

I don't understand your reference to the canyon or alien force. One board member is spinning other Members up and we are realizing that there are others that have seen some of the problems that our small "watchdog" group of 5 have. I've tried to mediate with the current President, but the remaining BOD is disgusted and feels we are troublemakers in this little community. We've got 20 other issues we are researching with conflict of interest, an illegal 2009 election, potential misuse of funds, but I'm just trying to keep everyone focused and on track with getting through this 2010 election legally so we can get some good people on.

Thanks for your help.

KM,
I am afraid I have been no help since I had no iodea what was going on.

So lets start afresh and see if we can get started on the process.

It appears you have no working relationship with the board for whatever reason, note my reference in my post. This is wrong.

You say there is aboard member that is getting together a group of five. Do do what and includes ?

The board has accepted the self nomination of you and someone else?

Voting will be by regular mail? (What provisions have been made to secure the privacy of these votes and how will they be handled?

Any other cndidates for how many seats?

Is there any provisions for anyone assigning their vote to another person?

What specifies a legal election, numbers wise, how many have to vote?

Are write in votes covered by the election information you received?

Lot of questions arise here about procedures and process, it all should be according to your documents................no question.

If a member has cause to question the election, they should do so at the annual meeting and request their exception be noted in the minutes. They should specify their reason for objection. The President should recognize the motion, you should have a second on tap and it should be brought to the membership for discussion. If the President refuses to accept the motion and does not recognize the issue, you should stand up and call a point of order. All this is covered under Robert's rules. RRO is not a law document, is serves to provide direction and cares weight in a court of law, if the judge rules it relevant to the issue.

To me, it looks like you are headed for a confrontation and I offer this opinion. Make sure you and your group do not get down and wallow in the mud with anyone.............anyone. Voice your concerns under the rules of your HOA guidelines. Meeting day is not a do all, end all, it is going to be the sart of a process.

If the board is unfriendly, speak to the membership, make a good fair presentation, do not accuse or point fingers, raise questions and show concern, and know what you are talking about. If you go as a group pr are recognized as a group, let one or two do tho talking. You have three weeks getr get out the vote anyway you can, consoOnlidate your plans, select leaders and be ready. Do none of this behind closed doors, you all want to sit down to discuss strategy, open the door, be visible.
As always, pick and choose what you want from what I say, some idea will fit, some will not. My synopsis is no attempt to cover everthing and the more people you have fighting for the same cause, the more effective you will become.
This can be a start. One final thought, try your damnedest to get someone in your group that has knowledge of RRo or meetingg pocedures.Introduce him as a person versed in meeting protocal and rely on him to keep your group in bounds.

Thanks, RobertR. The current BOD member that got us together is stepping down after this year, and convinced four of us (up to 5 BOD members allowed and serve now) to self-nominate during a BOD meeting. It happened very quickly and fault myself for not understanding our bylaws first, which state self-noms MAY be accepted from floor at annual meeting. Maybe we were supposed to wait until then, but we were accepted and put on the mail ballot. Five were already nominated by the nominating committee (all other BOD members, and this selection process is not known to us). There were no write in's allowed on ballot, and no proxies. The wording of our bylaws state voting by mail MAY be used, and proxies MAY be counted. Since we received a mailed ballot and cut-off date to send in, I think this system is legit. We are trying to campaign and get members interested in having a change. We have around 84 homes and a quorum for meeting is 1/10th membership. I think one of the biggest issues is that the team i'm working with and I differ on opinion on what to focus on. I want to stick with the original plan of trying to ensure at least 3 of us get on that BOD of 5. Now they're saying the BOD was illegally elected (two or three of us realized we did not get any notice of election) and because of a compounded lack of trust for the BOD, the plan is changing to recall the BOD -- weeks before our new election! We don't know what to do - there is no trust and they simply want buy locks for the HOA office door (protect the "evidence" of the records we need to review) and let only a neutral property manager in to run the show until a legal election. Maybe I'm naive but I'm just concerned this may be going too far...