elections

Does anyone have election rules, other than those stated in the bylaws.
We have our annual meeting coming up and as usual we have no one coming forward to be on the board.
Every year people get nominated at the meeting and either accept or decline.
Therefore we have no names on our ballots or time to check on these persons qualifications.

Just wondering if this is the way it is for most HOA's or is it just us.
Then owners ask about their proxies and all we can say is you are giving the person who holds your proxy the right to vote for any candidates nominated at the meeting in your place.
this year we have 4 open positions due due a death and a resignation.

"Therefore we have no names on our ballots or time to check on these persons qualifications."

Are you saying that you actually do have people willing to run for an open seat but you don't put them up for election because you don't have time to check them out?

As our Bylaws allow nominations from the floor, all we can really do is announce how many BOD vacancies will exist with the Annual Meeting notice.

Our MC runs our election during the Annual Meeting thus they are able to verify one's eligibility on the spot. It seems to me a Treasurer could do the verification as they should have a list of delinquent owners. Only once have we had to take a candidate aside and quietly tell them that due to unpaid dues they were not eligible to run. They politely withdrew.

Only once have we ever had enough candidates running for the open slots to have an election so we usually end up going begging for someone to be on the BOD. We have been known to "cook" this some by ahead of time asking individuals to announce if not enough candidates announce will you announce?. It is usually someone that says well I will get on the BOD if I can help you out but I am not going to run. You would be surprised how many people feel like this.

We have almost none. The Bylaws say homeowners may vote in person or by proxy and that's literally it. Should have been amended decades ago.

We are a condo HOA
Not professionally managed
56 units.
I am the Board Secretary and only one not up for election this year.

ot really qualifications, guess I worded that wrong.
We would like to know if they have any particular skills or interests.

If we do have someone come forward we ask them to address the meeting stating why they are interested in being on the board.

Can't have mail-in ballots without language in the Bylaws. Can't have anonymous ballots without language in the Bylaws. Can't disallow nominations from the flooor without language in the Bylaws. Can't have electronic voting without language in the Bylaws (this is relatively new). Things left up to happenstance are Voting Certificates, sign-in sheets, arbitrary deadlines for a member to declare his or her intent to be a candidate in the election, no procedure for appointing a tally committee to count votes, no requirement to count the ballots in open view of the members, etc.

In a Florida condo there are detailed election procedures that must be followed. In an HOA, however, FS 720.306(9)(a), only says:

"Elections of directors must be conducted in accordance with the procedures set forth in the governing documents of the association."

There's nothing right about what's in our Bylaws when it comes to electing Directors. There's nothing in our documents that even provides for how long a term is for someone elected to the board. We've been using 2-year terms for at least 15 years but you won't find that number in any of our governing documents.

In my state the statutes cover many of these. We must allow mail in and electronic. Doesn't matter what the documents say.

sounds exactly like our association. We are also 56 units, self managed. We ask for months before the annual meeting if anyone wants to run and ask them to contact the board.
In 5 years that I've been here no one has ever come forth. This year we were lucky. Everyone up for election wanted to run again so we just did a verbal vote with one dissenting vote. they wanted more diversity on the board, but of course were unwilling to run themselves.
Next year we know our current treasurer won't run again. Then we will be in the same boat as you.
If someone doesn't come forward we tell the members we will have to go to a management company and dues will need to rise probably 20% to cover the cost. Then someone finally agrees to run.

Thankfully we finally have a good group and things are running well. Members are happy deferred maintenance is finally being done. We also had a presentation at our annual meeting from a reserve study company and the members actually feel after 20 years that yes we should have one done.

Previous boards just wanted to keep our dues low and until some of the current board was elected, they never thought about the fact our roofs are 20 years old, even though both our account and and attorney told them for years to have one done.

So don't get discouraged. Talk to your neighbors and recruit the good ones. Sometimes it takes a couple years to convince someone they can do the job.
Your situation is not unique. Many associations don't have names to put on ballots before hand