what checks and balances are available to owners

Hi, with the upcoming annual election for the open board seats, I am trying to determine what owners can do to ensure the election results are legitimate.

85% of annual elections in our associations history are board members elected by acclimation. The number of people running, is the number of seats open.

The times when there were contested elections , the person who serves as advisor to the board( and also owns the management company which we hire to just handle the bookkeeping for owners accounts, bill paying and financial document preparation) the process was very orderly. All owners would show up to the election, they would sign in and once verified they would be given a ballot. Owner s that held proxies for absent owners would present those proxies at check-in. The person checking in would verify the proxy and then hand a ballot for that proxy to the proxy holder.

After everyone checked in , and all proxies were exchanged for ballots. All present filled out the ballots and turned them in. The ballots themselves did not contain owner names.

This was to ensure some level of privacy and any accusations of tampering. Ok, that's how it is supposed to work.

Remember, most elections have always been pretty much by acclimation. Every contested election I have attended was held using the process I describe above.

This years election is contested. there are 8 candidates and only 4 seats were put up for vote.

The recalled election is going to take place during a regular board meeting. All of the board members are only attending meetings by zoom now. Even the annaul meeting , not a single board member showed up.

My question is this, the advisor who has in the past acted as the supposed neutral third party, is not neutral at all. He has repeatedly expressed his opinion at board meetings and in emails and at the Annual meeting last month, warning owners not to vote for me.

Is there anything in the governing statutes that require an independent tally of proxies and votes . I'm sure the board will claim the advisor is unbiased and he has always tally'd the votes in the past. (this actually isn't true, but whatever) I'm not being paranoid.It's happened before. Only discovered a year later when an owner went to court to get access to the ballots .(this was pre 2015) Myself and the other resident owners running for the 4 open seats are continuing to gather proxies. I want to do everything possible to make sure that the biased advisor does not get to check the proxies and and tabulate the votes himself.

last thing... the proxy's this year are directed proxies, so some owners did select the candidates of their choice. Some deferred to the proxy holder.

The advisor has all of the association owner names and email addresses . he verifies by the proxies by checking against that list. I also know, the proxies can be easily forged by anyone with access to the official email list and owner list.

i'm sorry, The annual owner meeting was originally scheduled for feb 16th. Feb 16, a quorum of owners was not present, thus the meeting was adjourned. The notices for the adjourned(my mistake ,,i used recalled previously)annual meeting at which the election of open board seats will occur is scheduled for march 16th.

March 16th is the date of the regularly scheduled monthly board meeting. So, what will occur is March 16th , the annual election of open board seats will occur. All those present at the adjourned annual election, in person or by proxy constitute a quorum. I.e. the election and voting to fill the board seats will occur march 16th.

Since the adjourned annual meeting of owners and election are occuring march 16th. I thought Owners also were participants.

does it make sense now.?

Does texas condominium association law or texas non profit law have any protections or requirements for the tallying of ballots.?

Basically, the current board will do everything it can get away with. However if I can find statute or something that dictates the requirement for owners to be able to observe and verify the tallying. Or maybe a requirement for some procedure to be followed, there are some current board members that will insist on following the statute.

Augustine, rogue boards are not a rare occurrence. I can't believe that the only way to ensure an annaul election vote is accurately counted and verified is for homeowners to sue. That's no protection at all. Everyone here always says,, wait til the elections and vote them out. WELL that's what we are attempting to do. How can I ensure the votes are tallied correctly.

You and/or a neighbor asks to view the counting.

I don't see that they can deny you or a representative from watching (not participating in) the checking off of the attendance list and the handing out of the ballots. Basically you or a representative would be poll watcher. I would request the right to do this in a polite but firm manner.

There's nothing to stop you from writing down who has sent in proxies and checking with those owners to see if their proxies were legitimate after the meeting (nothing you can do before the meeting except canvas the neighborhood and find out who is going to send in a proxy).

Since there are eight candidates for four seats, you may want to enlist some of the other candidates to be poll watchers also or to designate one person to represent all of you.

I like this. Especially if you and one or more other candidates come forward with an agreed-upon “poll-watcher” - some person of integrity from the community who agrees to the job - and respectfully request their presence to keep things honest. They might not like it - but they’d be hard-pressed to come up with a credible reason to say ‘no’.

BillD

... and furthermore TPC 82.1141 says:


Notwithstanding a provision in a dedicatory instrument, an association shall make the books and records of the association, including financial records, open to and reasonably available for examination by a unit owner, or a person designated in a writing signed by the unit owner as the unit owner's agent, attorney, or certified public accountant, in accordance with this section. A unit owner is entitled to obtain from the association copies of information contained in the books and records.


Write a draft of a letter that you could send to the board doing what Tim and Lori suggest, and I am sure folks here would be happy to edit it for you. You have sent enough letters that I think it's time to try a solo flight at this point. I think flying solo at this point is the only way to really learn.

LaskaS,

People running might, again not sure if applies to condominiums, have someone watch the vote counting:

I think this is from "Sec. 209.0058. BALLOTS."

(d) A property owners' association may adopt rules to allow voting by secret ballot by association members. The association must take measures to reasonably ensure that:

(1) a member cannot cast more votes than the member is eligible to cast in an election or vote;

(2) the association counts each vote cast by a member that the member is eligible to cast; and

(3) in any election for the board, each candidate may name one person to observe the counting of the ballots, provided that this does not entitle any observer to see the name of the person who cast any ballot, and that any disruptive observer may be removed.

roger 209 doesn't apply to condominiums, UNFORTUNATELY

This is so.

Thanks for setting Roger straight, re TPC 209 not applying to condos. Maybe you can set him straight on TPC 82 and TPC 81.

Everyone

Laska resides in a Texas Property Code Chapter 81 or 82 Condominium Association.

Section 209 of the Texas Property Code does not apply to the situations described under any circumstances, Section 209 applies to Homeowners Associations only.

You are correct, thank you. I assumed and I hate it when people do that.