Best way to promote electronic voting & what voting lenght should be?

You need to make sure electronic voting is legal in your state. It also should be written in your rules that electronic voting is allowed. I would suggest make sure to check with the lawyer about that process.

It doesn't have to be in your rules, as many HOA's do not update their docs when state law has been changed.

We’re doing electronic (Ie, online) voting for the 2nd year in a row. We’ve got one week for nominations, then two weeks for voting, followed immediately by the annual meeting. IMHO, the schedule is a bit rushed, but it’s workable.

The system that we’re using relies upon our HOA/PMC having a database of homeowner email addresses: Each homeowner will receive an email - in fact, probably several emails over the course of two weeks - encouraging them to vote by clicking on a URL embedded in the email. The homeowner will be taken to a website where their vote will be taken. I do not know but I strongly suspect that most voting happens pretty much immediately upon receiving the email. Or at the last minute ala “Hey, did you remember to vote? Today’s the last day.”

Last year - with no promotional gift cards or yadda yadda - we got about a 33% turnout, which was one of the highest in memory.

BillD

Put a big dues increase on the ballot and tell homeowners the Board will make the decision based on the vote. You'll get tons of people voting then!

thanks I am aware of that stuff, my question was not about that. it was about how to get a good turn out. I'd like to stick to the question thanks.

thanks, I've thought about going door to door to get email and cell numbers with carrier company info. that way we can txt or email everyone, but afraid I wont' have time since I am traveling a lot during the summer. any reason you think your turnout was soo good? I'd be happy with 33% turn out.

JohnC asks good questions, Thank. Quorum in my HOA is 25% of all units.

For owners w/o email, send or drop off a flyer.

WHY is the association taking legal advice from the management company's attorney????

you sure do like to get off topic, start your own thread about where to get legal advice from, then. this group has major issues with staying on topic, it's like I open pandoras box of critical side questions every time I post.

thank you.

Bill and Steve have great ideas, but remember, NOTHING is guaranteed. If you have homeowners who don't care about HOA issues of any sort, it won't matter what you do. Nite best to try those suggestions first and see how it goes. Hooefully, you have an option for people who prefer the old fashioned balloting or showing up at the meeting and casting their vote in person.

You mentioned using tablets and going door to door - the vote is supposed to be confidential,so you'd have to set the tablet to where it's on the voting page so people can vote without someone looking over their shoulder and then reset it for the next voter. I suggest having two three available for people who attend in person so the line moves relatively quickly.

All of that said, I think Melissa and Max have a point, even if you think its off topic. Your state law concerning HOA voting CAN make a difference, not to mention your documents (have you even looked at them to see if this style would be permitted?).

And why are you asking the property manager's attorney - he or she doesn't work for you and you don't know how the question was phrased, so the attorney may have been thinking of something entirely different. What will you do if someone sues over this and your response is "well, our property manager asked his/her attorney, who said it was ok."

The reason some of us ask detailed questions like this is because we've learned nothing is totally simple in HOA land - and in a few cases, that lesson was taught the hard way. You said in another conversation that you're new to the board, and there's nothing wrong with trying new things, but first you have to consider how things work so you can identify what needs to be changed. I don't know if you've even discussed this with your colleagues - you're only one vote after all, and all of them could decide this is too complicated for whatever reason and skip the whole thing. that doesn't mean they're "losers" (you used that word in your conversation about establishing rules for the board.)

So go ahead and try this - if it works, great. If not, try something else. It's good to bounce ideas off this website and you can accept, some, or all of what you read. But don't get huffy if someone makes a suggestion you don't agree with, saying it's off topic. This is not an amen corner.

Feel free to ignore all of the above.

PS - if love to see the Cubs or White Sox win the series, but alas, I have a feeling I'll have to be happy they got it done at least once in my lifetime

Or the Yankees...

trolls like to talk about baseball I guess. go ahead show how immature you can be.
It's not just this post, it's every single post someone has to chime in and ask if I've done my homework on the subject, with no substance or history or personal story to back it up. Just throwing it out there, do you know what the hell you are doing?, gets patronizing after a while.

Well said.

We like the forum as it is. The admins are great. Sorry you want to know it all and then tell us our knowledge is not worthy. Move on.

I still do not see how using a tablet equals electronic voting ... And why the MC attorney?

The admins do post when it's important.

Thanks, Bill. I, too, thought Thad meant online voting.

What actual service/website or procedure are you using to collect the votes? Just a direct email? Surveymonkey?