write ins for board elections

Our governing documents state that nominations for elected members to the board of directors shall be made by a nominating committee. Nominations may also be made from the floor at the annual meeting. the documents then further describe how the nominating committee places those members in nomination.

The documents are completely silent on write in votes. The state law on not for profit corporations is also completely silent on the issue.

Question: Under these circumstances would write in votes for board members be legitimate votes to be counted?

Also, our proxy/ballot includes a space for write ins. Is this proper under these circumstances?

I'll guess that "floor nomination" == "write-in vote". Although finding a source that actually comes right out and says that might be challenging.

It makes sense that the ballot has a space for "write-ins" - if a person gets nominated from the floor, how else are people going to vote for them?

Further, I'm going to guess that you're wondering about the case where you have your annual meeting, there are no nominations from the floor - but the majority of voters have previously decided by word of mouth or telepathy or email that "Slippery" James Bolivar DiGriz is their choice for the Board, and lo! When the ballots are counted, Mr. DiGriz has a clear majority of votes.

My final speculation for the day: my guess in that case - given that Mr. DiGriz is a real person and a valid candidate - is that whoever is running the election will ask Mr. DiGriz if he is willing to serve. And if he says "yes", then The People's Will Be Done.

All of that said, the law can be really weird - remember the ending of the Paul Newman movie The Verdict? The evil lawyers who were not Paul Newman pulled out some dusty technicality and the judge agreed - so maybe the scenario I outlined above is a non-starter. However, again referencing The Verdict: the jury quite obviously thought that the technicality was BS and so Paul Newman and his client were awarded some huge amount of $$$. How would such a situation play out in the context of a HOA BoD election? I've done too much guessing here, I'll spare you.

Bill

SheliaH

Thanks for the response.

In our case, we send a 60 notice of the membership meeting and include a call for candidates (nomination form)for those wishing to nominate themselves or someone else. The nomination form is due approximately 30 days prior to the meeting. Our nominating committee the reviews the candidates to ensure they are eligible to serve on the Board, normally in good standing, assessments paid and no outstanding fines or violations. Once verified, the committee notifies the management company that they are placing the names into nomination.

Again, by the requirements of our documents, nominations for elected members to the Board shall be made by a nominating committee, or a nomination can be made from the floor. Not trying to be argumentative, but I cannot see how a write in satisfies either of those criteria.

Thanks for listening.

Bill
I say because your ballot/proxy has spaces for write-ins then they are nominated.

The very beginning of our bylaws states that meetings will be conducted IAW the current edition of Robert's Rules of Order. The copy I have even includes an entire section on HOA's.

We allow nominations from the floor and include a place on the ballots containing the Board nominees for voters to enter the name(s) of anyone nominated from the floor.

The one on my iPad is Websters's New World Robert's Rules of Order Simplified and Applied Second Edition published by Wiley Publishing Inc.

My hard copy may be an earlier version, but it is at our condo not available to me at this time since it is in a different city.

Don't know about your hard copy, but the copy I have on my iPad isn't nearly that long.

Do your bylaws state that all meetings must be conducted with Robert's Rules, MikeB? Or just meetings of the members (owners)?

Your bylaws specify different kinds of meetings, e.g., board meetings, special meeting of the board, members meetings, which usually means the annual meeting and elections. Are you saying your bylaws don't hire Robert's for some kinds of meetings, but not others?

Under the Article covering the actions of the BOD.

Conduct of other meetings covered in specific articles of the bylaws.