Voting confusion re. proxy and written ballot

For years our small condo association of 20 units has had an annual meeting where we elect board members and approved the proposed budget. Our Bylaws state that "the members may review and modify the proposed budget prior to the Board of Directors issuance of any assessments. So normally after group discussion at the meeting the members then vote on whether or not to approve the budget. The voting has always taken in person at the meeting and by proxy.

The situation I don't understand is that the newly elected board from last year has now sent out to us a "written" ballot rather than proxies and is also telling us that we must vote on the new Board and also on the proposed budget now and send the ballot back a week before our annual meeting. They also said that there will be NO voting at the meeting itself. This is certainly odd for us in that we are used to using proxies and having our questions answered and some clarification made on the new proposed budget before we vote on its approval.

Our Bylaws say under the heading "Annual Election of Officers/Directors, that "Officers of the Association shall be elected annually by the Members, at their annual meeting, or by written ballot in lieu of the annual meeting. And under the heading, "Vote by Written Ballot" it says “votes may be taken by written ballot in lieu of the annual meeting unless one-third (⅓) of the Members object in writing to the ballot and request that the annual meeting actually be held”.

With this information can anyone answer me if we have to blindly vote early like this without having any budget discussion or questions answered beforehand like we normally had at the actual annual meeting?

Thank You

I agreeing with Elle's reply...so far. Need a little more info.

In your documents, probably your Bylaws, how is "written ballots" defined? How are they supposed to be delivered to the Assoc.? To whom? How must they be tabulated? By whom? May owners watch the tabulation?

Are there by chance any elaborations in Wisc. nonprofit Corps Code? Or are there Wisc. HOA statutes?

Oops I forgot to add, the State Statues say nothing about voting and the Non-Stock Corporation just talks about the right to vote by proxy.

Oops; add this important qualifier on amendments to bylaws, from the Wi nonstock corporation statute:
181.1022 Class voting by members on amendments of bylaws.
(1) WHEN CLASS ENTITLED TO VOTE. The members of a class in a corporation are entitled to vote as a class on a proposed amendment to the bylaws if the amendment does any of the following:
(a) Affects the rights, privileges, preferences, restrictions or conditions of that class as to voting, dissolution, redemption or transfer of memberships in a manner different than such amendment would affect another class.
(b) Changes the rights, privileges, preferences, restrictions or conditions of that class as to voting, dissolution, redemption or transfer by changing the rights, privileges, preferences, restrictions or conditions of another class.
[snippage]

See https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/181.pdf

In other words, the OP's board had better not get cute about its power to amend bylaws pertaining to owners' voting rights.

First again I'd like to thank everyone for helping me to understand what our rights as members are. As far as what do our Bylaws say about amending Bylaws, this is what is written:

Section 6.2 Review of Budget. "The members may review and modify the proposed budget prior to the Board of Directors issuance of any assessments.

Section 6.3 Votes on Other Matters. "The members shall vote on amendments to these Bylaws and the Declaration and on such other matters as may from time to time be requested by the Board of Directors"

The written ballot that was sent to us also stated that if we don't return it by the deadline (7 days before annual meeting) our votes will not count.
We also just received a email yesterday saying he wanted to make it clear that there will be no voting taking place at the meeting. In our 15 years of existence we have never had our election and budget approval done is this way so a couple of us are baffled at this.

All feedback is very helpful. Thank you