Ballot and Voting Requirements

Our association has two board openings and the ballots contain three candidates for these two positions. The Bylaws prohibit write in candidates and the ballot states that the homeowner must vote for two of the candidates for the two open positions or the homeowner's ballot will be invalid. Does anyone know if this requirement is permitted? We have a homeowner who only wants to vote for one of the three candidates.

If you're saying this homeowner only wants to vote for one candidate, I say that's his/her right. Simple math tells you the top two vote-getters will win anyway, so what's the point of tossing the entire ballot because someone voted for only one person? Even in a regular general election, you may find, say 20 people running for judge, but you can only vote for 10. Some people might say to themselves they don't know most of the candidates, so they vote for five. In one case, one candidate's name is Jack and he got the person's vote because his/her best friend is also named Jack.

Either the ballot contains a major typo with this statement or your board (or whoever prepared the ballot) is dumb as hell - or it's their version of voter suppression, and that homeowner needs to point out the top two vote-getters will win anyway, so it doesn't make a difference if he or she only chooses one. Has this homeowner spoken to the board - if not, why not? If you're on the board, YOU need to speak up against this nonsense. You don't have to reprint the ballots, just make an announcement that homeowners should only vote for one or two candidates, as they prefer.

And now you can see how politicians get these stupid ideas about preventing entire communities from voting - they're really afraid of the competition because they haven't done squat, so the only way they can win is to cheat.

It's the homeowner's "right" based on what?

You really need someone to tell you who's right or wrong on this issue??

You told us what the ballot says, but what do your DOCUMENTS say? The Bylaws dictate how the association is run, which usually address voting. What do they say about casting a ballot? I suspect they don't say you must vote for X number of candidates on a ballot, but could address things like the use of proxies, nominations, length of terms, etc. If the issue isn't addressed at all, you end up with a circular argument - tell me where the documents say X, no, YOU tell me where they don't.

Put another way, you are aware in general elections, all ballots must be counted, whether they're completed or not, correct?. This isn't the same as tossing a ballot because the person didn't sign it or an absentee ballot was returned after the deadline.. There are also protest votes where people will vote for candidates in other races, but skip others because they don't like any of the candidates - consider 2016, when 1.7 million people didn't vote for president.

If we're talking right or wrong, why don't YOU tell us where you stand? Do you think this ballot should be tossed because the homeowner only voted for one candidate instead of two? If so, what difference will that make in the outcome?

This is a private HOA, not a public general election. The Bylaws say no write in candidates but are silent on how many candidates a homeowner must include on a ballot, although the ballot is clear.

I do not have a dog in this fight so I do not have an opinion, which is why I put this out here on this site. Isn't that what HOAtalk is for?

I have never heard of requiring one to "completely" fill a ballot out. Neither in public nor an HOA. I say voting for only one is just fine.