Texas hoa recount laws

"Member of the association': a property owner within the association

Seems like no home owner can be involved in the recount?

Just came from your conversation on the special homeowner meetings, and now here’s my take on the recount.

As Terri noted “member of the association” would be a homeowner, so if a recount was necessary, it should be done by someone who ISN’T a homeowner (helps prevent conflict of interest).

The rest of the state code seems pretty explanatory – if a homeowner or group of homeowners are requesting a recount of a homeowner vote, they and the association have to agree to appoint someone who is a current or former judge, elections administrator, justice of the peace or someone else who’s not an association member.

You said you’re using a HOA voting service for electronic voting. Until your post, I didn’t know there was a formal company (meaning you need to be careful about citing specific vendors because that’s against the posting rules of this website.)

Anyway, did anyone ask the company for more information on how it ensures the people who cast votes were entitled to do so and the numbers weren’t off balance? If someone wanted their records to be audited to ensure there wasn’t any trickery, that’s where you would start and the company should be able to tell you if the records could be turned over to, say, an independent accounting firm to certify the results. The cost for all this might depend on how many people cast votes in the first place, and if you’re the one requesting the recount, that would be on your dime or you could pass the hat among homeowners who feel as you do.

Before you take that step, you might want to start by considering why you feel a recount is necessary. If the homeowners took a vote and it didn’t turn in your favor, that’s something you may have to live with because people have a right to vote as they choose or not vote at all. If you didn’t get enough people to participate, even with the 1/10 requirement you cited in state law, that doesn’t necessarily mean there was a problem.

There have been several conversations on recalls and such, and all of them show how important it is to read your documents, consult your own attorney to ensure you take the right steps at the right time, get a group of people to help out (someone may think of something you didn't) - and plan your strategy. How do you get people to participate, what will you tell them to convince them to vote your way and then what will you do if you win? There's no point in going through all this if you end up with even more of a dumpster fire as before. Good luck in whatever you choose to do.

Thanks for the detailed response. Please remove/edit ref to e-voting company.

Here is the background:
The vote tabulation was not done correctly.
Tabulators were supposed to have access to the e-vote results(pdf) but were not provided access by the hoa attorney nor the management company. Tabulators were only allowed to tabulate proxy ballots and the management company would reject if the homeowner had also voted electronically.

The electronic voting deadline was 2 days before the annual meeting and proxies were accepted until midday of the meeting.

So after tabulating the proxy votes, the management company and the attorney compiled the results on their own and declared the incumbents as winners.

However when declaring the results- the math did not add up.
Example: For sake of simplicity lets save we have 100 homeowners- 100 votes and 2 candidates

When the results were announced:
The attorney quoted say 50% of all voters voted- let's say 50% of 100 votes=50 votes came in. (This was from the e-voting report supposedly)

When they provided the individual vote counts for each candidate. They said 25 votes for losing candidate and 40 for winner. Lets say 2 were proxy. Total is 40+25+2 67 and not 50+2

The difference in this case from max votes possible(50+2) to what the total count per candidate(67) was the difference between the winner and loser. Was that a coincidence?

So the speculation is that the e-vote count may have been padded. No one except the attorney and management company had access to it.
Tabulators were only allowed to tabulate proxy ballots and the management

Candidates and homeowners would like to just see the e-vote tally per candidate and verify it. Can this be achieved without requesting a formal recount and the added expenses. All the hoa has to do is provide the official email report showing final tally and they seem reluctant to do this now.

Conflict of interest:
The current incumbents running for re-election and the attorney are buddies. Incumbents hired both attorney and management company. They refuse to sign the code of ethics.
The management company does what the board and attorney guide them to do. They have had a history of prior candidates suing but homeowners do not have deep pockets to get a jury trial and typically run out of funds.

Is recount the only option?