CA Election timeline?

See www.davis-stirling.com/HOME/E/Elections-Menu: ELECTION TIMELINE CALCULATOR.

Sorry to say there is nothing “customary” about HOA elections in CA.

You must follow the CA Civil Code statutes about HOA elections. You also must follow your HOA’s “Elections Rules.” The requirements for Election Rules changed in 2020, so if yours weren’t updated then, you cannot have an election until 90 days after you amend them.

To correctly amend them, if needed, your Board really should get the HOA attorney’s advice & help. It is not a simple matter.

While not lawyers, your PM and/or MC certainly should know the above election calendar and whether your Election Rules re up to date.

It appears that ballots cannot be mailed to owners until about 2 months after the deadline to receive candidates’ applications.

JackieB4, so far from what you presented, I do not think ballots can be sent out such that the HOA is complying with the law.

If you fill in the blank for each of the following events (from https://www.davis-stirling.com/HOME/H/HOA-Election-Timeline), and to firm up some things in my head, I will offer further input.

-- Voting deadline is ____.

-- HOA sent notice of nomination procedures and deadline for nominations on ____.

-- HOA sent general notice (individual if requested) (a.k.a. "preballot notice") including the following on ____.
• Date, time, and physical address to mail or hand-deliver ballots to inspectors
• Date, time, and location of the ballot counting meeting
• List of candidates to appear on the ballots (a list of names of candidates, not the candidate registration list).

Right, Jackie, I did a quick 'n' dirty guess of dates last night and my "about 60 days" is off. In reality, it's about 6 weeks.

So I ran the Election Timeline using a fake Annual Mtg. & Election date of May 29. For that date, the calculator says the Nom. Deadline was 3/5. And the deadline to send ballots to owners is 4/24-4/29. (Must include Election Rules w/ballot or how to see them on a website.)

And you’re right, the annual meeting is one month after that, i.e., in my sample, May 29.

Since your Nom. Deadline was 3/22, the range of days to send out ballots is not till early May. Thus the annual meeting cannot be held until 30 days after the ballots are sent out, i.e., early June. At this time, the PM is not at all late in sending out ballots. BUT there is no reason why they cannot tell you the new Ann. Mtg. date. If THEY (the PM/MC) are incapable of calculating the election dates, you need a new MC.

Plug your actual dates into the Election Calculator for precise dates. The thing is, you need to plug in the annual meeting date. Pick, maybe, June 4???

It's a very good thing your Election Rules were updated in '20.* Read to see that you still want to appoint r inspectors of election. Because the election will be competitive, Unless your Rules only rapier one inspector of election, I suggest you pick 3 making sure they're all neutral. We've used own volunteers vs .paying outsiders. But our HOA attorney always attends the annual meting & lightly supervises the inspectors.

*What a nightmare that was--still on the Board then, I did most of the work and vetted by our HOA attorney.

ElleN, I forgot to mention our election applications had to be received by March 22, 2024.

I picked 5/29 solely as an arbitrary "fake date" to run the Calculator. I believe from what you've written, Jackie, that the Nom. Deadline was 3/22.

BUT, below seems to be the legally required step that hasn’t occurred yet. And I think you want to see this, right, Jackie, to know if your co-directors are seeking reelection.

If the below IS missing, IMO, you need to press really hard on the MC to supervise & help her PM to get this election on track.* This probably is in your contract with the MC as it is with ours. I know you and 2 good candidates are hoping you’ll defeat the two other incumbents. BUT, if you do and something was done illegally in this gawdawful CA election process, they might act to remove you 3.

Civil Code “§ 5115(b): “… at least 30 days before the ballots are distributed, send a … notice…including:
    • Date, time, and physical address to mail or hand-deliver ballots to inspectors
    • Date, time, and location of the ballot counting meeting
    • List of candidates to appear on the ballots.… "https://www.davis-stirling.com/HOME/H/HOA-Election-Timeline#axzz1PTf5VWST.

So, I’m thinking your HOA’s annual meeting cannot be held legally for another 60 days from when the above required notice is sent at MINIMUM! I know you really dislike paying your HOA attorney, but you might need them to get this mess straghtened out.

D-S.com shows a standard Ann.Mtg. agenda in CA, very similar to ours of many years and we can go into it a bit, combined with your Election Rules, once your Board colleagues & MC start proceeding legally. Do you feel, Jackie, that there might be a reason that the PM/MC is stalling getting this election underway???

* Even tho’ our Certified PM was fairly well-supervised by her MC, we had 2 years in a row that our HOA didn't take the right steps at the right time, which postponed the election for a few to several weeks. Our HOA attorney strongly urged us to NOT proceed illegally. I agree.

The way I see it is that we need more info about Jackie's HOA Election Rules. There will be deadlines Most of it will reflect Civ. 5100, the main election statute. Even if their Bylaws or rules state the Ann.mtg.should be in May, that can be ignored without anyone getting in trouble IF postponements must occur to comply with statutes.

The ElectionRules's are another burdensome state requirement and ours are 10+ pages long. I'd guess that Jackie's are 6-8 and she wrote they were updated in '20. I'm puzzled though why she's made no reference to them. And, yeah, also puzzled why the board didn't set an election date long ago.My HOA's election is in late October, and our board set the date and other things about it at the open Board meeting in March.

Kerry, our ships passed in the night-lol. Our HOA documents are the original 1986...so never updated. The 2020 mention was the updated Davis-Stirling Election timeline that is CA info.

Right, Jackie, the 2020 update was exactly what in state statue is called Election Rules. Do a close read to make sure your PM complies with them! Do recall that the PM works for the assoc./board. any errors they make are yours.

There should be 30 days from the owners' receipt of ballots until the annual meeting & election. So 5/15 is 30 days from today?

Yes, I recall your campaign plans and I liked them. You Know? there is no reason whatsoever why you three cannot hold a "Candidates Night. Door to door flyers too especially is most of your ownrs live on th premises.

Oh, but no meeting space, right? So....where do you hold your annual meeting? Once mail in ballots were approved in CA, in '06, our HOA never had trouble making quorum (which had been 25% of eligible units) What is quorum for your HOA's election of directors? Double check your election rules on the point.

Anyhoo---despite some non-compliance that I think I still see, e.g., the. nom. deadline was 3/22, the ballots should not have been sent till about early May--- y'all are gonna proceed as you wish.

I like this election calculator better than the one at D-S.com and it gives a little shorter time frame:
https://pro-ei.com/election-calculator/

The general consensus is it takes 105 days from start to finish to run an election in California. There are (3) separate requirements, each of which is a minimum of 30 days. Then you have to allow a couple of days for mailings, and don't forget, you can't print the ballots until after you receive the nominations - so how much time does it take to get the ballots printed as

Nomination Procedures Notice
Civil Code § 5115(a)
Requires a minimum of 30 days

Pre-Ballot Notice (also called the 60 day notice)
Requires a minimum of 30 days

Ballot Package
Civil Code § 5115(b):
Requires a minimum of 30 days

ElleN, yes .... PM + 2 Rogue Directors simply ignored my repeated requests for our annual meeting date. We learned it yesterday (May 15) when ballots arrived via mail.

This brings up again your Election Rules, Jackie. Ours state that the Board sets the date of the Annual Meeting & Election. This mens all three of you directors voting at an open board meeting. What do you say?

Geez, Me & my typos: My question t Jackie is: What do you election rules say about setting the date for the Annual Meeting & Election?

Drat, my mistake again. What, Jackie, do your Election Rules say about WHO sets the date of the Ann.Mtg. & Election??? Our ERs say the Board sets the date.

Our Bylaws indicate the date of the annual members meeting. 'On or About' the anniversary of the 1st annual meeting

But what do your Election Rules say, Riley? Even tho' then Bylaws specify an appx. dates, the board still must vote to set an exact date. I think I recall our old Bylaws amended 2022 said we need an election annually in October. but the new ones do not pin down the Board, and both our Bylaws & Election Rules do not state when the Ann. Mtg. must be held.*

It seems though that Jackie's board of which she's a member did not vote at an open board meeting on an election date.

*Can't imagine that any such date would be in the declaration anywhere or in the Articles in Calif

There's nothing in our ERs either about any specific months or dates that the annual Mtg.must be held What IS in our ERs is that the Board sets the date of the Ann. Mtg. Ours: "5.1. Establish Date of Meeting. The Board will establish the date of the meeting when the votes are to be counted. "

Oh, wait, I hadn't noticed when reviewing them recently that our Bylaws DO state: 'Section 3.4. Annual Election of Directors. An election of Directors shall be held during the month of October in each calendar year, or as soon thereafter as shall be practicable (“regular election of Directors”) in order to ordinarily elect up to seven (7) directors in total." So I retract my above that my HOA has nothing about an election month in its docs

Our Declaration sets the annual meeting date as the first Saturday in May.

Our Covenant's did have a specific like the 3rd Thursday in May. We changed it to on or before April 15th. Date to be determined by the BOD.

We had the declarant change it before trunover,