Proportional Voting for Secret Ballot

Issue four ballots total. Each ballot's vote is multiplied by its associated percentage. The final vote tally will be something like:

Candidate Jones received 20% of the vote.

Candidate Dubois received 30% of the vote.

Candidate Chang received 50% of the vote.

Chang wins.

This is how my former HOA applied proportional voting, per the gov docs.

I think your way may invite confusion, as in any one owner thinking he/she/it can vote for multiple candidates instead of for just one.

You don't say how small your condo is, but would it be possible to have people cast their vote and not worry about the proportional stuff? I would think it would be easier to have, say 15 units, vote for his/her selection on a secret ballot, the ballots are counted at an open meeting (not naming how people voted of course) and whoever gets the most votes wins.

This must be a NJ / NY thing. The owners who are paying more are doing so because they have more square feet, but each owner is likely paying the same $ per square foot.

Do you intend to announce the final vote tally? If yes, then with the tiny number of units, I do not understand why you think secrecy will be preserved doing it your way.

Do you intend to keep secret the final vote tally?

I hope not.

Also your Declaration may state that the vote of any one unit may not be split up such that any one unit cannot cast both a vote for candidate Jones and another vote for candidate Smith.

If the final vote count will be announced, then I say that preserving the secrecy of voting is not going to be possible under all possible outcomes here, regardless of what approach is used. This is because of the low number of units and arithmetic.

I am not sure why you think otherwise.

I haven' seen wording for "proportional voting." What is the wording in your CC&Rs or bylaws that requires this, Gregory? Or is this really the bigger units "want this???""

Our high rise condo building has 31 different configurations of condo units ranging from a couple at about 900 sq. ft. to a handful at 2,800 sf. Our CC&Rs have a sq. ft.variance wherby larger units pay more in dues that smaller bit. There are a few common area things they consume more of than smaller units, e.g., window washing; insurance on the building, domestic gas, water & sewer.

A unit about 50 sq. larger than mine pays about $5 a month more than I do. How is this "taxation w/out representation?"

Since ElleN has experience: is proportional voting the same as "fractional voting?'

Don't your Bylaws require an annual meeting and election? Or does NJ non-profit corp.code? (Which. would preclude a special meeting of the members ?). What w ould you call a Special meeting of the members, he it's exactly the same as a members meeting required by your HOA's docs?

Wha does this mean? "Also condo docs can do split voting if needed."

Our HOA does the double envelope method and inspectors of election open them 1st, put it aside, place all the unmarked envelopes in a bin, open them, count the ballots , turn to the Annual Meeting and election and announce th results

Dean thanks that is what I was thinking. It's the least common factor. I don't think we will head that way for having elections due to the condo being so small that they will pick an alternative governance model. But if they want elections I have to be prepared for what a secret ballot is.

Kerry thanks for how secret ballot is done at your condo. I was thinking it would be something like that but since I never seen one done I wanted to be sure.

If I am not mistaken proportional voting depends on the state. The state of NJ allows proportional voting since in the state condo docs it defers to the condo docs and its statement of voting. Our condo docs have the wording that the decisions of the condo has to be the majority of the percentage of ownership. I think California condo law is not setup like that.

The dynamics of a micro condo is very different than a bigger condo and also the State of NJ has put a lot of flexibility in its condo law with deferring to the individual condo docs at times. Ideally we should have elections but we are not there yet.