Voting

I am wondering how the majority of HOA's handling voting at their annual meeting. Our bylaws do not address this issue. Here's our situation- we only take nominations from the floor on the day of the annual meeting. We have no background info, and at our last election, a member asked for the nominee to tell us about themselves and to say the least, the reaction was less than favorable (not from the nominee mind you, but from other members). We then vote by holding up a card wich shows the numbers of votes we have (based on the one lot=one vote per our bylaws). Candidates remain in the room while voting takes place. Then, votes are tallied and if there is not a clear winner, the members are polled and asked again who they voted for. I cringe through the whole procedure but I'm not sure if I'm the one out of line. Any thoughts or suggestions??

Thanks, Susan. I had a feeling things weren't quite as they should be. We have NO committees - not a one. So, I guess my next move would be to discuss this with the President of BOD's or perhaps the whole Board ? Any suggestions on how to proceed from here??

I'm sure I'll meet resistence and 'well, thats not how we've always done things' but I'll stay strong ! Thanks, Susan.

Gail,

This post is like "deja vu" as I seem to recall another like message recently. However, Susan has done a good job of outlining the procedure that is followed in probably the majority of HOAs. Most bylaws have provisions regarding voting and most state voting can be "in person, by proxy and mail-in ballot". When the notice of the meeting is sent to the members it should include a ballot and a short bio of all the candidates. Since nominations from the floor are allowed in your assn, those nominees should have the opportunity to say a few words about their qualifications b/4 the voting takes place. The members attending the meeting should have all signed in and received a ballot if they did not bring the one sent to them. The secretary would have verified that all members received the number of ballots they are entitled to cast. The teller collects all the ballots from the members present and puts them together with those mailed in and any proxies. One or two other members should join the Teller to count the ballots; the results are given to the Pres to be announced to the members. Some assns have a rule to keep the ballots for a certain period of time. The rule in my assn is to call for a motion to destroy the ballots immediately after announcing the winners. Frankly, I don't agree with this rule but it seems to work with my assn as there have never been any objections to this procedure.