What to do if there is a tie in electing an officer?

If all else fails, flip a coin.

Your association elects officers?!

Ours only elects directors.

The directors then elect the officers from among themselves.

Again, are you sure you are holding proper elections?

Our by-laws only allow the membership to vote on who is going to be a director on the board of directors.

Members do NOT vote ANYONE into the officer positions.

Once the board is elected, then the directors on the board elect the officers from among their fellow directors.

Our board can have as many as 9 directors.

If the membership elects the 9 directors, then the directors have an election among themselves and elect their fellow directors to the officer positions of President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer.

That is also how MOST HOAs do it.

What do your by-laws say about the election of DIRECTORS?

The way it has been done in the past is that every unit owner including the Pres, Secr, & VPres (the Board members)) are considered voting members & allowed to vote on issues & elections for Board Members. (except if an owner is behind in their dues of course which they don't show up anyway!) We barely have quorom sometimes for the meetings & wouldn't have it w/out all the Board Members present. We are incorporated & have 3 additional directors. Our by laws say each year the Board shall elect from it's members a President, Treasurer, & other such officers as the board shall see fit to elect. We basically have the unit owners elect the Board here. About 10 out of 44 show up at the 4 meetings, usually the same 8 & a stragler. I am talking with our attorney on some other issues we're just not sure of including this ? In 7 yrs, only 1 other time has there been 2 candidates running--no one wants the job! You have to move to get out of it! I'm the President & do like it though--having a say in what goes on but after this year--ready to have my life & spare time back again!

Yvonne, your HOA has been holding incorrect elections.

The membership of the entire community elects the board members (apparently 6 of them).

It is the BOARD that elects the OFFICERS (pres, VP, sec/treasurer).

So . . . it appears that your HOA has been acting against its by-laws and the previous presidents, VPs, etc, were not legally elected (per your bylaws).

Someone in your HOA really needs to attend a workshop on how to interpret governing documents.

We have been calling the President, Vice President & Secretary/Treasurer as the Board of Directors. We call all 44 unit owners members/voting members. (unless behind in their dues) Those 6 that come plus the 3 Board members are the ones who elect the Board members. Seems like it gives the owners the opportunity to vote for who they would like to take care of things here.
Our By-Laws say:
Each year the Board shall elect from it's members a President who shall preside over both it's meetings & those of the voting members, & who shall be chief executive officer of the Board; a Secretary who shall keep the minutes of all meetings of the Board & of the voting members.....& a Treasurer who shall keep the financial recoerds & books of account; and such additional officers as the Board see fit to elect.
If I understand your posts right--the President, Secretary & Vice President should not be voting or can't vote for themself in an election. What about in issues? There has never been a problem with a tie as only 1 person would volunteer to be a candidate. This year 2 have. I would love to attend workshops on this stuff--haven't found any close to the Rockford area. I am trying to meet with other condo associations to see how they do things or resolve issues. Ours is 7 yrs old. The attorney should be able to clarify this & other things that are not clear. I do appreciate your input.

Yvonne, this is not meant as an insult, just an observation.

Your HOA has absolutely no understanding of your documents.

Just because your association "calls" the officers the board, doesn't make it accurate or correct, or legal.

The entire membership of the association elects directors.

Please quote for us the section that talks about how many directors are allowed.

Now, for a little HOA governance 101:

Most all HOAs have a BOARD OF DIRECTORS.

Directors have the responsibility, generally, of running the day-to-day business of the organization, which may include such things as developing the budget, paying bills and enforcing deed restrictions.

The size of your board of directors (how many directors your organization can have) if often dictated in your by-laws. It can range from as low as 3 to as high as 9.

The by-laws THEN allow for OFFICERS.

Officers, except in rare circumstances, are TITLES given to certain DIRECTORS on the board. The board of directors itself are typically the ones who elect from within their group directors who will also hold the officer titles and perform the specialized duties of that office.

President, who will most often be the one to run the meetings; vice president, who will often be the one to run meetings when the president is unavailable; secretary, who will often be the one to send communications and maintain the organization's official records; and treasurer, who is often the one to oversee the financial functions of the organization.

These officer positions are not to be confused with the whole of the board of directors. They are titles given to specific directors who are expected to fulfill the officer duties while on the board of directors.

What you quoted us clearly shows that your entire membership is NOT to elect the OFFICERS. ONLY the directors are to elect them from within their membership.

So when people run for your board of directors, the entire HOA membership can only vote for people who are running for the board. Once the board of directors is elected, then they, the board members, elect officers from amongst themselves.

Just because you call the officers "the board," again, does not make it right and does not make it legal. If someone were to challenge an action by "the board" or by "an officer," that person could contend that the board and the officers were elected illegally and whatever action they took was therefore not legal.

See if your Bylaws say anything about Proxies. Often, Bylaws specify that the BoD can (or must) mail Proxies to all the Members. Each proxy gives the Secretary the right to vote in place of the Member. The Proxies could contain a ballot allowing each member to vote for Directors, in addition to giving the Secretary the right to vote on other matters (or not).

Each Member can decide whether or not to sign the Proxy and return it, attend the meeting, or do neither. The Proxies should be worded so that if a Member signs and returns it but then attends the meeting, the Proxy is automatically revoked whent he Member votes at the meeting. (I suspect most state corporation laws provide for this.)

If you use the returned Proxies at the Association meeting, then (depending on your Bylaws) the proxies count towards your quorum in addition to adding votes. This makes it less likely that you will not have a quorum and perhaps less likely that you will have a tie vote.

My association doesn't call it an election of officers. The Board APPOINTS the officers.

Heh.

My HOA's Bylaws say the BoD "elects" the Officers, but I always say "select" to avoid confusion with the Membership's election of Directors. Just like our Bylaws say that the Pres and VP must be "Members" of the BoD, but I prefer to say they must be Directors.

Yeah, what you said.

I understand that we're both saying the same thing; that's why I concluded with "Yeah, what you said."