Upcoming elections

Florida Mobile home park here. We are getting ready for upcoming elections in Dec. The same people have held the offices for several years now and alot of people are saying we need changes. However since there are ne people running for offices this years some are not real happy about it and they are trying to get them to drop ot of the running. The way they plan to do the voting is one at a time starting with the president, then they plan to count the votes and annonce the winner for president. At which time they are saying if the present president does not win then the current officers and nominees are all going to stand up and drop out of the running. First of all can they do the voting this way and if so how do they then go about filling the offices of all those that drop out?

Coral,

The problem sometimes in getting folks to run for office is the quorum requirement is too tough to overcome. Example, I live in California, development of 317 homes which just had our annual meeting and election. Only 39 ballots were turned in, and we required 159 to have a quorum and vote. Our legal counsel, through her own opinion, cancelled the election and would not allow the membership to adjourn to a further meeting with a small quorum requirement of 25% which is allowed in our by-laws.

So over the weekend, I gathered enough signatures to call a special meeting to start the process of changing our by-laws so they reflect the views of industry experts about reducing or quorum requirements for annual meetings, elections and amending by-laws. Whta happens to our present board depends on their action or inaction as it relates to the special meeting. To get the by-laws changed still requires a 51% votes of the membership, but we have already formed a group to go door-to-dorr to make it happen, once and for all.

Cora:

As I mentioned above, it's not at all clear to me whether your association is handling the elections properly.

Please share with us that portion of your governing documents that describes your election process and specifies WHO elects the DIRECTORS and WHO elects the OFFICERS.

I will share the various language in mine so that you can see what I'm talking about:

Article II. Members

SECTION 1. Annual Meeting. The annual meeting of the Residents Association shall be held on the first Monday of March in each year, beginning with the year 2001, at the hour of 6:30 pm., for the purpose of electing Directors and for the transaction of such other business as may come before the meeting.

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Notice in the above section the members of the association elect the directors of the board of the directors, not the officers.

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Article III. Board of Directors

SECTION 1. General Powers. The business and affairs of the Residents Association shall be managed by its Board of Directors.

SECTION 2. Number, Tenure and Election Procedure. The number of directors of the Residents Association shall be not less than three nor more than nine. The term of office shall be for a one-year period. Any member of the Board of Directors may serve no more than three consecutive terms in the same office.

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Notice above that the directors constitute the board and operate the affairs. Directors must be elected annually, and there is no limit to the number of terms they may have as a director. However, if a director holds an office, he/she may only hold that office for 3 consecutive years (meaning, he/she gets re-elected to the BOARD, and then also manages to get re-elected to the same OFFICER position 3 consecutive times).

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Article IV. Officers

SECTION 1. Number. The officers of the Residents Association shall be a President, a Vice President, a Secretary and a Treasurer, each of whom shall be elected by the Board of Directors from among the newly elected directors. Any officer may serve no more than three consecutive terms.

SECTION 2. Election and Term of Office. The officers of the Residents Association shall be nominated and elected at the first meeting of the Board of Directors held after the Annual Meeting. Each officer shall hold office until his or her successor has been duly elected the following year, until death, resignation, or removal as hereinafter provided. No officer shall serve more than three consecutive one-year terms.

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Notice that the above specifies that the OFFICERS are elected by the Board of Directors FROM WITHIN the Board of Directors.

People often confuse Officers and Directors as two different entitites. Generally, Officers are simply Directors who have a specific job/title. Now, there is the occasion where officers are elected directly by the membership (but it's not very common), and there is the occasion where officers or some officers do not even have to be members of the board of directors, again, that is not very common either.

So really, before we can sort through your issue, or at least before I can, I would need to know that your association membership does elect the officers. We've had more than one person find out that their association has been holding their elections improperly for years.

Sorry for the long post. But I hope you can clarify your governing documents for us.

Hi all Bob here iam Cora`s brother in law running for elections at our community. My spelling may be a little off please bare with me ,,thank you. Iam running for President,,,iam vice President as of now ,,, was asked a year ago to step in as the one they had walked away and stepped down ,,and I said yes i would help ,,,
I seen a lot of fighting and name calling the last year and want to make a change for the better of the people and that is not being done now..
Anyways i think the way they are going about the voteing is wrong but not going to make a stink as of now ,,, and think it will go the right way in the end ,,,they are trying to get me to drop out of the running by saying that all running will drop out if the president they have now don`t get the votes needed,,,well our bylaws don`t state to much as to voteing only to say they use hand count , written ballots and proxy ,,,a member may vote by written proxy to a empowered another person to act for him/her abd must be giving volontarily .. The Proxy shall be in wrighting and signed on a Board of Director approved form ,,,same as asbsent ballet.
If they all drop out can`t I get my own team as they will not be noone other than me left or the other...there is 3 people running and if the past president don`t get it they are all dropping out .. Can`t the last 2 running for President be President and vice President and pick our own board from people we can find to help us ???? man what a mess . thank you will be looking for advise

thank you Bob running for president

Thank you Glen for your input....iam thinking on asking the other running for president if i win election if he would be my vice and then if he would win i would be his vise and between us we could get the board and sec. and tres.

what you all think about me asking him ??? as he don`t know they are dropping out as soon as eather one of us get the job..

thank you Bob

they are trying to get me to drop out but we need a change and iam going all the way ...I beleave i have a good chance if not the other will win and why i think we should make a pack

thank you Bob

the hand counting is done by hand not machine ,,,,,,I don`t meen the show of hans ,,,,,,they only use ballets and proxi voteing ,,,,if you look you see that i said hand counting ,,,,meaning counting of votes
they are voteing for president and vise president and so on thu to get all and also 3 more for board to make 7 board members ....

i beleave it will work out just have to go ahead and not stand around as it is now ,,,,and get the job done

thank you for your help ...Bob

Bob & Cora,

Frankly, I don't see what the problem is that you are getting so upset about. If these people want to resign if you are elected, let them. That will only result in giving you and your friend the ability to make appointments to fill their positions. Since there are 7 board positions I don't know what their problem is since the two of you would be a minority on the board. Even if you are the Pres and V.P., you still each only have 1 vote on a 7-member board. Don't make mountains out of mole hills. Let the election take place and let the cards fall where they may and go on from there.

Bob, again, I still think you (your HOA) is voting improperly for OFFICERS.

Please post for us that portion of your governing documents that describes and defines the BOARD, the DIRECTORS, and the OFFICERS.

Your membership may only supposed to be voting for 7 people total, then those seven people vote for the President, Vice President, Sec and Treasurer from those seven people.

Until you provide language from your documents that says otherwise, I'm thinking the entire voting process been improper for years.

But, if that's the way your documents have you vote, then what Mary says is true. What difference does it make if the others quit?

Bob, what format are they in?

You can email them to me at:

[email protected]

But the "old dogs new tricks" thing won't work for HOAs.

If they are conducting illegal elections, then any amendments they may pass or any motions they may pass or changes or rules or whatever will be void if anyone at any time decides to challenge them.

Governing documents aren't "suggestions."

The directors and members don't get to decide whether they will follow them one way for certain covenants and another way for others.

YES, your general membership does elect the officers, according to those passages.

Thank you for sharing that with us because every HOA is different, even in the age of boilerplates, but the type of process where the membership elects the OFFICERS is not very common.

Okay, now that we've finally gotten over that speedbump, you guys just need to proceed with your campaigning and electioneering and pay no attention to what the other candidates do after the vote is in.

But don't give up if you don't make it this time. There is always next year.

Remember, sometimes you really do have to be patient and, in the meantime, give the other party enough rope by which he/she can hang him/herself!

But do not pass up the opportunity to go door-to-door. Even our governmental elected officials know how important it is to get face-to-face with the people from whom you want their votes.

hi all Bob here ,,,,now it came to my attention that the proxie vote,,[absentee ballats ] .. are being put out and picked up by a member that is on the nomamating commity.and also is running for sec. on the board.. now is this the right process???? sound little fishey on my side.,,they are saying you have to go thu that person to get the absentee ballats only, no one else. and you give them the name of person and they go to the person only and get the vote to them and pick it up ...sound wrong on my side.. please i need some input ..thank you

you give the name to wich the ballets is for to the person on nomanateing commentee...that person only gets it to the person asking for ballet...also now that person is on nominating comenteeand also running for sec. of board... that person in my thoughts should not be touching any of the ballets.....am i right ??? sorry apelling is a little off .

resident gives them the name to the nomanating commentee , the person that they give namre to.takes and goes to the voter,,give them there absentee ballet and after they fill it out ,,,,they contact the person on the commentee to pick it up ....then she hang on to vote ballett till election... the person that is assigned this job is also running for office as sec, of board.....what you think ????

the voteing is next Monday and yes they are sealed ....but is it ok for the person picking up the votes ballets that are sealed ,,,when she is running also for office ???? not saying she would but what if .....??? think thinking ahead i guess with everything happening ,,,i don`t think person running she be able to get them and hang onto ballets sealed or not ,,,,,maybe iam wrong .

thank you i feel the same as you ...and think they should of been mailed ....thank you very much ...will pass it on