Election Off Track

BettyO1 (California)
Posts: 104

Posted:

Are there any rules that specify that when the board voids an election due to voter fraud before votes are counted, that a new election with new nominees should take place, not just restart the current election? What recourse do homeowners have if the board does not start a completely new election, but just repeats current election by sending out the same election materials again?

MicheleD (Kentucky)
Posts: 4,491

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By BettyO1 on 12/03/2009 3:20 PM
Are there any rules that specify that when the board voids an election due to voter fraud before votes are counted, that a new election with new nominees should take place, not just restart the current election? What recourse do homeowners have if the board does not start a completely new election, but just repeats current election by sending out the same election materials again?

The nominees shouldn't be affected by improper votes. They are the nominees and, unless there's something in the law or your documents that state otherwise, I am finding it hard to figure out why the list of nominees would be void.

RichardP13 (California)
Posts: 1,767

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By BettyO1 on 12/03/2009 3:20 PM
Are there any rules that specify that when the board voids an election due to voter fraud before votes are counted, that a new election with new nominees should take place, not just restart the current election? What recourse do homeowners have if the board does not start a completely new election, but just repeats current election by sending out the same election materials again?

We had a somewhat similar situation two weeks ago with our elections, http://www.mountainglen2.org/newsupdate.html. Their legal counsel canceled the election due to the members not haveing quorum. You are more than welcome to email me to discuss further. The contact information is on the web site I attached.

FredN (California)
Posts: 87

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By RichardP13 on 12/03/2009 5:11 PM

Posted By BettyO1 on 12/03/2009 3:20 PM
Are there any rules that specify that when the board voids an election due to voter fraud before votes are counted, that a new election with new nominees should take place, not just restart the current election? What recourse do homeowners have if the board does not start a completely new election, but just repeats current election by sending out the same election materials again?

We had a somewhat similar situation two weeks ago with our elections, http://www.mountainglen2.org/newsupdate.html. Their legal counsel canceled the election due to the members not haveing quorum. You are more than welcome to email me to discuss further. The contact information is on the web site I attached.

It seems your By-Laws say to reduce to 25% if the 51% is not met....am I missing something????

RichardP13 (California)
Posts: 1,767

Posted:

No Fred you're not missing anything. We are though and that being our chance at a second go around. Here is an email I had received back on two querstion I had. The actually percentage is 50% plus 1 vote. To amend the bylaws, we need 51%. Same difference, but still a difference.

1. If by-laws of an HOA allow for the members to vote to adjourn to a new meeting if quorum for an annual meeting and election is not meet, can an attorney disallowed that vote of the members.

To your first question, if I understand it correctly, the answer is No. If a quorum is not available during a scheduled annual meeting/election, that date has to be reset. If the Bylaws establish the procedures on that, then I can’t see how the attorney could prevent that. Otherwise, board members could ensure life time positions by not showing up to annual meetings where elections are expected to be held.

2. Second, can discussing re-scheduling the election and amending by-laws be done in executive sessions or should this be done in an open meeting being that neither topic is privileged or private?

As to your second question, this is not one of the items permitted to be discussed in executive session. Only five things are permitted to be discussed in executive session, including (i) legal issues; (ii) formation of contracts; (iii) discipline of members; (iv) personnel issues (i.e. maintenance people, etc.); and (v) payment of assessments. That’s it.