Contributed by Denise Lash, Esq.
Board members, community association managers, and homeowners have been forced to fundamentally change how they conduct business during the COVID-19 pandemic. Holding on-site meetings is no longer feasible nor is expecting residents to cast their vote in person; both activities are simply too risky in this current state. Fortunately, the solution to these challenges already exists in the form of electronic voting.
In my experience, homeowner participation dramatically increases thanks to electronic voting. Homeowners engage in the voting process and express their opinions because it is easy to do. All it takes is a click. The increased participation also ensures that quorum is easily obtained.
In addition, homeowners who have participated in electronic voting have high praise for it. They get to cast their vote through a secure online voting platform at their convenience and in private—free from the influence or interference of others.
Boards and community managers motivated to serve in the best interests of their communities also have embraced online voting and welcome the accountability that comes with increased participation.
None of this should come as any surprise. Homeowners expect the same seamless and easy-to-use digital experience in community association living as they do in other areas of their lives. The very notion that an owner should need to use a proxy to give someone else the right to cast a vote on their behalf seems like a holdover from a different era.
It’s easy to see why even before the pandemic, electronic voting was the norm in over half the states in the U.S. and gaining more traction. Arizona and Florida have passed legislation that prohibits proxy voting, and other states are in the process of doing the same.
Illinois dictates that once a condominium adopts electronic voting in its rules and regulations, proxy voting is no longer allowed for board elections. New Jersey recently allowed condos to use electronic voting and, at the same time, passed a law that prohibits condos from offering proxies to owners unless they also allow them to cast absentee ballots.
The COVID-19 pandemic is showing us that electronic voting is both the present and the future, and in the best interest of community associations.
What has been your experience with electronic voting? Comment below.
Denise Lash is founder and principal of Lash Condo Law in Toronto and a principal of CondoVoter, which provides services for electronic voting and virtual meetings. She also is a founding member and past president of CAI’s Canada Chapter.
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In a condo association with a majority of senior citizens, many do not have capability or are not tech savvy to do online voting. There needs to be a combination of online & proxy or absentee ballots. The big question is how do you take nominations from the floor? Is that waived during COVID?
Good question. Whether and how you take nominations from the floor may depend on state law and your community’s governing documents. In some cases, if balloting is still open on the day of your annual meeting, nominations can be made from the floor, and anyone who has not yet cast a ballot can vote for the new nominees if they chose. You should check with the association’s attorney for specific guidance.
I have many seniors that access the Zoom links. We handle the final call from the floor through the chat feature as well as the poll feature in Zoom. It works great and allows owners the privacy that many of them want. We find that having an assistant participate in the meetings coordinating the online issues makes it go very smooth. The mute button is also great. It keeps everyone in check and if someone gets out of hand, after fair warning (that is all disclosed in an online video before the meeting), we ask them to leave.
Does CAI have a publication that would explain and help an all-volunteer association understand and implement electronic voting?
We published a short guide to online meetings. We also have an article available from Common Ground called “The Show Must Go Online,” available to CAI members and nonmembers.
How do you ensure that only one vote/ballot is counted for each Lot Owner? We have co-owners both logging into Zoom separately at times; one may be out of town. Only one can be counted towards quorum and only one set of votes can be counted.
Also, for the phone-in only participants, the attendance list shows “iphone,” Suzi’s phone, or just a phone number. How are these Owner’s counted?
Hello Jill,
Some communities have used the waiting room function in videoconference apps like Zoom to confirm the identity of homeowners by name and unit number before allowing them to enter a meeting; that also allows to identify co-owners who live in the same home. If you have a list of homeowners’ phone numbers available already (to call them regarding association business or in case of an emergency), that can facilitate identifying those homeowners who may be phoning in by asking them to share the number if the name on display is “iPhone” or “Person’s iPhone;” this can be done via the private chat as well. That ensures that only one person is counted towards quorum and voting can take place, if it’s not done ahead of time.
You can find more on virtual meetings and electronic voting in “The Show Must Go Online,” from the September/October 2020 issue of Common Ground magazine.
I manage a community where they are having a hybrid meeting…online and face-to-face. The board president will only participate online, which poses the question of whether I have him or the vice president be face-to-face. We also have a 48-person quorum and I only have 10 proxies. If you are coming in online can you vote online and it be counted with other ballots?
Hello Windee,
Depending on your state, it’s possible that there’s legislation or an executive order in place that can guide your community in conducting hybrid meetings if there isn’t a provision in the governing documents. As for how to count ballots submitted online, it might be appropriate to again look at state law or meet with legal counsel to determine what the requirements are for association elections.