Nomination acceptance

[Guest RobertJ]

My homeowners assocation (HOA) allows for nominations from the floor for the HOA Board Member election at its annual meeting. If a candidate is nominated from the floor, does the candidate have to be present at the meeting and indicate that they accept the nomination in order to be nominated?

If they are not at the meeting and are nominated, have they in fact been nominated? The HOA has adopted election rules which state that in order to be nominated a candidate must submit their statement of candidacy prior to the election and have their name placed on the ballot, or be nominated from the floor at the annual meeting ("A candidate must receive a nomination (or be self-nominated) prior to the close of balloting in order to be elected"). There is no nominating committee.

My opinion is that if a legitimate candidate (a homeowner) is nominated and not at the meeting to indicate their acceptance, that they have in fact been nominated because the election rules state that "a candidate must receive a nomination" not that they must receive and accept a nomination.

That being said, if the Inspector of Election ignores such a nomination which in fact shoud have been a valid nomination, and declares the election results as if that candidate was not nominated, do the the election results stand because the results have been reported as such by the Inspector of Election who is running the election?

[Tim Wynn]

My homeowners assocation (HOA) allows for nominations from the floor for the HOA Board Member election at its annual meeting. If a candidate is nominated from the floor, does the candidate have to be present at the meeting and indicate that they accept the nomination in order to be nominated?

If they are not at the meeting and are nominated, have they in fact been nominated? The HOA has adopted election rules which state that in order to be nominated a candidate must submit their statement of candidacy prior to the election and have their name placed on the ballot, or be nominated from the floor at the annual meeting ("A candidate must receive a nomination (or be self-nominated) prior to the close of balloting in order to be elected"). There is no nominating committee.

My opinion is that if a legitimate candidate (a homeowner) is nominated and not at the meeting to indicate their acceptance, that they have in fact been nominated because the election rules state that "a candidate must receive a nomination" not that they must receive and accept a nomination.

That being said, if the Inspector of Election ignores such a nomination which in fact shoud have been a valid nomination, and declares the election results as if that candidate was not nominated, do the the election results stand because the results have been reported as such by the Inspector of Election who is running the election?

According to RONR, a member does not need to be present to be nominated.

If a member thinks the rules are being violated, he should raise a point of order.

[Guest RobertJ]

Thank you for your response, Tim. I searched RONR, 11th edition, for a reference regarding nomination acceptance. The only reference I could find was RONR page 434 lines 1-5 which states that a nominating committee should contact candidates to obtain "his acceptance of nomination". However, we don't have a nominating committee. In the absence of a nominating committee, it could be argued that the person nominating someone from the floor for a position should contact whoever they are nominating beforehand to verify that the person would accept the nomination. But even if they didn't or the nominating committee didn't, it would seem to me that a nomination is valid even without the in person acceptance or in writing acceptance of the nomination by the person being nominated.

[Tim Wynn]

A member has a right to make nominations. See RONR (11th ed.), p. 3. You'll notice there is no requirement for acceptance by the person being nominated.

[Trina]

...

That being said, if the Inspector of Election ignores such a nomination which in fact shoud have been a valid nomination, and declares the election results as if that candidate was not nominated, do the the election results stand because the results have been reported as such by the Inspector of Election who is running the election?

I'm curious about this sentence... in what manner did the Inspector of Election ignore the nomination? Did the inspector tell members (prior to voting) not to vote for the nominee? Did he refuse to count votes actually cast for the nominee?