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Straw Votes are they legal, binding permitted?


sara cullen

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Our Board President brought up a topic under "new business" suggesting that we might want to change our site condominium bylaws. It was not posted on the agenda. He continued to handle the dialogue on this topic and included his opinions, a good amount of unfounded conjecture and also incorrectly answered questions that were posed. He then called for a straw vote with no second and asked shareholders to raise their hands without a roll call. He counted the hands and concluded that he had sufficient "votes" to then circulate a questionnaire to all shareholders asking for their input in changing the bylaws. He is allowing shareholders to vote anonymously on their ballots and he has no oversight committee that will tabulate the results. Can he do this? Our bylaws clearly state that all "mortgagees" (lenders) have a vote in amendments to the bylaws. He is not including them in the questionnaire being circulated. Some of us feel this was handled poorly and that we were caught blindsided at the annual meeting. We have posed questions to the Board if we should be proceeding with the non-binding "straw poll/vote" in a matter of this importance. We also feel very strongly that you cannot allow shareholders to vote anonymously as the Board will not know who voted? who voted twice? who did not vote? and the mortgagees are not being included??? This seems a mess.....am I right?

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Straw polls are out of order. It is not in order for the presiding officer to debate, at least while in the chair, at a large board or general meeting. The voting method should be determined by your bylaws or by the assembly, not dictated by the president. Unless authorized by your bylaws, a vote by mail or absentee voting is prohibited. A vote by ballot is usually secret.

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Should he have sent me this email? Is it acceptable practice for a Board member to privately email a shareholder without Board oversight?Should he be attempting to influence me and my future vote? I strongly object to this back door intimidation, am I correct?

Should he have sent me this email? Is it acceptable practice for a Board member to privately email a shareholder without Board oversight? Should he be attempting to influence me and my future vote? I strongly object to this back door intimidation, am I correct?

By the way, this forum works best if you post your new questions as a new topic. It's less confusing that way (even if you find an existing topic that's similar).

This seems a mess.....am I right?

If I can make a small suggestion, and in the hope that "need help?" will continue to visit this forum, a human name will allow us to be more polite when replying. It certainly need not be a "real name", if that's a concern.

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...

to then circulate a questionnaire to all shareholders asking for their input in changing the bylaws. He is allowing shareholders to vote anonymously on their ballots and he has no oversight committee that will tabulate the results. Can he do this?

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Does this questionnaire sound like another straw poll to anyone, only this one conducted among absentees? Or is the president actually laboring under the illusion that anything at all will happen to the bylaws after the results of this questionnaire are tabulated? The fact that the questionnaires somehow transmogrified into 'ballots' in the middle of the question is worrisome :wacko: .
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