Mail/Email ballots

[Guest Ann Linden]

Is there a minum number of days that we must give committee members to return their chair/vice chair election ballots that were sent to them by either US mail or email? There is nothing in our bylaws that addresses this issue.

 

Thank you!

[Rev Ed]

RONR does not approve of any voting except at a meeting.  As such all rules regarding mail-in votes/proxies must be found in the By-law of the organization that specifically allows for mail-in votes/proxies. 

[Gary Novosielski]

I'm curious what the procedure in your bylaws about e-mail votes says.  How do you verify that they are valid, since e-mails are so easy to spoof.

[Boomed Sooner]

Our HOA Bylaws endorse two types of legitimate vote for matters before the Association collectively (not routine board meeting business): 1) secret ballot by members in person at the annual meeting or at a properly called meeting of the collective membership and 2) Vote by Proxy in the Proxy Form authorizes the bearer to vote per the Grantor's wishes, the form is signed and dated by the Grantor and serves as a receipt for validation of authenticity when the documents are reviewed and logged in prior to beginning the meeting.

 

Allegations emerged following our recent Annual HOA Meeting, that the voting was not going the way the leadership desired so several residents were notified by cell phone and subsequently texted or emailed a texts to parties within the meeting, said texts were then presented as valid electronic votes.

 

Question 1:  what definitions and limits are common for "Valid electronic Votes"?

 

Question 2:  are you aware of any definitive legal precedents that would support or deny validity of TEXT Messages as a defacto means of granting a proxy?  Remember, there is no hard copy for verification unless the grantor chooses to create one after the fact.  All other votes tallied are cast by persons physically present or by counting the votes on the written proxy document which is physically present during the vote tallying.

 

In our case, the Proxy form has been made available as an attachment to emails sent to Members for their convenience in conferring the authority to vote in place of the grantor, but there has never previously been a question of texting votes rather than presenting the physical, signed document.

 

Thank you for your interest,

Boomed Sooner

[Edgar Guest]

Thank you for your interest

 

I'm sure you'll thank us even more if you'll post your question as a new topic instead of adding to a topic that's nearly four months old. This forum works best that way.

 

Note, too, that we can't answer questions relating to "definitive legal precedents". Those are best addressed to an attorney.