Annual HOA meeting - question re proxies and ballots

[Guest E. Ryan]

Our HOA is having the annual meeting and sent out the required meeting notice with a proxy form, a ballot form, bios of all candidates who wanted to be on the nominee slate for the open BOD positions. Several weeks after the forms were sent out, 3 nominees rescinded their names for 3 of the 4 open the positions. Subsequently, 1 of those individuals changed their mind and said 'put me back on the nominee slate'.

 

To complicate the scenario, a small group of members within the HOA have filed a lawsuit against the HOA members/BOD. One (of many) points of contention within the HOA has been the use of proxies and ballots for voting. It seems likely the 'nominee confusion' is an attempt to have nominations from the floor occur. The small group of disgruntled HOA members do not like the current board members, nor the current by-laws, nor many aspects of Roberts Rules of Order, nor several sections of NC Statutes and Codes - 47F North Carolina Planned Community Act. It's been a very contentious few years and the lawsuit is not resolved.

 

The question is, how can any of the submitted proxy and/or ballot forms be used if the candidates to be considered for the open BOD positions have changed so frequently? Any suggestions?

 

 

[Timothy]

As far as RONR is concerned, people can vote for whoever they want, whether their name appears on the ballot or not. I suppose you count the votes and if the person elected doesn't want the job you elect someone else.

[Guest E.Ryan]

Realizing that, would any of the proxies be eligible to use as a 'vote' by proxy holders for nominees from the floor that are added to the slate? It had been established that the *ballot forms* would be used for candidate voting - not proxy forms. The proxy forms were intended to be used any additional normal business that came up during the meeting. Not for voting on BOD nominees.

[Timothy]

To answer that, one would need a better understanding of your rules. Unfortunately, that goes beyond the scope of this forum, but if another vote must be taken, it is conceivable that the proxies would be able to vote, since the ballots are no longer apply. But that comes down to the wording of the applicable rules.

[Rev Ed]

Proxies are only allowed if the By-laws and/or statute covering the organization allow for proxies.  As such, we cannot help you.  The proxy form would likely either name the candidates that the absent member wants their proxy to vote for, or would allow the proxy holder to vote as he/she sees fit.

 

If the package for the AGM has already been sent out, then the one member who wanted to withdraw and then get back into the election would still be on the ballot anyway.