Ineligible Candidate Elected and Cast Proxy Votes

[Josh Martin]

13 minutes ago, Guest James Riley said:

The ineligible candidate was to my understanding the top voted candidate, but that includes the proxy votes that the ineligible candidate cast for themself as well. The ineligible candidate cast proxy votes to bring the lowest floor (members present) voted candidate up to a level to secure a position on the Board as well.

Just to be clear, if members were electing candidates for three positions, then if any of the three persons elected were ineligible, this would mean that the election of that candidate would be invalid. It doesn't matter whether it's the first, second, or third place candidate. I don't see any reason, however, why this would mean that the election of all three candidates would be invalid - again, it doesn't matter whether it's the first, second, or third place candidate.

Since your bylaws do not require that proxy votes be cast by a member, the fact that "The ineligible candidate cast proxy votes to bring the lowest floor (members present) voted candidate up to a level to secure a position on the Board as well" is irrelevant.

13 minutes ago, Guest James Riley said:

My thinking is that if the ineligible candidate had not been involved in the election then two of the three slots on the Board would have gone to other candidates that were running which was three others for a total of six candidates running.

This person being elected and this person casting the proxy votes are two separate issues. You have said that he is ineligible to serve on the board, however, you have not provided any information suggesting that he was not eligible to hold or cast the proxy votes.

Edited July 13, 2020 at 09:51 PM by Josh Martin

[Guest James Riley]

You're correct they are two separate issues. I keep conflating them and as you have pointed out they are two distinct issues. 

 

One piece of information that I just realized is that the proxies are typically filled out each year as part of the annual member signups. The proxy form itself assigns the proxy to the Board of the Association if/when the member fills it out. Would that fact change the situation at all since the ineligible candidate was sitting on the Board at the time they cast the proxy votes and was thus ineligible to decide how those proxy votes were cast since they were ineligible to be on the Board at all?

[Atul Kapur]

Probably not, but I'm not certain why you are trying to complicate things.

Mr. Martin and I have both clearly stated that the election of a candidate who was ineligible at the time of the election is an argument to challenge the election.

All the hypotheticals and questions about the proxies don't help your situation and make it more likely that your central argument will be confused.

[Josh Martin]

14 hours ago, Guest James Riley said:

You're correct they are two separate issues. I keep conflating them and as you have pointed out they are two distinct issues. 

Okay, but right after you said this you conflated them again.

14 hours ago, Guest James Riley said:

One piece of information that I just realized is that the proxies are typically filled out each year as part of the annual member signups. The proxy form itself assigns the proxy to the Board of the Association if/when the member fills it out. Would that fact change the situation at all since the ineligible candidate was sitting on the Board at the time they cast the proxy votes and was thus ineligible to decide how those proxy votes were cast since they were ineligible to be on the Board at all?

Even although the proxy form "assigns the proxy to the Board of the Association," I don't think the fact that the proxies were cast by a person who was not eligible to be a board member in any way invalidates the proxy forms. When proxies are assigned to a board, the board generally assigns one or more persons to cast the proxies on the board's behalf. Such a person need not be a member of the board - and indeed, often is not a member of the board (in large corporations, for instance, it will often be an employee of the corporation).

So I do not agree with the premise that, because the person was not eligible to be on the board, he was therefore not eligible to cast the proxy votes assigned to the board.

10 hours ago, Atul Kapur said:

Probably not, but I'm not certain why you are trying to complicate things.

Mr. Martin and I have both clearly stated that the election of a candidate who was ineligible at the time of the election is an argument to challenge the election.

All the hypotheticals and questions about the proxies don't help your situation and make it more likely that your central argument will be confused.

Well, Mr. Riley is desperately trying to find a way to invalidate the elections of the eligible candidates as well.

Edited July 14, 2020 at 05:20 PM by Josh Martin

[Guest James Riley]

Thank you for answering my questions and educating me on the matter. I appreciate your time and responses.