How and When do we count mail-in votes?

[Guest William Mobley]

My HOA is holding a special meeting to amend our 2020 budget.  Members are scattered all across the country.  We have followed our bylaws and covenants to the letter which allow voting to occur by USPS paper ballot or printed, signed, scanned, email ballots - or attend the meeting in person and cast your vote.  The sole purpose of this special meeting is to consider the motion previously stated in the meeting announcement.  We have received enough affirmative ballots which assure passage of the budget amendment.  We will hold the special meeting at noon tomorrow, Saturday, 9-26-20.  While we do not expect controversy, there are a few members who object to this amendment. 

So, my question:

1. Since votes have been cast on the motion, are motions to amend the motion "out of order"?

2. Since votes have been cast, would a motion to "call the previous question" and limit debate be "in order"?

3. If votes have been cast, are those members considered to be present a the meeting?  If a few dissenters show up at the meeting and represent a majority of those attending, is there a way that these few dissenters can be blocked from making motions that would essentially nullify the votes of the vast majority of members who have voted, but will not be attending.

[George Mervosh]

" An organization should never adopt a bylaw permitting a question to be decided by a voting procedure in which the votes of persons who attend a meeting are counted together with ballots mailed in by absentees. The votes of those present could be affected by debate, by amendments, and perhaps by the need for repeated balloting, while those absent would be unable to adjust their votes to reflect these factors. Consequently, the absentee ballots would in most cases be on a somewhat different question than that on which those present were voting, leading to confusion, unfairness, and inaccuracy in determining the result."  RONR (12th ed.), 45:56

Motions to amend and other secondary motions are certainly permissible if they are in order at the time they are made, yes.  Obviously absentees won't be able to vote on any of this, which is why RONR says what it says.

[Weldon Merritt]

Mr. Mervosh beat me to it, but I was about to say much the same thing. Your questions are an excellent illustration of the wisdom of RONR's advice.