HOA Election Dispute

[jamesg]

I would like some opinions on the following set of circumstances:

 

1.   I was elected to the Board of Directors of an HOA in Oregon at their annual meeting.  The votes were tallied and I was announced to the Owners as a winner.

2.   The vote was conducted by Zoom, telephone and paper proxies. 

3.   The HOA manager administered the election and there was no independent observer.

4.   After the election, I was named Treasurer by vote of the new Board.

5.   6 days after the election, the new Board was informed by HOA manager that there was a miscount and that I actually lost the election.   HOA said a recount was requested in the chat log on the night of the election.

6.  The Board met in a special meeting and decided to remove me as a Board member and order a new election.   The Board never reviewed any documentation supporting an alleged recount.

 

Under Robert's Rules, did the Board make the proper decision and if not, what would have been the proper decision?

 

Thank you for your help.

 

[Josh Martin]

49 minutes ago, jamesg said:

2.   The vote was conducted by Zoom, telephone and paper proxies. 

Do the bylaws (or applicable law or executive order) authorize conducting votes in this manner?

I'll assume for now that they do. If not, the association might have bigger problems than just your election.

49 minutes ago, jamesg said:

Under Robert's Rules, did the Board make the proper decision and if not, what would have been the proper decision?

No, the board did not make the proper decision. The tellers committee (the HOA manager) does not have the authority on its own to conduct a recount after the results have been announced (nor does an individual member have the authority to order a recount, so the fact that a request was made in the chat is of no consequence), and the board also lacks the authority to order a recount or to rule on questions of order regarding elections by the association unless this authority is granted by the bylaws.

Since the board lacks authority in this matter, it was not proper for the board to make a decision at all. The request for a recount should have been addressed at the annual meeting when it was made. Since this was not done, the proper course of action for those who wish to order a recount would be to call a special meeting of the association for this purpose, at which time the association may order a recount if it wishes. Whether or not a recount should be ordered is up to the association's judgment.

Depending on the results of that recount, the outcome may be that 1) you are still the winner, 2) someone else is the winner, or 3) no candidate obtained a majority and another round of voting must be held.

"After completion of an election or balloting on a motion, unless the voting body adopts an incidental main motion directing otherwise, the tellers place the ballots and tally sheets in the custody of the secretary, who keeps them under seal until the time within which a recount may be ordered expires, and then destroys them. A recount may be ordered by the voting body, by a majority vote, at the same session at which the voting result was announced, or at the next regular session if that session is held within a quarterly time interval (see 9:7). A recount may also be ordered at a special session properly called for that purpose, if held within a quarterly time interval of the session at which the voting result was announced and before the next regular session. A motion to order a recount after the vote has just been taken or announced is an incidental motion (see 30); if the motion is made at a later time, it is an incidental main motion." RONR (12th ed.) 45:41

"Because the voting body itself is the ultimate judge of election disputes, only that body has the authority to resolve them in the absence of a bylaw or special rule of order that specifically grants another body that authority. Thus, for example, when an election has been conducted at a membership meeting or in a convention of delegates, an executive board, even one that is given full power and authority over the society’s affairs between meetings of the body that conducted the election, may not entertain a point of order challenging, or direct a recount concerning, the announced election result. While an election dispute is immediately pending before the voting body, however, it may vote to refer the dispute to a committee or board to which it delegates power to resolve the dispute." RONR (12th ed.) 46:50

Edited March 24, 2021 at 01:14 PM by Josh Martin

[jamesg]

Thank you very much for your reply, Josh.   

"Whether or not a recount should be ordered is up to the association's judgment."

Does this mean that homeowners within the HOA should vote to decide whether a recount is necessary or that the Board should vote at a special meeting?

 

Thank you,

James

 

[Richard Brown]

8 minutes ago, jamesg said:

Thank you very much for your reply, Josh.   

"Whether or not a recount should be ordered is up to the association's judgment."

Does this mean that homeowners within the HOA should vote to decide whether a recount is necessary or that the Board should vote at a special meeting?

 

Thank you,

James

 

It means that only the homeowners association itself, not the board, has the authority to order a recount. The board has no authority to overturn the results of the election or to order a recount unless the bylaws or state law give it that authority or the association itself adopted a motion at the annual meeting granting it that authority.

[Josh Martin]

1 hour ago, jamesg said:

Does this mean that homeowners within the HOA should vote to decide whether a recount is necessary or that the Board should vote at a special meeting?

The first one.