"Beth, you have written so much helpful information about the new election law, I
decided to pass along to you how our October, 2006 election for Board of
Directors went.
"We are an Association in San Diego of 502 units with on-site management. We
have no delegate voting. We have approximately 55% off-site owners and
on-site owners who do not want to attend the annual homeowners meeting so
mail in ballots and proxies were a big factor. Fortunately, achieving a
quorum has not been one of our problems.
"We had three inspectors of election - myself, a homeowner who happens to be
an accountant, another homeowner and the office administrator employed by
our Association.
"As inspectors we were fortunate to meet with the Association lawyer well
before the election and set up criteria regarding the validity of the mail
in envelopes, proxies and ballots.
"Setting up those guide lines were a god send on the day of the election. We
sent out very understandable instructions with the election materials, but
you would not believe how some of the items were returned. We also had the
ballot of blue paper to match the blue ballot envelope.
"The afternoon of the election we three inspectors spent approximately 4
hours verifying the signatures, etc. on the outer mailed in envelopes. The
verified envelopes were put in a box that was sealed and brought to the
annual homeowners meeting that evening. We used a separate ballot box for
votes ( ballots and proxies) delivered at the meeting so as not to
commingle anything with the envelopes verified that afternoon. This was a
real timesaver.
"What got tricky was closing the polls. We could not close the polls until
all of the envelopes were opened, proxies delivered, voted and returned
back to the inspectors. An inspector announced this to the approximately 50
members at the meeting and everyone delivered their materials to the ballot
box after an announced time. We opened envelopes so fast, with a pile for
ballot envelopes and another for proxies. The proxies were delivered and
voted after about 30 minutes. We could finally got to close the polls!
"Now the real work began but fortunately we had our guideline list and did
not have to spend an inordinate amount of time deciding the validity of a
ballot. We had our list, and we inspectors would arrive at a consensus on
any deviations. The Association attorney was also present at our meeting to
offer guidance.
"Our meeting started at 6:30 p. m. and we had the vote counted and delivered
to the Board of Directors by 9:15 p. m.
"I hope that we did everything according to the law, we sure tried. The law
is so convoluted but what our Association homeowners enjoyed for the first
time was a totally secret ballot."
.......My best, BR FROM SAN DIEG0
