electronic voting

Online Voting for Community Associations

We recently concluded a membership vote to adopt an entirely new set of CC&Rs and Bylaws.  The CC&Rs require 75% of all owners to approve, and the Bylaws require 51%. With nearly 300 lots in the community, it was a high number of "yes" votes to receive.  Surprisingly, within a matter of weeks the necessary votes were received and the documents approved. The Association appointed a committee to oversee and coordinate the "governing document project." After an initial meeting to review the challenges with the original governing documents, CALAW created a first draft of the CC&Rs and Bylaws.  Those drafts were reviewed, comments were solicited, and revisions were made.  After one more round of meetings and revisions, we were ready to present the proposed documents to the owners.

First, we posted drafts of the proposed documents on the internet for owners to review and download. Shortly after the documents were provided to the owners, the first of two townhall-style meetings were held.  At the first meeting, attorney Kevin Harker reviewed each section of the CC&Rs and Bylaws, explaining the meaning of each provision and reasons for inclusion.

For the next several days after the meeting, we collected feedback from the owners. Once the owners' concerns and comments were incorporated into a new draft, a second townhall meeting was held to ensure that owners understood the importance and significance of adopting new CC&Rs and Bylaws.

Then came the voting. Owners voted through an online ballot:

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As soon as owners clicked "submit", the vote was recorded in an online spreadsheet:

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The spreadsheet contained a separate area which kept a live tally of the votes:

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With the required number of votes received, the next step was to sign and record.  Community Association Law Group uses Simplifile to upload and record documents to the county recorder's office:

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Thirty minutes later the documents were recorded with the county recorder's office:

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Once recorded, the documents were official!

 

 

 

Electronic Voting

By statute, Oregon condominiums and homeowners associations may use electronic voting for association matters. ORS 100.428 governs electronic voting for condominiums in Oregon, and ORS 94.661 applies to Oregon planned communities. (Washington community association may also use electronic voting if the governing documents allow.) In communities where many owners live off-site, this is an effective way to increase participation and voter turnout. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1) Notice of the electronic vote should be sent via postal mail. The notice should explain what will be voted on and the website address to access the online ballot.

2) The vote is effective as soon as it's electronically transmitted.

3) A vote by electronic ballot may not be revoked.

4) The board must adopt policies or procedures to ensure compliance with the statutory written ballot requirements. Those requirements include specific notice provisions to owners and the right of owners to request secret ballots.

Take a look at a sample electronic ballot here: Sample Online Ballot