Condo Media - May 2011 - 20

ASKED & ANSWERED

Anonymous Balloting
To Do or Not to Do

QUESTION: I recently participated in my first association election and was surprised ballots must include our name and address to be counted. We understand votes must be tabulated according to the percentage interest of owners, but why can’t this be accomplished through anonymous balloting? Color-coded ballots could accomplish this pretty easily. Owners could obtain blank ballots of the appropriate color and then vote anonymously. Board members said that would be too complicated and costly. The association manager got defensive; he said it appears we doubt

his integrity or his ability to tabulate the ballots honestly and fairly. But, how we vote is no one’s business, including our property manager’s, and we see nothing in the condominium documents specifying how the balloting must be conducted. Are there statutory or other requirements that would prevent the board from implementing anonymous balloting? ANSWER: Absent language in the governing documents, the board is free to use any balloting method it chooses that owners are willing to accept. But the board’s concerns about the logistics

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and costs of anonymous voting are reasonable, says Daniel Polvere, a partner in the Massachusetts law firm McCullough, Stievater, and Polvere. This explains why he isn’t aware of any associations that have made that change. As you note correctly, there must be some way of verifying votes are cast consistent with owners’ percentage interests. The color-coded ballots you suggest would not entirely address that problem, Polvere points out, because for units with multiple owners, you would still need a means of verifying that the ballot comes from the owner the others have designated to cast the vote. Mail-in ballots create a similar problem, Polvere says; you need some way of confirming the ballot or proxy comes from the owner authorized to vote the percentage interest of that unit. Otherwise, Polvere notes, “it could come from anyone. You could create ballots with bar codes,” he says, but, again, “this gets very complicated” and expensive. Even without the specific problems Polvere noted, creating special ballots and having someone match them against the owners’ list and distribute them will add time and expense to the process. It is more straightforward, Polvere says, to have owners sign their names and add their addresses to the ballots they cast by mail or in person. If you still want to pursue this change, find other owners (the more the better) who share your preference for anonymous balloting. Then do research on your own to identify a cost-effective balloting process to recommend to the board. If enough owners back the change — and are willing to accept the additional cost — the board will probably go along if it is consistent with the community's governing documents. CM

CONDO MEDIA • MAY 2011

Condo Media - May 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Condo Media - May 2011