Online voting
Does a HOA have the ability to eliminate in-person-voting by going to electronic online voting?
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Keith,
Let me first thank you for your very generous donation, please do not believe that I expect anything for my help. This is a very controversial issue. In 2016 state law was changed to allow non-profit corporations to use on-line voting systems. The statute that was modified was ARS 10-3708. All HOA attorneys and community managers immediately informed all association boards that they can now use on-line voting if they want, because they are all for the most part non-profit corporations. Ignoring the fact that the non-profit corporation act cannot supersede any provision in the planned community or condominium act. Both those statutes specifically identify that all voting in these communities must be done in-person and by absentee ballot. Additionally, both the planned community act and condominium act specifically excludes the use of ARS 10-3708 for these communities. This is not convenient for the HOA attorneys, so they just ignore it claiming that an on-line voting system is simply another form of delivery for absentee ballots. This is simply untrue, as these systems are complex voting programs accessed via the internet and easily manipulated.
It has always been by understanding of the literal language in the statutes that on-line voting is not appropriate for these communities based on the current law. The most significant issue here is that even in the non-profit corporation statute, the use of an online system is only authorized if certain conditions are met and the corporation allows anyone that does not want to use the on-line system to be provided a paper ballot. This is another issue that the attorneys and community managers conveniently ignore or forget to tell homeowners. You absolutely under any circumstance must be allowed to use a paper in-person or absentee ballot. They don’t want to have to do any more work and don’t want you to know that you have a choice.
I personally don’t have a problem with the use of an on-line voting system as long as the association board and the community managers are not allowed to manage the system during the voting process and adequate controls are applied to ensure the integrity of the voting process. These systems are most useful for large communities and of very little value for small communities.
I’ll be proposing legislation to reform the entire voting process for these communities and allowing an on-line voting system with the necessary controls in place. Even in my proposed legislation any homeowner that is not comfortable with the use of an on-line voting system must be allowed to vote with a paper ballot.
To your very simple question, these systems are in use throughout the state in large communities today and in my opinion this is totally illegal under Arizona Law as it applies today.
Dennis