Voting Process Revealed
/The existing bylaws are vague on the process by which voting is conducted as required during the regular business of a neighborhood association membership meeting. For this reason, the existing board has drafted and approved the following guidelines which will govern the votes during the upcoming meeting on Tuesday, March 12.
This might seem like a lot, but we felt the membership is entitled to a process that is clear, robust, and carried out with integrity.
Each paid membership is entitled to up to two votes (one per adult) per household.
In-person voting will be done on paper ballots, distributed, collected and counted at the association meeting.
The existing board will call on two random volunteers from among the members attending the meeting to help tally the votes, in an effort to reinforce the integrity of the count.
Only votes from due-paying members will be counted. Therefore, each ballot must be verified against the roll of active members. Due-paying members that wish to participate in the votes at the meeting will check-in at the door, confirm their membership and receive their ballot(s).
Advanced validation of the ballots will expedite the voting process, and ultimately, the tallying of the votes. Ballots will be filled out by members at the appropriate time and then collected for counting.
In an effort to expedite the voting business of the meeting, both the bylaw vote and board election will be included on the paper ballot. Members will be asked to complete the ballot completely.
If the bylaw vote fails, the automatic board election will NOT be triggered and the board election results become moot.
However, if the bylaw vote passes, the board election votes will then be calculated and tallied immediately.
For those that are unable to attend the meeting, an online absentee voting option will be provided. The absentee ballot will be powered by a Google form. A link to the absentee ballot will be posted on the neighborhood website, and will also be distributed via email.
Just like the in-person ballots, the absentee ballots will be validated against the active member roll.
The absentee ballot will request the voter’s email address, as well as the primary email address with which their membership is associated. This is how the ballots will be validated against the two votes per active membership.
Similar to early voting in municipal elections, the absentee ballot will be available for completion / submission before the start of the in-person votes. The online absentee ballot will be available for 48 hours, beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 10. Absentee voting will close at 7:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, March 12, coinciding with the beginning of the in-person meeting. The absentee votes will be totaled and available to add to the in-person votes the night of the meeting.
For the at-large positions, members can vote for up to 4 candidates (one per open seat), and the four candidates receiving the most votes are declared the winner(s). In the event of a tie in the at-large election, a run-off will be held. A "blank" ballot (essentially a blank sheet of paper) will be distributed with the original ballot. Members would then be asked to write down their favored candidate from among those in the run-off.