Electronic voting for condominiums, cooperatives and homeowners’ associations was introduced in Florida in 2015. However, now, more than ten years later, some associations still question whether electronic voting is a viable option for their community.
There are a number of potential benefits to electronic voting. First, electronic voting offers a convenient platform for owners to participate in association membership voting matters. Some owners’ lack of participation can be due to their busy lives and family commitments that make it difficult for them to make time for association matters. Further, those owners who live great distances from the community may face obstacles in participating in membership voting matters because of delays caused by mailing back their proxies and/or election ballots. While these delays can be mitigated by allowing owners to return their proxies via email (and ballots via email when the law permits emailed ballots), that still requires the owners to have to complete and return a signed proxy and/or ballot via email. Therefore, an online voting platform can make it easier for owners to participate in membership voting matters. Every person with access to a smartphone or computer may cast their electronic vote easily through an online voting portal with a few clicks. This eliminates the need for personally attending meetings or completing and submitting proxies and ballots.
Most voting platforms provide support and education to association members to assist them with casting their electronic votes. Once members become familiar with electronic voting, their participation in community affairs may increase.
Another benefit is that while there is a cost related to implementing and offering electronic voting, that cost is often mitigated when owners who consent to using electronic voting simultaneously consent to allow the association to email them notices in lieu of sending notices to them via U.S. Mail. An owner who has consented to electronic voting and electronic notices will likely save the association money on postage and copying costs (and will also receive notices without mailing delays).
Also, a reputable electronic voting system enables seamless, fast, and accurate vote counting. Votes cast electronically are tabulated automatically by the electronic voting system and are therefore not subject to the headaches and human error of counting paper ballots and proxies at membership meetings. For example, when a vote is cast electronically, no one has to discern voter intention on a poorly-marked ballot or proxy. Plus, results are much faster with computer tabulations. Some of the most positive results of implementing electronic voting results have been experienced by large communities that have convinced a large percentage of their memberships to vote electronically, thus saving hours of time at membership meetings tallying votes.
Finally, most reputable electronic voting systems also provide the association with a platform to conduct surveys within the community. In certain circumstances, this can be a very beneficial tool to a board of directors that is trying to gauge the members’ views on community issues. However, opinions on homeowner surveys within the community association industry vary widely.
Now for some of the drawbacks.
Some owners may be resistant to using electronic voting in association matters over concerns about giving out their email addresses. This makes electronic voting a challenge to implement as each owner who wishes to electronically vote must consent to participate in electronic voting and provide an email address where he or she may be reached to cast his or her electronic vote. However, while an owner’s email address for purposes of electronic notice is considered an accessible official record, the owner’s email address for electronic voting may be redacted from official records that are made available for inspection by other owners. Also, owners who remain concerned about giving out their email addresses may create a separate email address to be used only for electronic voting.
Some owners may also lack trust in the electronic voting system itself. When members attend an association meeting with in-person voting, they are able to be present for the counting of votes. Electronic votes tabulated by a computer are not witnessed. Also, upon a member’s submission of a written request to inspect ballots and proxies, that member will be able to review the paper ballots and proxies. With electronic voting however, there is no paper ballot or proxy to review, and, after electronic voting has concluded, the only official record that the association will likely maintain is a list of owners who voted electronically and a tally of the electronic voting results.
One final drawback of electronic voting is the barriers to access. Some owners are quite tech-savvy and understand the ins and out of technology. But there are still others that may have problems accessing the internet or may not have the necessary acumen to use web portal technology to participate in electronic voting with confidence that their vote was cast and will be tallied.
In summary, there are benefits and drawbacks to implementing electronic voting. Whether electronic voting is right for your community will depend upon a lot of factors. However, in spite of the drawbacks identified above, many communities are well served by the added participation that electronic voting can bring.
