Condominium Boards in the United States

This past spring we looked at the different condominium board election processes across the Canadian Provinces. Over the next few weeks, I want to focus on the country south of the 49th parallel and take a look at the condominium board election process in the United States.

In the past few years, the condominium industry has boomed, particularly in major metro areas including New York City, Miami, San Francisco, Chicago, and Seattle. And it is in those cities that we will look at the state condominium by-laws regarding condo elections. While many communities will still have homeowner associations with their own rules and regulations, there is usually a condominium act that they must adhere to.

The Uniform Condominium Act

Many states have adopted the Uniform Condominium Act, instead of writing their act in regards to condominiums.

For elections, sometimes unit owners will operate on a one vote per unit basis, and other times there will be a weighted voting system put into effect. For example, in an election for a new Board of Directors, each unit owner will have an equal vote. However, on matters concerning ratification of the common expense budget, where the commercial unit owners paid a much larger share than their proportion of the total units, the vote of commercial unit owners would be increased to 3 times the number of votes the residential owners held.

Why Online Elections Help Condominium Boards

1. It shows that you care about your owners and tenants. Using online election software is a sign of modernity and helps increase voter turnout, due to ease of use. Most condo by-laws mandate a quora of at least 51% of owners be present at a meeting to conduct a vote, so by doing it online, you can surely reach that number.
2. Security and confidentiality. Any election that can impact someone’s life needs to be secure. Condominiums can have a lot of  families, and decisions that board makes directly impacts their lives. ElectionBuddy uses 256 bit encryption – the same security major banks rely on to keep you data safe in transit.
3. Not everyone is familiar with candidates for a condo board. These aren’t elections that involve a whole lot of campaigning. That’s why ElectionBuddy offers the ability to add candidate profiles. This way voters can know exactly who they are casting a ballot for. If you would to learn more about adding candidate biographies, click here to read an article on the feature.
4. It’s tidy. Seriously. Paper ballots can get tidy and lead to tampering. As previously stated, online elections are very secure and organized. Don’t believe me? Try ElectionBuddy for yourself. It’s free to sign up, and free for elections under 20 voters.!

What’s the voting process like in your condominium? Have you tried online elections yet? Feel free to reach out to us at support@electionbuddy.com.