The Complete Guide to California HOA Elections

Every California homeowners association election of directors runs on the same statutory track: Civil Code sections 5100 through 5145. The sequence is not flexible, the deadlines are minimums rather than targets, and a member who can show the association skipped a step has a year to ask a court to void the result. This guide walks the process in the order you will actually hit it, written by the inspectors who run these elections rather than by lawyers describing them from the outside.

HOA Elections of California is a professional third-party inspector of elections based in San Clemente. We serve homeowners associations throughout California, including Orange, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

When California law requires a secret ballot

Civil Code 5100 requires a secret ballot election for four things: assessments that legally require a member vote, the election and removal of directors, amendments to the governing documents, and grants of exclusive use of common area under Section 4600. An association must also hold an election for each board seat when that director’s term expires, and at least once every four years regardless.

Operating rules can add other topics to that list. The article applies to incorporated and unincorporated associations alike, and a contrary provision in the CC&Rs does not override it.

Step 1: Freeze your election operating rules 90 days out

Civil Code 5105 requires the association to adopt election operating rules covering equal candidate access to association media and to common area meeting space at no cost, candidate qualifications and nomination procedures, voting power and proxies, the voting period and poll hours, and the method for selecting the inspector.

Two practical traps sit inside that list. A nomination procedure that prevents a member from nominating themself is not reasonable under the statute. And election operating rules cannot be amended less than 90 days before an election. If your board is still arguing about the rules inside that window, the election date has to move, not the rules.

Step 2: Appoint an independent inspector of elections

Civil Code 5110 requires one or three independent third parties. The bar for independent is higher than most boards expect. An inspector may be a member of the association, but may not be a director, a candidate for director, or related to either. An inspector also may not be any person or business currently employed by or under contract to the association for any other compensable service.

That last clause is what disqualifies the community manager, the association’s bookkeeper and the management company itself. The inspector determines voting power, rules on proxies, receives ballots, hears every challenge, counts and tabulates, decides when the polls close, and determines the tabulated result. More detail is on our page about what a California inspector of elections does.

Step 3: Call for nominations and build the two lists

Civil Code 5115 subdivision (a) requires general notice of the nomination procedure and the nomination deadline at least 30 days before that deadline.

Section 5105 then requires the association to keep two election records: a candidate registration list, and a voter list showing each voter’s name, voting power and property identifier. Members must be allowed to verify their own information on both lists at least 30 days before ballots are distributed, and the inspector has two business days to correct an error.

Disqualification is tightly constrained. Not being a member at the time of nomination and having served the maximum number of terms are mandatory disqualifiers. Other grounds have to come from the bylaws or the election rules, and a nominee generally has to be offered internal dispute resolution before being disqualified.

Step 4: Check whether the seats can be filled by acclamation

Civil Code 5103 lets a board seat uncontested candidates without balloting, but only if a demanding checklist was satisfied in advance:

• a regular director election was held within the last three years;
• an initial nomination notice went out at least 90 days before the nomination deadline;
• a reminder notice went out between 7 and 30 days before that deadline;
• each nomination was acknowledged in writing within seven business days;
• each nominee was told in writing within seven business days that they are qualified, or why they are not;
• every properly nominated candidate was permitted to run; and
• the board voted to seat the candidates at a properly agendized open meeting that named each one.

Miss the 90-day initial notice and acclamation is off the table for that cycle. This is why acclamation has to be planned at the very start of the calendar, not discovered at the nomination deadline.

Step 5: Pre-ballot notice and ballot distribution

At least 30 days before ballots are distributed, Section 5115(b) requires general notice of the return address and the date and time ballots are due, the electronic ballot transmission deadline and preliminary voting instructions if electronic voting is used, the date, time and location of the meeting where quorum will be determined and ballots counted, and the complete list of candidates. If the governing documents require a quorum, that notice must also state that a reconvened meeting may be held at least 20 days later at a 20 percent quorum.

Ballots and two preaddressed envelopes go to every paper voter at least 30 days before the voting deadline. The ballot itself is unsigned and carries no name, address or unit number. It goes into a sealed inner envelope, which goes into a second envelope addressed to the inspector. The voter signs their name, prints their name, and identifies the property in the upper left corner of that outer envelope.

Section 5105 also requires a copy of the election rules to reach every member at least 30 days out, either delivered with the ballot or posted online with the web address printed on the ballot in at least 12-point type.

Step 6: Voting by paper, electronically, or both

AB 2159 (Stats. 2024, ch. 383) took effect on January 1, 2025 and put electronic voting on a statutory footing. An association may adopt an election operating rule allowing the inspector to run the election by electronic secret ballot, with one carve-out: elections regarding regular or special assessments cannot be conducted electronically.

The rule has to let members change their preferred voting method up to 90 days before the election, has to keep the electronic and paper ballots identical in content, and has to run either an opt-out or an opt-in structure with a maintained list of who is voting which way. Individual notice of the electronic ballot goes out 30 days before the election with instructions for reaching and using the voting system, and Civil Code 5110 requires that each electronic voter be able to confirm, at least 30 days before the deadline, that their own device can communicate with that system.

An electronic vote takes effect when it is transmitted, cannot be revoked, and counts toward quorum. If the association does not have a member’s email address when ballots are distributed, that member gets a paper ballot.

Step 7: Count the ballots in public

Civil Code 5120 requires the inspector, or the inspector’s designee, to count and tabulate in public at a properly noticed open meeting. Any candidate or member of the association may witness the count.

Nobody may open or review a ballot, or review the electronic tally sheet, before that meeting. That prohibition reaches directors, managers and employees of the management company alike. The inspector may verify signatures and voter information on the outer envelopes beforehand. Once the inspector receives a ballot, it is irrevocable.

Step 8: Report, retain, and the one-year challenge window

Results are reported promptly to the board, recorded in the minutes of the next board meeting, and made available for member review. The board must give general notice of the tabulated results within 15 days of the election.

Civil Code 5125 keeps the sealed ballots, signed voter envelopes, voter list, proxies, candidate registration list and electronic tally sheet in the inspector’s custody until after tabulation and until the challenge period has run, at which point custody transfers to the association. If there is a recount or a challenge, the inspector must make the materials available for inspection on written request, in a manner that preserves the confidentiality of individual votes.

Under Civil Code 5145, a member has one year from the results notice, or from when the cause of action accrues, whichever is later, to bring a civil action. If the member proves by a preponderance of the evidence that the procedures were not followed, the court shall void the results, unless the association proves the noncompliance did not affect the outcome. That burden shift is the reason process discipline matters more than good intentions.

What happens when quorum is not reached

A quorum is required only if the governing documents or another provision of law require one, and every ballot the inspector receives counts as a member present. If quorum fails at a director election, the association may adjourn to a date at least 20 days out, and at that reconvened meeting the quorum drops to 20 percent of members voting in person, by proxy or by secret ballot. General notice of the reconvened meeting, the candidate list and the reduced quorum must go out no less than 15 days beforehand.

The mistakes we see most often

• Using the management company, or anyone else already under contract to the association, as the inspector of elections.
• Amending election operating rules inside the 90-day freeze.
• Treating the 30-day notices as one overlapping obligation when they are separate requirements with separate triggers.
• Letting a board member or manager look at returned envelopes before the count meeting.
• Missing the 15-day results notice after the count.
• Discovering at the nomination deadline that acclamation was never set up 90 days earlier.

Timeline at a glance

The full table of minimum statutory deadlines, with the authority for each one, is on our California HOA election resources page. To turn those minimums into real calendar dates for your community, use the free HOA election timeline calculator, which works backward from your election date and adjusts for weekends and holidays.

For a section-by-section walkthrough of the statute itself, see Davis-Stirling and HOA elections: what the law requires. For shorter answers to the questions homeowners ask most, see our frequently asked questions.

Talk to an inspector of elections

Official sources

Every rule described on this page comes from Article 4 of the California Civil Code. The links below open the official statute text published by California Legislative Information.

• Civil Code 5100 — which association votes must be decided by secret ballot, and what Article 4 governs
• Civil Code 5103 — election by acclamation when the number of qualified nominees does not exceed the number of open seats
• Civil Code 5105 — the election operating rules an association must adopt, including the rules that govern electronic voting
• Civil Code 5110 — selecting an independent inspector of elections, who is disqualified from serving, and the inspector’s duties
• Civil Code 5115 — nomination notice, the candidate registration list, and the ballot and meeting notice deadlines
• Civil Code 5120 — counting ballots in public at a properly noticed open meeting, and reporting the result
• Civil Code 5125 — custody of the sealed ballots and election materials, and how long they must be retained
• Civil Code 5145 — the civil action a member may bring when an association violates Article 4
• Article 4, Member Election, sections 5100 to 5145, full text

This page is general information about California law and is not legal advice. Requirements can turn on the wording of your governing documents, and associations should confirm their obligations with their own counsel.