Follow the instructions in the election package you received. If you are voting on paper, mark the ballot but do not sign it, seal it in the smaller inner envelope, put that inside the pre-addressed outer envelope, then sign the upper left corner of the outer envelope and add your name and address or unit identifier. If your association has adopted electronic voting, your package will instead contain instructions and credentials for logging in. Either way, the ballot has to reach the inspector of elections by the deadline printed in your materials.

You generally have two options. You can mail it in the pre-addressed return envelope included in your package, or you can hand it in at the meeting or drop it in the designated on-site ballot box if your association provides one. The physical address for returning ballots must be stated in the notice the association sends at least 30 days before ballots go out, under Civil Code section 5115. If you are voting electronically, you submit through the voting system rather than by mail.

Contact our office and we will issue a replacement. Do not wait until the last few days: replacements have to be produced, mailed and returned before the deadline, and postal transit time counts against you. Under Civil Code section 5105, an association cannot deny you a ballot for any reason other than not being a member at the time ballots were distributed, so if you were a member then, you are entitled to a ballot.

Yes. Civil Code section 5115 sets up a double-envelope system modelled on the way California counties handle vote-by-mail. The ballot itself is never signed, because that would destroy the secrecy of your vote. Instead you sign the outer envelope so the inspector can confirm you are a member entitled to vote. An unsigned outer envelope cannot be verified, and the ballot inside it may not be counted.

No. Under Civil Code section 5120, once a secret ballot is received by the inspector of elections it is irrevocable. This is deliberate: the inspector cannot open the envelope to swap out your ballot without breaking the secrecy the statute protects. If you are undecided, hold the ballot until you have made up your mind, but leave enough time for it to arrive.

Only if your association has adopted electronic voting. It is not automatic. Under Civil Code section 5105, the board has to adopt an election operating rule that authorises the inspector to run the election by electronic secret ballot, and even then, votes on regular or special assessments still have to be done on paper. Where electronic voting is available, associations commonly run it as a hybrid so members who prefer paper can keep voting on paper.

An independent third party called the inspector of elections, appointed under Civil Code section 5110. The board does not count, and neither does the management company. The inspector cannot be a director, a candidate, a relative of either, or a firm that already does other paid work for the association. We explain the whole role on our page about the California HOA inspector of elections.

Yes. Civil Code section 5120 requires the count to happen in public at a properly noticed open meeting of the board or of the members, and it says any candidate or other member may witness the counting and tabulation. Nobody, including the manager, is allowed to open or review a ballot before that meeting.

The inspector reports the tabulated results to the board promptly, and they are recorded in the minutes of the next board meeting and made available for member review. Separately, Civil Code section 5120 requires the board to give general notice of the tabulated results within 15 days of the election.

Only if your bylaws allow proxies, and a proxy is never a substitute for a ballot. Civil Code section 5130 defines a proxy as a written, signed authorisation letting another member vote on your behalf, and it makes clear that the proxyholder still has to cast the vote by secret ballot. Any instruction telling the proxyholder how to vote must appear on a separate page you can keep. You can revoke the proxy any time before the inspector receives the ballot, under Corporations Code section 7613.

No. Civil Code section 5105 requires the election rules to prohibit denying a ballot to a member for any reason other than not being a member when ballots were distributed. Being behind on assessments can affect whether you may run as a candidate, if your association has adopted a rule to that effect, but it does not take away your right to vote.

Yes, and there is a deadline attached. Civil Code section 5105 requires the association to let members verify their own information on the voter list and the candidate list at least 30 days before ballots are distributed. Report the error to the association or the inspector, and the inspector has to make the correction within two business days.

Yes. Civil Code section 5105 requires the election rules to prohibit denying a ballot to a person with general power of attorney for a member, and to require that the ballot be counted if it is returned on time.

It stays with the inspector. Civil Code section 5125 puts the sealed ballots, signed voter envelopes, voter list, proxies, candidate registration list and electronic tally sheet in the custody of the inspector, or a location the inspector designates, until after tabulation and until the one-year challenge window in Civil Code section 5145 has closed. Only then does custody pass to the association.

Start by asking the inspector, in writing, to make the ballots and tally sheet available for inspection, which Civil Code section 5125 allows where there is a recount or a challenge. Beyond that, Civil Code section 5145 lets a member bring a civil action within one year of the date the inspector notified the board and membership of the results. If the member shows the procedures were not followed, the court must void the results unless the association proves the noncompliance did not change the outcome, and a prevailing member can recover attorney fees plus a civil penalty of up to five hundred dollars per violation. This page is general information, not legal advice; talk to an attorney about your situation.

Civil Code section 5100 applies the secret ballot procedures to four categories, regardless of what the governing documents say: elections on assessments that legally require a vote, election and removal of directors, amendments to the governing documents, and grants of exclusive use of common area under Civil Code section 4600. Article 4 also governs any other topic the association expressly identifies in its operating rules, and it applies to incorporated and unincorporated associations alike.

Civil Code section 5100 requires an election for a board seat at the expiration of that director’s term, and at least once every four years regardless.

Yes. Civil Code section 5110 says the association shall select an independent third party or parties as inspector of elections. There is no exception for small associations or uncontested elections. What varies is who you appoint and how much work you ask them to take on.

Almost never. Civil Code section 5110 disqualifies any person, business entity, or subdivision of a business entity currently employed by or under contract to the association for any compensable service other than serving as inspector. If your management company already bills the association for management, it is out, and it cannot cure the conflict by using a different division. See our inspector of elections page for the full test.

One or three. Civil Code section 5110 permits no other number. Where there are three, a decision by a majority is as effective as a unanimous one.

Your election operating rules have to say. Civil Code section 5105 requires the rules to specify a method of selecting one or three independent third parties, and it offers appointment by the board, election by the members, or any other method you write down. The inspector may also appoint helpers to verify signatures and count votes, provided those people are themselves independent third parties who meet the Civil Code section 5110 test.

Three thirty-day windows drive the calendar under Civil Code section 5115: general notice of the nomination procedure and deadline at least 30 days before the nomination deadline; general notice of the return address, tabulation meeting, and candidate list at least 30 days before ballots are distributed; and the ballots themselves delivered at least 30 days before the voting deadline. Members must also be able to verify the voter and candidate lists at least 30 days before distribution under Civil Code section 5105. We keep a full deadline table on our resources page.

If your governing documents require a quorum for a director election, Civil Code section 5115 lets you tell members in advance that the association may call a reconvened meeting at least 20 days after the scheduled election, at which the quorum drops to 20 percent of members voting in person, by proxy or by secret ballot. That statement has to be in the pre-ballot notice, so the option has to be set up before ballots go out, not improvised on the night. It does not apply if your governing documents already provide for a lower quorum.

Sometimes. Civil Code section 5103 allows it when the number of qualified candidates at the nomination deadline is no more than the number of vacancies, but only if you satisfy every condition: a regular director election held in the last three years, individual notice of the election and nomination procedure at least 90 days before the nomination deadline, a reminder notice between 7 and 30 days before that deadline containing the specified contents, written acknowledgment to the nominator within seven business days, written notice to the nominee within seven business days confirming qualification or explaining disqualification and the appeal route, and a board vote at a meeting whose agenda names each candidate to be seated. Miss one and acclamation is not available.

Two categories. Civil Code section 5105 requires disqualification if the person was not a member at the time of nomination or has served the maximum number of terms your association allows, and a director who stops being a member is disqualified from continuing to serve. Beyond that, and only through your bylaws or election operating rules, you may disqualify someone who is not current on regular and special assessments, who would serve alongside a joint owner of the same parcel, who has been a member for less than one year, or whose past criminal conviction would prevent or terminate the insurance required by Civil Code section 5806. You cannot disqualify anyone who has not been given the chance to use internal dispute resolution.

Yes, if your bylaws or election rules say so, and Civil Code section 5105 then requires you to apply the same standard to sitting directors. But the disqualification is limited to regular and special assessments. You may not disqualify for unpaid fines, fines renamed as assessments, collection charges, late charges, or costs levied by a third party. And the person is not disqualified if they paid under protest under Civil Code section 5658 or are complying with a payment plan under Civil Code section 5665.

Yes, by adopting an election operating rule under Civil Code section 5105 that authorises the inspector to conduct the election by electronic secret ballot. Elections on regular or special assessments are excluded. The rule has to let members change their preferred voting method, and the platform has to meet the requirements in Civil Code section 5110: authenticate each voter, verify that ballots are not altered in transit, issue a receipt, permanently separate identifying information from the ballot, and store ballots so they stay accessible for recount and review. Members also need a way to confirm at least 30 days before the deadline that their own device works with the system. Note that Civil Code section 5105 bars amending election rules within 90 days of an election, so this has to be done well ahead.

No. Civil Code section 5135 prohibits using association funds for campaign purposes in a board election. Campaign purposes expressly include advocating for or against a candidate, and including a candidate’s photograph or prominently featuring their name in an association communication within 30 days of an election, apart from the ballot, ballot materials, or a legally required communication. Newsletters and blast emails are where boards get into trouble.

Until the one-year challenge window in Civil Code section 5145 closes. Under Civil Code section 5125 the inspector holds the ballots, envelopes, voter list, proxies, candidate registration list and electronic tally sheet until after tabulation and until that period expires, at which point custody transfers to the association.

Removal of directors is one of the four votes Civil Code section 5100 pushes into the Article 4 secret ballot process, so a recall needs an inspector, the same notices, the same double envelopes and the same public count as a regular election. The trigger and the threshold come from the Corporations Code: Corporations Code section 7510 lets 5 percent or more of the members call a special meeting, and Corporations Code section 7222 sets the approval standard for removal without cause, which differs depending on whether the association has fewer than 50 members. Where cumulative voting is authorised, Corporations Code section 7222 also protects an individual director from removal if the votes against removal would have been enough to elect them.

Civil Code section 5145 lets any member sue within one year of the date the inspector notified the board and membership of the results. If the member shows by a preponderance of the evidence that Article 4 or the election rules were not followed, the court shall void the results unless the association proves the noncompliance did not affect the outcome. A prevailing member gets reasonable attorney fees and costs, and the court may add a civil penalty of up to five hundred dollars per violation. A prevailing association recovers nothing unless the court finds the action frivolous. Redoing a voided election is usually the smaller of the two costs.

Work backwards from the ballot deadline and you need roughly 90 to 120 days. The three thirty-day notice windows in Civil Code section 5115 stack rather than overlap, acclamation under Civil Code section 5103 requires a notice 90 days before the nomination deadline, and election rules cannot be amended within 90 days of an election under Civil Code section 5105. If you are changing anything about how you run elections, that change has to happen before the 90-day window opens. Our election timeline calculator will work the dates for you.

We serve community associations throughout Orange, Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and we run paper, electronic and hybrid elections. Tell us your association size, your target election date and your preferred voting method and we will send a written proposal.