Academy/Membership & Annual Meetings
Ballots
What a ballot is, when you need one, and why it isn't the same as a proxy.
A ballot is a voting method that keeps each member's vote private, most often required for board elections. If your bylaws don't require one and a race is uncontested, Robert's Rules allows a simple voice vote instead. Once required, how ballots are counted and certified is set by your state statute and bylaws, not by parliamentary procedure alone.
Ballot or voice vote?
A ballot is simply a way of voting that hides who voted for whom. Most bylaws require one for contested board elections, and some states require it by statute for certain votes. But a ballot isn't automatic just because your bylaws name Robert's Rules as your parliamentary authority.
Under Robert's Rules, if your bylaws don't require a ballot and nobody is contesting the seat, the chair can call a simple voice vote instead.
"If your bylaws don't require you to conduct an election by ballot, and if candidates are unopposed or there's no major contest for an office, you can save time with a simple voice vote (or viva voce)."
Source: Robert's Rules for Conducting Elections, Dummies.com
Once a vote is contested, or your bylaws or state statute require secrecy, a voice vote is off the table. Check your own bylaws and your state's HOA statute before assuming which one applies to a given election.
A ballot is not a proxy
Boards sometimes treat a proxy as interchangeable with a ballot. It isn't. A proxy authorizes someone else to show up and vote in your place; a ballot is the vote itself, cast privately, by whoever is actually exercising it.
California law makes the distinction explicit for its associations.
"Proxies shall not be construed or used in lieu of a ballot."
Source: California Civil Code section 5130, California Legislature
Under that same statute, a member voting by proxy still has a proxy holder who must cast that vote by secret ballot, not by a show of hands or a spoken statement. The pattern that generalizes: wherever a ballot is required, nothing else substitutes for one, not a raised hand, not a proxy holder announcing a choice out loud. Confirm the exact rule against your own bylaws and state statute.
Who counts them, and how
Once ballots are cast, who counts them and how publicly that has to happen varies. Robert's Rules' own default names a tellers committee, members appointed to distribute, collect, and count ballots, then report the tally to the presiding officer, who is the one who actually declares the winner, not the tellers themselves.
Some states go further and require an independent inspector of elections, plus rules for exactly how public the count has to be. California, for one, bars anyone from previewing the results before the scheduled count.
"A person, including a member of the association or an employee of the management company, shall not open or otherwise review any tally sheet of votes cast by electronic secret ballots before the time and place at which the ballots are counted and tabulated."
Source: California Civil Code section 5120, California Legislature
Whether your association needs an independent inspector, what counts as a public count, and how a challenge gets raised afterward is covered in Inspectors of election and Counting ballots. This varies enough by state that it's worth reading your own statute directly rather than assuming another association's process applies to you.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
Your bylaws don't require a ballot, and only one candidate is running for the open seat. Under Robert's Rules, what's the simplest valid way to elect them?
Your California association just finished a contested board election. Who is required to count the ballots?
The night before ballots are counted, a management employee opens the sealed tally sheets to get a head start. Under California's election rules, what has happened?
Sources
- Robert's Rules for Conducting Elections, Dummies.com (C. Alan Jennings, PRP)
- California Civil Code section 5130, California Legislature
- California Civil Code section 5110, California Legislature
- California Civil Code section 5120, California Legislature
- Robert's Rules of Order, Chapter 12 (elections), Westside Toastmasters
- Brainteasers: Robert's Rules of Order Q&A Archive, Jim Slaughter, JD, CPP, PRP
Related elsewhere in the Academy
Membership & Annual Meetings
Next, learn who actually counts your ballots and what happens if the count is challenged.
Whether a vote must be by ballot at all, who is allowed to count them, how public that count must be, and whether a delinquent owner can be denied a ballot all vary by state statute and by your own governing documents.