Inspectors of election

What an inspector of election is

An inspector of election is an independent person, or a panel, brought in specifically to run a vote, separate from the board, the management company, and any candidate. Some states require one by law. California is one of them:

"The association shall select an independent third party or parties as an inspector of elections. The number of inspectors of elections shall be one or three."

"Any report made by the inspector or inspectors of elections is prima facie evidence of the facts stated in the report."

Source: California Civil Code section 5110, California Legislature

Whether your state requires an inspector of election, and how many, varies. Check your state statute and your bylaws.

What happens at the count

Once ballots are in, California law requires the count itself to happen in the open, not behind closed doors.

"All votes shall be counted and tabulated by the inspector or inspectors of elections, or the designee of the inspector or inspectors of elections, in public at a properly noticed open meeting of the board or members."

"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

That is the point of naming an independent inspector instead of letting the board or a candidate's ally handle the ballots. Nobody gets an early look, and the result gets recorded in the minutes for every owner to review.

Not every state spells out a public-count rule this specifically. Check your state statute for what your association must do.

Inspector of election, or tellers committee?

If your bylaws name Robert's Rules as your parliamentary authority and no statute or bylaw provision creates an inspector of election, there is no inspector. Robert's Rules uses a different body: a tellers committee. A worked example from a named parliamentarian, citing Robert's Rules' own text, shows the report format a tellers committee uses, listing the "Number of Votes cast" and votes "Necessary for Election" alongside each candidate's total.

The tellers do not get the final word, either. Under Robert's Rules:

"After the votes are counted, the lead ballot counter reads aloud to the membership the complete report of the vote counts but doesn't declare the result."

Source: Robert's Rules of Order, Chapter 12 (elections), Westside Toastmasters

The presiding officer declares the result, not the counters. A state-required inspector of election and a Robert's Rules tellers committee are two different systems built for two different situations: check which one, if either, your governing documents and state statute put in place. What happens if someone disputes the count afterward is a separate question, covered in Election recounts.