Academy/Voting & Board Decisions
Secret ballots
What a secret ballot actually protects, and why your board itself usually can't use one.
A secret ballot is a vote cast so no one, not even the board, can trace it back to the person who cast it. Some HOA votes, like electing directors, must legally be secret-balloted in certain states. At board meetings, directors themselves generally cannot vote by secret ballot, except often when electing officers.
What secrecy actually protects
A secret ballot exists for one reason: so a member can vote their true position without worrying who is watching. Robert's Rules ties the whole method to that discomfort, not to changing who wins.
"The main object of this form of voting is secrecy, and it is resorted to when the question is of such a nature that some members might hesitate to vote publicly their true sentiments."
Source: Robert's Rules of Order (1915 edition), constitution.org
Secrecy changes who can see the vote. It does not change what threshold the vote needs to pass. A secret ballot on a motion that needs a majority still needs more than half of the votes cast, and abstentions still don't count toward either side.
Which votes must be secret, and which don't
Most day-to-day board motions, approving a budget line, hiring a vendor, aren't legally required to be secret. Some categories of vote get singled out by statute because the stakes to individual owners are higher: contested director elections, assessment votes, and amendments to the governing documents.
"Elections regarding assessments legally requiring a vote, election and removal of directors, amendments to the governing documents, or the grant of exclusive use of common area."
Source: California Civil Code Section 5100, California Legislative Information
Which topics your state requires to be secret-balloted, and what triggers that requirement, depends on your own state statute and your bylaws. California's list above is one example, not a national rule.
Boards run on a different rule set
The protections built around an owner's secret vote at a membership meeting often don't flip over and apply to the board itself. In at least one state's statute governing HOA boards, directors are barred from voting by secret ballot at their own board meetings, with one carve-out.
"Directors may not vote by proxy or by secret ballot at board meetings, except that secret ballots may be used in the election of officers."
Source: Florida Statutes Section 720.303, Florida Legislature
The logic behind that rule: a director is accountable to the membership for how they vote, and a secret vote hides the thing owners are supposed to be able to hold them to. That accountability is also part of why some states require every director's vote, or abstention, to be written into the minutes by name. See Recording dissent. Whether your board may ever use a secret ballot, and whether individual votes must be named in the minutes, depends on your state statute and your bylaws.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
The board announces a special assessment failed, then reads aloud that Mrs. Kim voted no. What has been violated?
A board is voting on whether to hire a landscaping contractor. One director asks to mark a paper ballot instead of raising a hand, so no one can see her vote. What should the chair say?
The board plans to elect directors by show of hands to save time. What should they check first?
Sources
- Robert's Rules of Order, Henry M. Robert (1915 edition), constitution.org
- California Civil Code Section 5100, California Legislative Information
- Florida Statutes Section 720.303, Florida Legislature
Related elsewhere in the Academy
Voting & Board Decisions
Next, see the tool that does the opposite job of a secret ballot: Roll-call votes puts every vote on the record by name.
Which votes must be secret-balloted, if any, and whether your board itself may ever use a secret ballot vary by state statute and by your governing documents. Check both before you set a voting method.