Thanks to the Florida Legislative session of 2015, condo and Homeowners Associations are now able to hold elections for all association matters online! Voting platforms are required to comply with the secret ballot procedure required by Chapters 718 and 719 of the Florida Statutes for condominium and cooperative owners, which allows members in condominium, cooperative and homeowners' associations to cast their votes digitally. Nowadays, electing a new board of directors, approving alterations, amending governing documents, or waiving reserves can be performed from the comfort of your home and at a convenient time for you. Say Goodbye to the old, time consuming and resource consuming voting methods and say hello to the future with Online Voting for your Homeowner Association.

Lets talk about a HOA’s dream come true. These are the 6 reasons why using an electronic voting platform should be a no-brainer:

1. E-voting Increases Homeowner Involvement

When you provide homeowners their own time to review any and all candidates, instructions and communications of voting activities, they are able to study their options carefully and vote when it's timely for them. Casting an electronic vote takes less than one minute and members can vote whenever and wherever they are without having to attend meetings and without having to mail ballots. Email notifications to members’ boosts participation for busy homeowners and the online convenience boosts participation to homeowners abroad.

2. It Saves Money

Voting online has a one-time fee associated to set-up your organization that varies depending on the amount of units or parcels in your community. After that, you can choose between paying each individual voting session and choosing an unlimited voting package that permits unlimited voting sessions throughout the year. Online voting is 100% automated and requires no equipment. No paper ballots, no postage and no printing saves you money, but the real savings are on managerial labor hours that ballot distribution and hand tallying require to pull off in-person, mail, or machine voting systems.

3. It Saves Time for the Property Managers, the Home Owners & the Board Members

Traditional voting methods such as in-person and mail-in are outdated and inefficient. In-person voting requires the most amount of time for residents and officials, Mail-in votes can only be opened and tallied in front of the board, and machine voting comes with a whole other set of inconveniences including manual collection and counting. When you vote online, it eradicates the problems of usual in-person, mail-in and machine voting, and frees up time for condo residents and officials.

For property management companies in Florida the relief of digital voting starts with easy uploading and continues with automated election results online in real-time, and detailed analytics for each election. With VTR all processes for HOA official are automated; you simply create custom ballots for Electoral and Non-Electoral voting in a matter of minutes, set the time and date limits for your elections, track each vote in real time, and export results to a PDF file with just one click. Automated and manual reminders are sent to residents and officials.

4. Sit Back and Relax, the Process Couldn’t be Simpler

Voting online is very simple and the registration process ensures residents only have to do it once. To get started with Florida condominium or homeowners association e-voting, residents or property managers must contact their board and take this to a vote (kinda ironic, right?).  Once the board makes a decision owners just have to opt in via e-mail, create an account and done!

Property management companies, board members and homeowners alike, can set up quickly and load data that is easily accessible and verifiable. Vote counts are automatically generated and reported without duplicate ballots or other discrepancies. The results reflect online in real-time. If some physical ballots do exist, you can print the results and use it to help tally automated with physical.

5. It's Private and Secure

Homeowner privacy is enhanced when voting online and so is the security of their vote. Electronic voting systems such as VTR, are compliant with all legal requirements in the state of Florida. Every vote is protected by 2048-Bit SSL encryption and a 2-Factor Authentication to protect your vote’s integrity and security. Once a registered voter casts a vote, there will be no further admittance to change it. Each registered voter is provided with a receipt of his or her vote, and though it is automatically authenticated, it remains completely anonymous.

6. It's Environmentally Friendly

Nowadays, being environmentally conscious is a top priority, and digitizing processes in order to save trees speaks very highly of organizations and associations. If your Florida HOA adopts an online voting system the materials to be printed will drastically reduced, minimizing waste as well.

Voting online is a more time and cost effective, protected way, for your association to perform membership votes. In a place like Florida, where most condominium owners are seasonal occupants, there is no smarter solution than VTR. Click the button for a complete Demo and say hello to your hassle-free HOA.