Today, homeowners can participate in all condo or HOA matters without attending any meetings and at the convenience of their own time. Since October 2015, automated online voting platforms allow members in condominium, cooperative and homeowners' associations in Florida to cast their votes online! All Online voting platforms have to comply with the secret ballot procedure required by Chapters 718 and 719 of the Florida Statutes for condominium and cooperative owners.
To implement the hassle free online HOA system that will increase homeowner participation, save money, and represent the community better, the HOA Board must be onboard and all homeowners must authorize online voting with the Board of Administration first. With two weeks in advance, the Board must notify the homeowners of the meeting at which the online HOA platform will be considered by posting notice of the meeting on every property and sending a written notice and an email to all members.
The notice must include instructions on how to opt in or out of online voting and must establish a deadline of at least 14 days for homeowners to consent in writing to online voting.
The online voting platform must allow homeowners to review forms, sign documents and vote online. It must be able to authenticate the homeowners’ identification and authenticate that their vote was not altered in transit.
The system must provide all voters with a vote receipt with the date, time, user ID and vote cast that is stored by the association as an official record-and for matters of recounting, inspecting and reviewing-for at least one year.
For online board elections the electronic voting systems must be able to eliminate all identifying information from the ballot, rendering it impossible to trace the ballot to the member- making online voting very private.
Once an HOA is 100% onboard online voting the board must contact an electronic voting system vendor capable of meeting the proposed rule’s technical requirements and a representative of such will proceed with payment and set up procedures. All members, one legal owner per unit/home, will receive an email inviting them to create sign in credentials, familiarize with the platform and start voting online.
Steps for implementing online voting system for your HOA: