Traditionally, HOAs conduct voting through paper ballots and mailings. However, advancements in technology are leading more communities to take advantage of HOA electronic voting as it creates a convenient way for busy homeowners to participate in elections and provides savings on printing and mailing ballots.
To learn how to enable electronic voting for your HOA, follow these four simple steps.
Step 1: Make Sure It’s Legal
Electronic voting provides a new and exciting opportunity for all HOAs. Despite the benefits, some states have laws that make it more difficult to implement. Florida, for example, requires paper ballots to be sent even if a homeowner consents to electronic voting. In this case, electronic voting might improve participation in elections but wouldn’t save on printing and mailing expenses.
It’s also important to ensure your association’s bylaws don’t prohibit different forms of voting. If it’s not specified, you can move on to creating a resolution.
Step 2: Craft a Resolution
Crafting a resolution is essentially developing the procedures your association will follow for electronic voting and detailing it in the association bylines. This will ultimately protect your elections from being legally challenged down the road.
Important components to specify include:
- Deciding if voters can opt-in or out of electronic voting based on preference
- Determining if the board will send both a paper ballot and instructions for electronic voting
- The different types of communications the board can send homeowners electronically
- If homeowners are able to change their preferred way of voting
Step 3: Send Notices to Homeowners
After creating a resolution it’s time to notify homeowners. Take into consideration that different states have different requirements for notices. According to federal guidelines, HOAs must give homeowners at least 4 days notice before holding a meeting. However, some states differ, for example, California requires 10 days notice while Florida requires 14 days notice. With that said, it’s important to check the guidelines of your state to ensure you’re sending communications with the right amount of lead time.
Services from printing and mailing companies, like Page Per Page, are invaluable in these situations. Their expertise in community mailings can help you send notices quickly and get buy-in from homeowners with ease. They can handle every step of sending communications from concept to design leaving you to focus on getting approval to revise the bylines.
Step 4: Utilize Electronic Voting Platforms
Once your homeowners are notified of the changes, you can take advantage of platforms built specifically to enable easy online voting. Major benefits of choosing a platform designed for HOA electronic voting include:
- Voting efficiency: A greater likelihood they will meet legal conditions of HOA voting regulations
- More participation: Voting on-the-go for busy homeowners makes participation more likely as they don’t have to physically mail a vote or go to a voting location
- Integration: Electronic voting can be integrated into some of the best HOA websites
- Faster results: Most voting platforms give you updates in real-time
One of the best online voting platforms you can utilize is Association Vote. Using it, board members can create ballots with ease and alert voters of a new ballot by email, US mail, or both. Homeowners will then be able to cast a vote on-the-go and track election results in real-time, 24/7. Association Vote aims to simplify the entire process from transition to implementation ensuring a better experience for everyone.
Make the Transition Easy with Page Per Page
The process of implementing electronic voting for your HOA can be challenging in the beginning, but it can also improve the efficiency of voting in your community in the long run.
By utilizing the services of Page Per Page you can alleviate some of the stress that comes with transitioning to HOA electronic voting. Their team of experienced designers and marketers help to create and quickly mail anything from resolution meeting announcements to reminders of upcoming elections.
With Page Per Page’s help, you can reinvigorate your community’s involvement in HOA decision-making by offering a seamless, modern solution to HOA elections.
