HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - July 23, 2021
Published: Fri, 07/23/21
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HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - July 23, 2021
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An HOAleader.com reader asks whether it's OK for community volunteers knocking on owners' doors to present and collecting individual ballots on a very intense community issue—particularly if they're not leaving blank ballots for owners to cast, they're not putting completed ballots in sealed envelopes, and they've been given a list of "challenging" homeowners (yikes!)?
In this week's tip, we discuss whether you can go door to door when owners are voting and how to avoid looking like you're improperly putting your thumb on the scale.
Let's first note that, as a general rule, door-to-door political canvassing is a form of speech, something that's protected in the United States. "In general, we don't want to impose too many restrictions on a person's right to go door to door, at least to campaign, because of the right to free speech," notes Andrea L. O'Toole, a community association lawyer for 15 years and the founder and shareholder at Andrea L. O'Toole PC in Lafayette, Calif.
One issue that ties in with voting today is the growing news about problems with the postal service. Our reader doesn't mention that specifically, but it's something experienced by Katie Anderson, PCAM, AMS, CMCA, the founding owner of Aperion Management in Bend, which manages nearly 70 condo, HOA, and townhome associations throughout Oregon.
"We've seen a huge impact because of delays with the USPS, whether with owners receiving communications or with them sending payments to us," she says. "That's probably the number-one issue we deal with as a company, and canvassing can bridge that gap in trying to engage people.
"A lot of our governing documents allow for boards to canvas to achieve quorum or thresholds of amendment votes," adds Anderson. "It's not uncommon."
Nancy T. Polomis, a partner at Hellmuth & Johnson PLLC in Edina, Minn., whose clients include local and national residential builders and developers and condos and HOAs throughout Minnesota, says ballot collecting at owners' homes isn't permitted in her state. "In Minnesota, you can't collect ballots door to door," she says. "Owners either vote at a meeting or by mailed ballot. So if someone walked into a meeting with 40 ballots, those ballots wouldn't be counted. That's different than if they walked in with 40 proxies; in that case, they'd get 40 ballots to cast."
Other states have different rules. But the most important issue is how to ensure that you don't look underhanded when you're simply trying to get out the vote. Read more about states' rules, and get tips on transparent canvassing, in our new article: https://www.hoaleader.com/members/4361.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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