In this week's tip, we use news from California to check in with our experts on whether electronic voting is the big, money-saving game changer for condos and HOAs that so many have predicted.
Beginning next month, California's Davis-Stirling act will permit electronic voting in elections. E-voting, rather than sending ballots by ever-costly snail mail, sounds like a great way to save money.
But is it?
Jennifer Biletnikoff, a shareholder in the Naples, Fla., office of
Becker & Poliakoff, who has represented condos and HOAs for more than 15 years, isn't seeing clients have much success in saving money on their elections.
"A couple of years ago, Florida added the ability for boards to adopt e-voting,
much like California," she explains. "But the issue is that you can't require everyone to vote electronically. Owners have to consent to receiving electronic notices and to e-voting.
"There may be some cost savings because if people are
consenting to e-voting, you don't have the mailing costs, but there are still people who don't opt into e-voting," adds Biletnikoff. "I also hear a lot of association managers complaining that the addition of e-voting makes elections a little more administratively burdensome because they have to keep an updated list of owners who consented to e-voting and those who haven't and therefore who gets a mail ballot and who doesn't."