I think it’s still clear in the minds of many how exciting and anxiety-ridden an election can be for voters and candidates alike. There are different views and options and people are passionate about them.   Well, electing the board of directors of your condominium may seem mundane in the big scheme of elections, but it actually can have a huge impact on you personally and should be taken seriously.  You are electing volunteering neighbors to act on behalf of you and other owners to make rules you must live by, and make improvements to the property, at their discretion.  They have free reign to spend your money and to raise your fees if they don’t have enough money to do what needs done along with what they want done.  They get to hire the people that will make these changes to your property.  In our condominium, they even get to decide who enters the building and who can’t.   They may hold the future of your property value in their hands!  So in my opinion, it is a very big deal who runs and who is elected to the board of a condominium.  You should take extra care, do your research and see who you are voting for, and/or who you give your proxy to – it could be an expensive choice!

Luckily, there are lots of rules to keep it as fair as possible. Unfortunately, when I went to my one and only annual meeting when the election was held, I was pretty much unaware of the rules and even when I asked, I was told, “oh you’ll see, it’s pretty simple and self-explanatory”.  If I knew then what I know now, I would have known things were not exactly being done “by the book”.   It’s common in life to just do things the way they’ve always been done in the past, but that isn’t always the correct way.  Here’s some interesting facts I’ve gathered from the Montgomery County Code, The Maryland Condominium Act, the CCOC Manual Resource Guide and M22 Bylaws about our condo’s election process:

• There should be a creation and publication of an Election Calendar. It should let all the unit owners know about the schedule of things, like the call for candidates, the deadline for receipt of nominations, the date the election materials will be mailed, the deadline for receipt of proxies and the proposed annual meeting date.
• All election materials prepared with association funds must list candidates in alphabetical order, be in the same format and standardized so not to suggest any preference. Extra caution should be taken to be sure there are no errors, typographical or otherwise, and pay particular attention to dates and times.
• Unsigned absentee ballots are not valid unless received in a signed, sealed envelope, with the identification of the unit on the outside of the envelope, and can only be opened at a meeting at which the candidates can attend.
• All proxy ballots must identify the candidates for whom they are voting for, those are referred to as directed proxies; and undirected proxies cannot be used to vote for candidates but they can be used to establish a quorum for the meeting and for voting on other business.
• In accordance with the Article IV, Section 9, as amended, of our bylaws, each unit owner, including board members, can only place 2 votes – one being their own vote and one proxy vote.
• All voters, including those voting by proxy, must be in good standing, indicating they are current with their fees and/or have no pending violations.
• Votes may not be opened or counted until the time for voting closes.

Other things I found before last year that I realized everyone didn’t know are that owners can run for our board, even if they don’t live there; renters can run for the board and do not need written permission from their unit’s owner. Also, M22 found out the hard way in 2015, when five board members are elected, three must be owners and two may be renters.

Some of the rules may seem a little tedious or like they might take extra time, but as I mentioned, this is an important piece of business that should be taken seriously.

I do look forward to the next Annual Meeting, it will be a whole different experience now that I have educated myself on these matters. Will I run again?  We’ll just have to wait and see!