Demands for "transparency" have now reached the most local of all voting traditions: Your Homeowner Association's elections!
As of January 1, 2020, the rules all change:
With the passage and enactment of SB323 (Senate Bill 323), the State of California has imposed new, completely different and fully mandatory requirements for all HOA elections, including strict minimum notice periods, deadlines for delivery of specific pre-vote notices to the membership, mandatory pre-paid first-class mailing of ballots, ballot instructions, voting rules, and the secure post-election storage of all member ballots and voting materials for purposes of any possible recount or legal challenge to the voting process.
Non-compliance can threaten the function, operation and leadership of your Association, because SB323 allows any Association member to overturn the results of an election not held in full conformity with the new voting regime, simply by filing a small-claims court lawsuit, without even hiring legal counsel. Under the new law, simply failing to correct or update candidate registration and voter lists -- within just two business days -- can result in exposure to a minimum civil fine of $500!
The most important change brought by SB323 is that your Association's elections can no longer be conducted or supervised by its professional community managers or corporate counsel. To comply with SB323, your Association now needs a fully independent "Inspector of Elections" to protect its voting process and election results from costly and disruptive court challenges.
BallotWatchers is here to be your SB323 election solution, offering a full range of scalable, statutorily compliant election service packages to meet the individual needs and budgets of every planned community in California.