Condo Media - August 2021 - 44

The Region RHODE ISLAND
the unit owner must be in arrears for at
least 30 days. Here, the unit owner was
in arrears for only 15 days. So, again,
I just counted that ballot instead of disregarding
it. I went on to add another
14 votes to the count on 3 other ballots
that were wrongly disregarded.
I thereafter recommended the seating
of the " new " board and, unfortunately,
even with the additional votes,
the candidate requesting the recount
lost by more than one vote. All is fair
in love, war, and executive board elections,
right?
Recall Revisited
Owners Cal Reluctantlyl for New Election
[by Frank A. Lombardi, Esq., CCAL]
I have previously cautioned Condo
Media readers and unit owners that
absent obvious evidence of fraud, they
should think long and hard about using
the nuclear option of recalling board
members. Last month, I went contrary
to my own advice and reluctantly
revisited that option to accomplish the
association's objective of overcoming
some election vote count irregularities.
BALLOT IRREGULARITIES
By way of explanation, at my client's
annual unit owner meeting, the election
for board members was razor close from
beginning to end. In fact, one of the candidates
lost by one vote and asked for a
recount. In response to their requests,
I suggested that the president of the outgoing
board and the property manager
assent to the request. It's always been
44 CONDOMEDIA August 2021
my belief that if a candidate takes the
time and effort to put themselves out
there for an election only to lose by one
vote, and, as it were here, there appears
to be some vote counting irregularities,
albeit innocent enough, then it would
make sense to do a recount.
At the old board's request, I attended a
recount meeting and indeed counted the
votes in front of seven people, including
the property manager, each of whom did
their own count. I spotted and resolved
the irregularities. One ballot was not
counted because the unit owner was " in
arrears. " I counted his ballot for two reasons:
First, there was no language in the
association's governing documents either
defining a unit owner in good standing,
nor language prohibiting the owner
from voting due to account arrearages.
Typically, if there is such language,
NEW ELECTION CONSIDERATIONS
AND OPTIONS
Not so fast. The next day, I was told that
the vote differential was so great that it
had become " bad optics, " and that the
association was " desperately in need
of more transparency. " Not sure of the
connection between the two here, but
alas, perception is sometimes more
important than reality. Apparently,
enough people were agitated enough
to call for an entirely new election.
And that is where the problem arose.
I advised them that the road to a new
election would be difficult. First, the
five newly elected members would have
to resign and then a special meeting
called to fill the vacancies. Second, if
the five refused to resign, then a special
meeting could be called for the purpose
of recalling the newly elected board
members, and then, a new election
could be held.
Now, I have been told that the unit
owners do not want to have a special
meeting, and that instead, they want
to do it by mail ballots and proxies.
First, the only reason you would have a
proxy would be to have someone attend
a meeting on your behalf and vote their
choice or if the proxy is designated
vote the specified choices. So, doing it
by proxies without a meeting does not
make much sense. Second, while yes,
a ballot by mail would be an option,
so long as they were absentee ballots.
But here, as in most condominium
documents concerning this issue,
elections for board members must be
Condo Media - August 2021

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