The Problem with Proxies and Weighted Voting
Paul McClintock, PRP
A condominium association client of mine with over 700 units has both proxy voting and weighted voting. Either one creates a potential logistics problem, but together the possible complexities are even worse.
Proxy Voting
The main problem with proxies is that you don’t have the RONR-standard one-person-one-vote, so a simple voice vote or rising vote, or even a counted rising vote, are not conclusive. Voting cards can be used, with one card per vote, so that the member who also holds 4 proxies for instance would hold 5 voting cards. When there are 5 or fewer, the cards might be fanned out like a hand of playing cards, and tellers could count them fairly easily, but higher numbers become difficult to handle. For these cases, special voting cards can be issued by the credentials officials where they write the number of votes on a different colored voting card.
Also in the case of community associations, one owner may own more than one home and thus have more than one vote, even without proxies.
A second potential problem with proxy voting is that a proxy may be restricted in a variety of ways, making the voting card approach more complicated. A proxy may, for example, direct how the proxy holder is to vote on various positions for an election or on other matters. It may specify how to vote on specified items and leave it to the discretion of the proxy holder how to vote on other items, or not grant voting rights on any other items.
Some associations convolute the concept of proxies and ballots, and treat directed proxies (proxy documents that direct how the proxy holder is to vote on specific matters) as ballots, and give the proxy documents to the tellers to tally. A proxy document is not a ballot, however.
My client’s approach was to have the credentials officials issue ballots to all members who register as attending, and an extra ballot for each proxy document held. In the case of a directed proxy, the credentials official had the proxy holder fill out the ballot in accordance with instructions while the official witnesses that it is marked per instructions. The official also marked the ballot to indicate that it is a directed ballot, so that any changes on the ballot would be treated as an illegal vote.
A third potential problem with proxies is that the proxy issuer may arrive late and wish to revoke the proxy and vote thereafter in person. Our state condominium law requires a proxy revoker to give "actual notice of revocation to the person presiding." Fortunately we had no revocations, but revocation procedures potentially add one more complication to meetings.
Weighted Voting
In my experience it is common for condominium associations to have weighted voting (also known as fractional voting). Each residential unit is assigned a vote value such as 0.1458, and the total of all units’ votes total is 100. Smaller or less valuable units have a proportionally smaller vote weight. (The vote weight also represents a percentage of ownership, and thus a percentage of financial responsibility for the common elements and general association budget.)
Weighted voting is another form contrary to the one-person-one-vote principle. Voting cards do not necessarily work. In a close vote, a time-consuming tally of weighted votes must be conducted, and a series of such tallies can make meetings run extremely late.
However, just as a voice vote is often persuasive, a voting card system can be used to get a sense of whether it is close enough to require a precise count. Initially, the voting card system can be simply a visual vote, with a count of voting cards only if the visual vote is not persuasive.
To facilitate tallying a weighted vote, credential officials can issue blank ballots when members register at the door. Each member gets as many ballots as needed for the number of tallied votes that may reasonably occur. Each ballot in the set is numbered and/or on a different colored sheet. The chair instructs members which ballot to use for any particular vote. Each ballot in a set has the voting value for that unit printed on it prior to issuing it to the member at registration time. Tellers can create a spreadsheet on a computer to tally the votes.
Proxies Combined With Weighted Voting
In my client’s case, credential officials issued a set of ballots for each unit represented in person or by proxy. The set of ballots included one for the election positions and motions known in advance. Once debate was concluded on all these matters and the voting began, the members cast their ballots with the tellers and they tallied them on a spreadsheet. The remaining ballots in the set were numbered and in different colors, and with the bottom one serving as a voting card. Voters who voted for more than one unit would fan out their "voting cards." Floor tellers counted voting cards without concern for the vote weight. We assumed that the vote weights for a given vote would average out fairly close to the average of all the vote weights, and when none of the counts by number of voting cards produced close results, we never had to resort to spreadsheet tallying.
In order to approve the use of voting cards the assembly had to vote on the matter. We decided that by unanimous consent, but had there been an objection, I would have tried a voice vote. If that wasn’t compelling, we would have had to tally the weighted votes.
Organizations with enough funds can automate the tally process. One method is to use a Scantron-type device to scan paper ballots (see. "http://www.scantron.com" . www.scantron.com.). Another is to issue barcoded voter cards for members and proxy-holders, and have electronic voting booths scan the card(s) and let the person vote on a touch screen or other means of directly voting to a computer for electronic tallying. This latter method can also help solve the problem with the late arriving proxy-issuer revoking his proxy.
To summarize, proxy voting and weighted voting both complicate voting procedures, but there are some practical ways to handle the voting. Generally, not every vote has to be precisely counted.
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Paul McClintock has served NAP as District 7 Director, on the Educational Resources Committee, and on the Webinar Committee. He lives near Seattle, Washington.
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Written 2-21-2013 for NAP’s NP
Revised slightly 5-29-2013.