By Jim Pace, April 2020
Votes by proxy share the property of “absentee ballot” in that a ballot is cast without your presence at the ballot box.
The difference is this:
Absentee ballot – You ask for and receive a physical ballot ahead of the vote. You complete the ballot ahead of time with your choices, and “deliver” (“mail”) your ballot to the elections office. The elections office then tallies your choices.
Vote by proxy – A “proxy” is a person. Instead of receiving a ballot, you (the unit owner) appoints someone else (using a “Proxy Form”) to represent you at a unit owners' meeting and to vote. That person acts as a “proxy”, that is, you give him/her the authority to represent you. This person, the “proxy”, receives a ballot for each “Proxy Form” he/she submits. If the proxy is also a Unit Owner, he/she will also receive a ballot a ballot for themselves. The proxy then completes and submits all of the completed ballots. Here’s an important difference: the proxy can vote anyway he/she wants. The proxy has no obligation to vote the way you might have intended.
In short, “absentee ballot” - you fill out and mail in YOUR ballot; “vote by proxy” - someone else fills out YOUR ballot, with THEIR choices.
As I understand it, you can specify anyone as your proxy. Practically, it should probably be someone you know and trust: another Unit Owner, Board member. You could also specify the Property Manager. There are some issues to consider:
Anyone with more than one vote increases their ability to bias the election. In our community (based on the 2019 election), every vote contributes about 2% of the total. For example, a Unit Owner with their own ballot plus 4 ballots “by proxy” (total of 5 ballots), controls about 10% of the total vote. In 2019, that would have been enough to change the outcome of the election.
A Board member with ballots “by proxy” could possibly change the makeup of the Board to include members who would be more likely to vote with him/her on Board matters.
A nominee for election to the Board could increase his/her chances to be elected by collecting proxies and voting for him/herself.
Collecting proxies is a legal and accepted way of voting according to Ohio condo law. But anyone casting more than one ballot runs the risk of biasing the election. To reduce the risk of election bias, I believe:
Unit Owners should be discouraged from casting more than one vote by proxy. There are enough Unit Owners that can be asked to carry your proxy without anyone having to carry more than one.
Board members should be discouraged from casting ANY votes by proxy. You can control this by not signing a Proxy Form over to a Board member.
Nominees should be discouraged from casting ANY votes by proxy. I think nominees casting votes by proxy gives the appearance of a conflict of interest (They will probably vote for themselves). So, when a nominee comes to your door asking for your vote, that’s OK, just don’te give him/her your proxy. Be sure to read the article below under “More Information”. Look for “Proxy-Hoarding”.
The simple answer is, the Bylaws state, “At any meeting of Unit Owners, a Unit Owner may vote in person or by proxy.” Absentee ballots are not permitted.
I have knowledge about proxies at one election. Evidently, things can and do go wrong. All you have to do is examine last year’s election to see what I mean (Read “Problems with the 2019 Election”).
The article, “HOA Voting: Everything You Need to Know About Proxies” gives some more, in depth information about proxies. It also contains information about situations (like “proxy hoarding”) that probably should be avoided.