Annual Meeting Cancelled due to Coronavirus? Here’s 6 Things You Need to Know about Electronic Elections

With the recent outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), many associations, groups, and public bodies are evaluating the feasibility of conducting all or some of their business through electronic means. With Governors, Mayors, and Public Health authorities mandating curfews, venue closures, and prohibitions against large assemblies, many organizations are scrambling to understand their options in light of cancelled or likely to be cancelled meetings.

Electronic voting is a form of absentee voting where members can cast their vote from any location outside of an officially called meeting. In this post, we will discuss the six (6) key points that organization leaders must keep in mind if they are looking into conducting their annual elections via electronic means.

1. Check for Electronic Voting Authorization

The first (and most important) step for you to take is to check your organization’s governing documents to see if you are authorized to conduct electronic voting. If your organization has adopted Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised (11th ed) as its parliamentary authority, generally speaking your Bylaws must authorize electronic voting (pg. 423). This means that you might be in a pickle if the provision was not in the Bylaws before the outbreak. However, there are several exceptions:

• Corporations: If you are incorporated, your state’s corporation code supersedes the provisions in Robert’s. For example, Maryland’s code could allow for electronic absentee voting or electronic proxies.
• Homeowners Associations: HOAs, COAs, and similar groups should check their state’s housing code, as this too supersedes the provisions in Robert’s. For example, the Virginia Condominium Act has provisions allowing for votes to occur by electronic means.
• Local Chapters of National Organizations: Depending on the wording of your Bylaws, your local group likely must adhere to policies from the State/National Organization. So, if your parent organization cancels in-person meetings and requires an electronic meeting, this might can serve as authorization.

2. Explore the Electronic Mediums Available

You know your organization and its members the best. Are your members generally good at handling change? Would they need extra instruction or training to adapt to a new voting technology? These are the sorts of self-reflective questions that need to be asked when you are considering adapting this technology. We recommend demoing different providers, and using a few members as testers that can give feedback on ease-of-use.

When exploring the different companies that offer electronic voting and/or ballots, it is also important to get an understanding of their back-up processes. Members that do not posses capability or desire to conduct business using electronic means should be provided an alternative process that is compatible with the system. It is important to ask questions about voter authentication, and whether a member can be send their ballot password via snail mail instead of email.

3. Keep Accurate Membership Lists

When conducting an electronic election, the Board of Directors must decide the cut-off date for the membership– this determines who should be provided a ballot. It is important to verify that you have contact information for all members so that no one can complain down the road that they were not given proper notice of the vote and how to participate. Ideally you want everyone’s email address, mailing address, and proof that they are a member (e.g. they paid dues, purchased a share, are not delinquent, etc.)

4. Determine the Election Policy in Advance

Because transitioning to electronic voting for elections is a change management exercise for many organizations, it is important to be fair and transparent. This increases trust with your members as you embark on this journey together. Determining the policy in advance and giving clear directions on how to vote help keep everyone on the same page.

What makes a good election policy? It depends on your association’s norms. Do you normally hear candidate speeches? Perhaps you can explore using a questionnaire or bio page that can sent out with the ballot instructions. Do you allow nominations from the floor of the meeting? Make sure you explain how candidates can get their names pre-printed on the ballot.

This is an area where an experienced Parliamentarian or Election Inspector can provide consulting on best practices.

5. All Business is Not Suited for Electronic Voting

The main downside to electronic absentee voting is that the members do not gain the benefit of a meeting’s deliberations or debate to help inform their decision. Also, because these ballots must be determined in advanced, there is no opportunity for amendment or the usage of parliamentary procedure to perfect proposals before a vote.

For example, suppose a club is voting on whether to raise membership dues from $10 to $50. For an electronic election, the members generally would only be able to vote yes or no to the $50 figure. However, if this proposal was considered at an in-person meeting, a member could propose an amendment that would replace the $50 figure with $35, resulting in a compromise that has the greatest support of the membership. While items like elections or simple proposals can be reduced to an electronic ballot, we advise against using electronic ballots on items that could be subject to amendments or strong deliberation.

6. Verify the Results

When selecting an electronic elections vendor, it is important to ask about their audit trail capabilities. Because this will be a new process for many organizations, groups will want assurances that their ballots are counted and anonymous. After a ballot is cast, many vendors can generate an encrypted confirmation code that can be fed back into the system to verify that it was received and counted. Additionally, some vendors will track the timestamps of when election administrators logged in to view certain data.

All of this information should be downloaded, printed, and retained as part of the organization’s records. This, along with copies of the ballot, policies, notice, and other directions can serve as documentary evidence should the election be contested, or if a future Board decides to implement electronic elections permanently.

Conclusion

Don’t allow this situation to trip you up! If you have any questions, leave a comment below or contact us. LastMinuteMeetings.net also offers consulting services for corporations, associations, and bodies of all sizes.

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Donald Garrett, MPA, PRP is a Professional Registered Parliamentarian based in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area (Northern Virginia). He received both his Bachelor of Arts (Government) and Master of Public Administration from George Mason University.
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