On the first Tuesday after Labor Day each year, the Nominations and Elections Committee (N&E) conducts a Candidate Ballot Lottery to select names for placement on the Annual General Election. The deadline for submitting applications is 4:30 pm on that Tuesday which is immediately followed, in general, by an open meeting where applications are opened, members are vetted to ensure they are in good standing, and then the names are placed into a box to be drawn by a community member in the open meeting.
N&E Committee members are responsible for confirming the packet information, making the slips of paper with each candidate’s name, and loading the box. Staff vets the candidates and records the meeting notes. All of this is performed in front of the assembled members who are in attendance.
First, names are drawn for the Board of Director (BOD) candidates, followed by the Architectural Control Committee and lastly, N&E.
As it happens, last night (Tuesday September 5th) while drawing names for the BOD candidates, a name called on the 6th draw had already been called on the 2nd. Another name was drawn from the box, at which point the proceedings were challenged and called to halt. Only one name per candidate is permitted to go into the lottery, and an error had been made by placing one person’s name twice. A quick call to Legal Counsel confirmed that the first count was considered corrupted by a flaw, and the count had to restart from the beginning. N&E reviewed all the names, placed the paper slips back into the box and recommenced and completed the ballot lottery.
While this was an oddity, the entire process, not including vetting candidate’s member status, was performed in front of some 30 people with complete and total transparency. This was an excellent example of partnership between the independent N&E Committee, Association Management, and the membership.