Proxies: the Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent

3 responses to “Proxies: the Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent”

1. I think proxies are of great value and I have not seen abuses in the 13 years I have been working in this industry.
   BTW- I believe the statement near the end of your first paragraph is misleading. Owners don’t submit their vote via proxy, rather they are signing over their right for someone else to vote for them.
2. My community has less than 15% owner occupancy, so we have used proxies heavily for 30 years. There was a lot of abuse. Proxies were directly solicited by board members and the property manager in the annual meeting notice and because most out of town owners had no clue who to appoint, they automatically gave their proxies to board members. Nominations for the board were accepted on the floor of the annual meeting, further eliminating any meaningful voice by absentee owners. This perpetuated certain individuals remaining on the board for years, and when someone did challenge a board seat, there was not much hope of defeating them. In recent years we tried directed proxies, but that just amounted to certain other people amassing large numbers of proxies and controlling the vote, rife with the same opportunity for abuse as before. We now do a mail in ballot, with nominations closed prior to the annual meeting notice and ballots going out. We have had great response to the mail-in elections, last year had 60% return ballots. Out of town owners are very pleased to have an actual voice and people campaign for board seats. More informed choices are being made, which is nothing but positive. In my community at least I can say that we believe we found a successful alternative to proxies.
3. In my HOA I have seen abuse of the proxy process. For three straight elections an individual has solicited proxies via flyers that have been placed on or under doors of condos in 400+ unit community. One year, the flyers actually had copies of a filled in proxy that a homeowner would just have to sign and date and them mail in to the manager or directly to this person. I suspected forgery because each year a number of proxies from this individual would be rejected (example: the owner had sold the unit). This year, water-marks were put on the proxies that were mailed to owners and copies were not allowed. This individual was up for re-election and did NOT get elected. Hmmmm.