This year I am hearing the following complaint more than ever before: I live out of the state, or out of the country and I never received a ballot to vote in the election.

A little over a year ago I was involved in a case where many owners who lived in Finland did not get their ballots timely. Instead of having their vote not count, someone who lived in the condominium e-mailed them the ballot. These owners then took that ballot, placed it in a ballot envelope, placed that ballot envelope in another envelope and signed the exterior, and mailed it back to the association usually by overnight mail. Some owners didn’t bother to use the interior ballot envelope.

The association didn’t want to count these votes. The association also didn’t want to count the votes of owners who had their ballot envelopes dropped off by a neighbor, claiming that this was voting by proxy.

Read the attached opinion to find out how the arbitrator ruled. It makes for interesting reading. The bottom line…….if you’re out of town…..have the ballot e-mailed to you.

To read the case, click here.