While the spoils belong to the winner, don’t let sour grapes spoil your association’s election. There are many ways to spoil an election. To name just a few, the ballots may not have all of the candidate’s names listed; in a condominium election, the premature opening of the outer envelopes often leads to a new election; and the failure to allow the members to observe the tallying of the ballots. There is also another type of election spoiler that is the subject of today’s column.
Last year, I was driving through an association on my way to a board meeting. A young woman handed me what I thought was literature about an upcoming show in the clubhouse. Rather, it was negative election propaganda. After reading it, I was sick to my stomach. The propaganda did not directly identify the candidate who was being verbally attacked, and moreover it was not even signed by the coward(s) who wrote it.
I would venture an educated guess that its anonymous author(s) thought they were being clever by not identifying the name of the board candidate whom they were negatively writing about. Later that morning, when I read the handout, I was shocked! Amongst other things, the candidate running for the board was referred to as a thief and a liar. It was patently clear who the anonymous writer was writing about because the writer also included sufficient personal information about the candidate they were defaming, such that even I could figure it out.
On the one hand, it’s great to see a contested association election. It is always wonderful to have more candidates than available seats on the board. So often, the opposite occurs. On the other hand, it’s despicable when an association election leads to such ghastly and reprehensible behavior.
Depending on the severity of certain activities that occur during an association election, and their overall effect on the election, determines whether a new election is warranted. For example, in 2004, the president of a condominium association prepared a letter on association letterhead, signed by him as president which commented in a negative light on the assertions made in a candidate information sheet. The president’s letter was included in the second notice of election mailed to the unit owners. Florida Administrative Code, Rule 61B-23.0021(8), clearly prohibited the board from commenting on a candidate in the second notice of election. The Division of Condominium held that, to permit a board member to comment on a candidate, even where such action is short of full board participation or board approval, would render the safe haven provisions of the rule meaningless. A new election was ordered.
As to mistakes that sometimes lead to a new election, the result often depends on whether the mistake changed the result of the election. For example, in 1993, where a condominium board discovered shortly before the election that a candidate was ineligible to sit on the board, the fact that the ineligible person was not withdrawn due to time constraints did not render the election void. The result of the election would not have changed if the ineligible candidate had been withdrawn from consideration.
In 1994, when a condominium association discovered that eleven ballots were missing and were not counted by the association, and in 1996, when a condominium association improperly disregarded two ballots, and where the error was unintentional and did not affect the outcome of the election, the Division of Condominium, in both instances, did not require a new election. Pragmatically, neither error would have changed the outcome. The lesson of today’s column is simple. If the news you need to share is so compelling, do so with truth and honesty, and have the courage to stand behind what you write.