Where the rules come from
Three documents decide how an association votes, and they rank. The state's community association act sets the floor and sometimes the ceiling: notice periods, whether electronic voting is allowed, whether ballots must be secret. The declaration (the CC&Rs) sets how votes are allocated among the homes. The bylaws set the mechanics: quorum, proxies, how directors are elected, how long they serve.
When the bylaws and the statute disagree, the statute wins. When the bylaws are silent, the statute's default applies. Before any vote, read the section of your state's act on meetings and voting; the HOA laws pages link each state's text.
Who votes, and how much a vote counts
Each home carries a vote, not each person. A home with two owners casts one vote, and the owners decide between themselves how it is cast; if they split, most bylaws say the vote is not counted. A tenant never votes unless the owner gives them a proxy.
In condominiums the vote is usually weighted by the unit's allocated interest, the same percentage that sets its share of the budget, so a larger unit carries a larger vote. In planned communities each lot usually carries one equal vote. The declaration says which.
Quorum: enough owners to act
Quorum is the share of the votes that must be present, in person or by proxy, before the meeting can decide anything. Bylaws commonly set it between 20 and 50 percent; some states cap how high an association may set it so that a community can still conduct business.
If quorum is not reached, the meeting can be adjourned and reconvened, and many states let the reconvened meeting proceed with a lower quorum. The practical fix is proxies and electronic ballots collected before the meeting, which count toward quorum as they arrive.
Proxies and directed proxies
A proxy is a written authorization for someone else to cast an owner's vote. A general proxy lets the holder vote as they see fit; a directed proxy tells the holder how to vote on each item. Several states require the directed form for elections, and some bar proxies for director elections entirely in favor of secret ballots.
Proxies expire. Most bylaws and statutes cap them at eleven months or at the meeting they name. Collect them with the meeting notice, check each one against the roster, and keep them with the minutes.
Secret ballots and electronic voting
A growing number of states require secret ballots for director elections, usually with a two-envelope system: the ballot sealed in an unmarked inner envelope, the owner's name and signature on the outer one, so eligibility is checked without revealing the vote.
Electronic voting is allowed in most states when the owner consents to it in writing, and it is the single biggest lever on turnout. Owners vote from a link on their phone, the system records the time and the identity, and the tally is sealed until the meeting.
Running the election
Send the notice in the window the bylaws require, with the ballot or the proxy form enclosed. Verify every returned vote against the roster, weight it, and record it on a tally sheet that names the tabulator. Announce the result at the meeting, put the count in the minutes, and keep the ballots for the period your state sets, often a year.
Owners who are delinquent may lose the right to vote only where the governing documents or the statute say so. Do not improvise a rule on the night.