HOA and condo managers across the United States face big challenges maintaining transparency, efficiency, and fairness during board elections. The stakes are high, as the elected board directly shapes a community’s financial decisions, property values, and overall harmony. As many states tighten their HOA governance rules—particularly Florida, which is often viewed as a groundbreaker—boards must adapt their election processes to keep pace with these emerging standards. To help you with that, Neigbrs by Vinteum has a new update: Board Elections.
The new feature was designed to streamline and enhance HOAs and Condos voting and election processes. Inspired by Florida’s advanced regulations, Board Elections offers both open and anonymous voting modes, allowing communities to choose the best approach for their needs. In this article, we will explore this new feature and, step by step, guide you on how to use it, considering the 2024 Florida Statutes provision 720.317 for Electronic Voting.
Understanding the Challenge and the Opportunity
We know that board elections aren’t just about choosing leaders. They define how your community will manage finances, resolve conflicts, and plan for the future. When elections are run inefficiently or without the needed transparency, they can lead to disputes, decreased resident participation, and even legal challenges with residents suing boards. That’s why Neigbrs by Vinteum is dedicated to providing solutions that not only simplify the process but also ensure your elections are secure and transparent while supporting compliance with state laws.
See Board Elections in Action
We believe that the best way to understand the power of our new Board Elections feature is to experience it firsthand. If you’re ready to streamline your voting process and ensure security, we invite you to schedule a free demo with us.
How Our Board Elections Feature Works
Board Elections is here to make the voting process as seamless as possible. Whether your community prefers an open vote or an anonymous one, our solution was created to meet your needs.
Open Vote
In an Open Vote, every respondent’s answers are visible to everyone. This mode fosters accountability and collective transparency—ideal for openness matters.
Anonymous Vote
For those who prioritize privacy, our Anonymous Vote mode assigns a random token to each respondent. This token is emailed to the voter, allowing them to verify and audit their vote while keeping their identity hidden. Even though the votes remain anonymous, the system is fully auditable to ensure integrity.
Additionally, each unit or household can vote only once by default to ensure fairness. Voting is limited to Primary Residents or Absentee Owners when the primary is unavailable.
Seamless Integration with Your Existing Processes
At Neigbrs, the Board Elections section is built on the same intuitive design as our Votings/Surveys module. This means that if you’re already familiar with the app or portal, you’ll find the new elections interface just as easy to use. With clear, step-by-step prompts and a clean, modern interface, managing board elections becomes one less hassle on your to-do list.
Step-by-Step Guide to Using Board Elections
We want to make your experience as smooth as possible. So, here is a step-by-step guide on how to set up and run your board elections using our new feature.
1. Before starting
Before setting up the election in Neigbrs, it is important to reinforce some previous steps under Florida Statute 720.317. Even if you are not in Florida, these prior actions might save you from future headaches with residents and ensure a more transparent process.
First, a written notice about the meeting where the board will consider online voting must be sent to residents and posted clearly at least 14 days in advance. This notice can be mailed, delivered, or sent electronically. For this matter, you can use the Notices feature available on Neigbrs to communicate about the opportunity to vote with residents.
Besides ensuring that members are notified about the option to vote online, the board’s resolution must also set fair procedures and deadlines for members to give their consent, either electronically or in writing, and for them to opt out after consenting.
According to 720.317, proof that the 14-day notice was given must be shown through testimony signed by the person who sent the notice and kept in the association’s official records.
2. Setting Up the Election
- Create the Election Event: Log into your Neigbrs dashboard and navigate to the new Board Elections section. Click “Create New Election” and fill in basic details like the election title, description, and key dates.
- Set a Reminder Notification: Choose if you want to send participants a reminder notification before the election closes and specify how many days before.
- Select the Voting Mode: Choose between Open Vote and Anonymous Vote based on your community’s preferences.
- Add Election Questions: Create different types of questions for your election.
- Open Answer: Residents can write a response of up to 500 characters.
- Single Choice: Residents choose one option from multiple alternatives.
- Multiple Choice: Residents can select more than one option, with the ability to set a minimum and maximum selection limit.
- Additionally, you can make any question mandatory to ensure participants respond.
- Publish or Save as a Draft: Once you have set up your election, you can click “Save Draft” to edit it later or “Publish” to make it live immediately. It’s important to remember that once your election is published, it cannot be changed or edited to ensure voting integrity.
3. Communicating with Your Community
- Notify Residents: Besides using Notices to communicate in advance to comply with Florida Statute 720.317, Board Elections will automatically notify residents once your elections are posted.
4. Conducting the Election
- Launch the Election: Once everything is set up and residents have been notified, start the election. Our system ensures a secure and efficient voting process, automatically collecting votes.
- Monitor the Process: During the voting period, administrators can track real-time vote counts. However, in anonymous mode, they can only see the total number of voters and the tokens, ensuring that votes cannot be linked to specific members.
- Token and Email Confirmation: After voting, each participant will receive an email confirmation. In an open vote, residents can view their submitted information. In an anonymous vote, they will receive a unique, randomly generated token via email.
4. Post-Election Verification
- Audit the Results: Generate an audit report after the voting window closes. For Open Vote, this report will show the complete voting record; for Anonymous Vote, it will include token verification data.
- Confirm the Outcome: Share the results with your community. Transparency is key here, so consider holding a virtual meeting or sending a detailed email summarizing the results and next steps.
- Store Records Securely: Our system securely archives all election data, making it easy for you to access records for future reference or compliance purposes.
The Legal Landscape: Florida Statute 720.317 for Electronic Voting
Florida continues to lead the way in how HOAs are governed and its recent updates reflect a strong commitment to transparent and secure voting. Florida Statute 720.317 outlines the requirements for electronic voting in HOAs, reinforcing that digital ballots are convenient but must be reliable and secure. Here’s a brief rundown of what the statute entails:
- Authentication and Communication: Every member must be provided with a secure method to authenticate their identity — in Neigbrs, this would be the resident login—, and at least 14 days before the voting deadline, the system must confirm that the member’s electronic device is properly connected.
- Integrity and Auditability: The online system must authenticate each vote, ensuring it isn’t altered during transit. Additionally, if the election is set to be a secret ballot, it must permanently separate any identifying information from the vote, keeping ballots anonymous yet fully auditable.
- Data Storage: Electronic ballots must be stored securely and accessible for recounts, inspections, and reviews, ensuring full compliance with state requirements.
- Member Consent and Quorum: A member’s consent to participate in online voting is valid until they opt out, and electronic voting counts towards meeting quorum requirements at meetings.
To explore the law further, you can review the full text of Florida Statute 720.317.
Other Key Improvements To Your HOA Management
While Board Elections feature is a powerful tool, it works best when integrated with the full suite of Neigbrs’ capabilities. Here are other new updated features that further streamline your operations:
Service Requests
Now, the Service Requests feature includes new statuses, with options to open, close, accept, and reject for better tracking.
Text Messaging
This amazing tool allows boards to send messages to the entire community or individual residents. Now, an update enables messages to be sent to specific contact groups, facilitating communication.
Biometric Login
The Neigbrs app was recently updated to provide faster and more secure access using your device’s fingerprint or face recognition. Available on the App Store and Google Play.
Community Management on Mobile
Another great improvement is the access for Absentee Owners, Units, and Representatives directly from the app.
FAQ About Board Elections
Even with a user-friendly platform like Neigbrs, you might have some questions about moving from traditional paper ballots to digital board elections. Here are a few FAQs to help clarify common concerns:
Are digital elections legally valid in all states?
No, laws vary from state to state, so it’s important to check your local statutes or consult an attorney. As in Florida, many other states have similar or evolving rules, but it is fundamental to have legal counsel support to guide your board decisions in general.
How do we ensure that anonymous votes remain auditable?
Our system uses randomly generated tokens for each voter. This verifies that each token corresponds to a valid vote without revealing the voter’s identity. After the election, an audit report can be generated to confirm that all votes were accurately counted.
What if some residents aren’t comfortable with digital tools?
We’ve designed our interface to be as intuitive as possible, and we provide training materials and support to help everyone get up to speed. Additionally, you can host tutorials or offer help sessions to ensure all residents can participate confidently.
Can the platform handle ties or run-off elections?
Yes, our system is flexible enough to manage tie situations or conduct additional rounds of voting if necessary—all while maintaining the same level of security and transparency.
How are election records stored for compliance purposes?
All voting data is securely archived in our system, ensuring that your records remain accessible for audits, recounts, or future reference as required by law.
Final Thoughts
Technology is reshaping how communities interact, and board elections are at the forefront of this transformation. By following a structured process, choosing the right voting mode for your community, and implementing robust security measures, you can run elections that meet the highest standards of fairness and accountability. Our new Board Elections feature is designed with your needs in mind—it’s user-friendly, fully compliant with Florida’s electronic voting statutes, and capable of integrating seamlessly with all other aspects of your HOA management.
For more insights into digital HOA management and best practices, feel free to explore additional articles on the Vinteum blog. Together, we can pave the way for smoother, more successful board elections—and a stronger community for years to come.
