Election abuse is unrecognized
“I consider it completely unimportant
who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily
important is this—who will count the votes, and how.”
—Joseph Stalin
The existing Condominium Act 2008 and the proposed Condominium Owners
Protection Act 2015 are both silent on the subject of condo elections.
If condo owners do not have assurances of honest elections, what do
they have?
Property management & the election process
The ministry has recognized that property managers need to be licenced
in part to insure that they can competently do their jobs and also to
drive the corrupt ones out of the industry. All well and good.
However there seems to be little understanding that allowing management
companies to prepare, solicit and retain proxies prior to condominium
elections and then man the registration desk and handle the ballots and
the ballot boxes is a major cause of election fraud.
There is nothing in Bill 106 that even recognizes election fraud during condominium elections as an issue let alone do anything to try to prevent it.
Section 118
Section 118 gives access to condominiums for the candidates and their
authorized representatives for federal, provincial and municipal
elections. Even school board candidates and their authorized
representatives are given access to the condominium to canvass or
distribute election materials.
Yet there is no guaranteed access to the units for candidates and their supporters who are running for condo elections.
In some condos, when candidates are running for election against the
incumbents, they are harassed or threatened by the property manager,
the directors or the superintendent. At times, the police are called to
charge the candidates with trespassing or soliciting.
It is common for election materials left in the doors to be stolen and
the security guards or the manager to monitor the opposition candidates
on the security CCTV cameras.
Elevator FOBs
In many of the newer condo towers, the elevators are equipped with FOB
readers. Residents are allowed access only to the residential floor
that they live on. The exit doors allow access to the staircases but
not to the other floors. When a resident tries to use the staircases,
the only door that will open is the exit to the street.
At a downtown 600 unit condo tower, I asked the property manager if
candidates wanted to canvass the other owners for support, would they
be
allowed access to the other residential floors. He said no, the board
would not allow that.
He explained that all candidates are allowed to submit a one-page resume that will be
included in the AGM package and they can make a two minute speech at
the meeting and that was it. (Only 20-25 owners ever attend the AGMs so
the speech is heard by a maximum of 4% of the owners.)
Since the turnout for the meetings are so low, prior to the AGMs, the property manager
spends several evenings knocking on doors collecting proxies; a
privilege that is denied to any candidates who would challenge the
board.
Recommendations
One
Section 118 be amended to include access to the condominium units for
condo election candidates and their supporters and for owners who are
gathering signatures for a requisition meeting.
The candidates and requistionists are also to be given a true copy of the corporation register to be used to contact the owners.
Two
The management companies should be barred from being involved in the
election process and a qualified third-party (perhaps an accounting
firm or appointees from Condo Authority if their presence is requested)
be in control of collecting the proxies for the corporation and
manning the registration desk.
See this response to an eelction fraud complaint from Florida.
Mister Condo,
Kudos with your balanced response. Being a President for my community
association, I have found many instances where the board is exposed to
a minority of owners not happy with a board decision and it is fairly
easy to attack a volunteer through rumor and innuendo, however there
are also bad apples out there as well where self interests become more
important than governing in the best interest of the majority.
Not sure which state B.M. is from, but in Florida, the law allows for
condo members to obtain a State Appointed Election Monitor once 15% of
the members sign a petition.
I am one of those qualified election monitors and I find that this law
provides those communities wanting their elections monitored a valuable
resource.
Having an extra set of neutral eyes to document elections provides
comfort to those that are divided and for those boards that are
proactive can be viewed as a layer of insulation against accusations of
election impropriety.
I found this demand to be so great in the condo and HOA industry, I
founded Reliance Management & Consulting to offer neutral third
party election monitoring, consulting and mediation specialized for
just these types of communities.
Having a specialized consultant to bridge communication gaps between a
divided membership can nurse a sick membership back to health again. In
a healthy association that function is done by the property manager or
attorney, however when a rift occurs those professionals are viewed as
controlled by the board and therefore biased in their eyes.
Often we recieve calls from managers and attorneys to assist their
clients, and fortunate for us we are good at helping them restore the
peace.
Tom Rementeria, LCAM
South Florida
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