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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