How to Run Votes for an Owners’ Association or Committee Online (And Keep the Record)

Owners' associations, residents' committees, condominium boards, small charities, partnerships: all have decisions that cannot wait for the annual meeting and members who cannot all be in a room. The email vote is the usual answer, and it is a bad one — replies get lost, nobody is sure who voted, and the record is a thread nobody wants to reread. Here is how to do it properly.

What a trustworthy online vote needs

1. A defined electorate — the list of who may vote, with one vote per member (or per unit, or weighted, as your rules say).
2. Verified voters — each person proves they are the member on the list, typically by a one-time code to the email on record.
3. A clear question and fixed options — the same wording for everyone, options in a fixed order.
4. A deadline — announced in advance and enforced.
5. Secrecy where required — some rules require named votes, some anonymous; the tool should support whichever your rules say.
6. A record — the question, the options, who was eligible, who voted (or that they voted, if anonymous), the result, and when it was published.

Running one

Attach the vote to the matter it concerns — the building, the project, the committee's year. Write the question and the options; attach the papers (the three quotes, the proposed budget). Choose the electorate: everyone linked to the matter, or a pool drawn from the units. Set the deadline and whether votes are named. Send. Each member receives a link, verifies with a code, confirms they are opening the poll, and votes. Read receipts show who has seen it; a reminder nudges those who have not. At the deadline, publish the results to the voters. The poll — question, options, votes, timestamps, result — stays on the matter as the minute of the decision.

Rules of the association still apply

An online vote does not override your constitution. Check quorum rules, notice periods, what may be decided outside a meeting, and whether written resolutions need a particular majority. Where the rules require a meeting, the online poll is the consultation before it and the evidence that members were consulted — not the decision itself.

Poll templates for the annual cycle

If the same decisions recur — budget approval, contractor selection, meeting dates, officer elections — set them up once as poll templates on the matter's template, with locked option order, ready to send each year. The manager fills in the specifics. See polls: a decision from twelve owners without twelve phone calls.

The record, later

Two years on, a new owner asks why the roof contractor was chosen. The answer is a poll on the building's record with the three quotes attached, the votes, the result and the date — not a search of a former committee member's mailbox. That is the difference a record makes, and it is the whole reason to move votes off email.