Reply To: Can a written voting form be counted at the AGM?

We are getting into legal details and it is possible that there is no clear-cut answer, but:

in the Act –
28(3) The regulations may provide for the following—
(a) the ways of voting that may be specified under subclause (1)(b),
(b) the circumstances in which a particular way of voting may be specified under subclause (1)(b),

The Regulations have done just that –
14 Ways of voting
For the Act, Schedule 1, clause 28(3) and Schedule 2, clause 10(3), a notice for a meeting of an owners corporation or a strata committee may specify one or more of the following ways of voting—
(a) voting by electronic means while participating in the meeting,
(b) if the strata committee has, by resolution, adopted pre-meeting electronic voting as a way of voting—pre-meeting electronic voting for a meeting of the strata committee,
(c) if the owners corporation has, by resolution, adopted pre-meeting electronic voting as a way of voting—pre-meeting electronic voting for a meeting of the owners corporation

I’m reading it that since the Regulations have taken up the option allowed in 28(3) and specified a way of voting for someone not present at the meeting then that is the way that must be used.  Does the detailed definition of pre-meeting electronic voting that follows that section mean that there is no other way of conducting this type of voting?  The way I read the Act at 28(3)(b) is that if it’s spelt out in the regulations then that’s the rule.

The Act at  28(c) could possibly be read as not limiting what the Owners Corporation can do, but, given the title of that clause, I am reading 28(c) as not limiting what the regulations can do.

(FWIW no-one has been able to show that the OC ever approved any form of voting for those not attending the meeting other than by proxy.   The best they can do is to show a set of minutes where that apparently happened.  That’s a discussion for another day).