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Will “electronic voters” be disenfranchised by the new Regulations in that they have been deprived of the right to vote for those persons who have nominated for the Strata Committee? The new Regulations DO allow electronic voting before a meeting on matters “not being an election”. In other words, Pre Meeting (electronic) voting excludes voting for any nominees for Committee.
If a scheme adopts electronic voting, owners who want to have a say as to who is on the Strata Committee will still need to appoint a proxy or attend the meeting if they want to vote for the persons they believe most suitable and also for the number of persons on the Strata Committee.
The new Legislation still allows those present at the meeting to vote on (and control) the number of persons on the Strata Committee and who they will be – as it is now.
In QLD the Election of Committee is placed on the Agenda, owners pre -nominate and ALL OWNERS have an equal opportunity to vote for members of the Strata Committee. Owners at the meeting can also nominate if there are vacancies and I know usually there are plenty of those.
I dont understand the logic behind this decision.
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Scallywag said……
– The new Regulations DO allow electronic voting before a meeting on matters “not being an election”. In other words, Pre Meeting (electronic) voting excludes voting for any nominees for Committee.
– In QLD the Election of Committee is placed on the Agenda, owners pre-nominate and ALL OWNERS have an equal opportunity to vote for members of the Strata Committee. Owners at the meeting can also nominate if there are vacancies ….
As I interpret the new NSW Regulation the “not being an election” provision to which you refer relates only to postal voting, but not to pre-meeting electronic voting (including by the use of a website) under the provisions of Clause 15.
Similarly, it appears to me that the pre-nomination provisions at Clause 9 of the NSW Regulation mirror those applicable in Queensland, where I agree with you that any nominations made at a General Meeting itself may only be voted upon by those personally present there and/or holding a proxy.
The new regulations specify that voting for the committee must be done on a blank piece of paper, the names written in and then signed by the person casting the vote.
There is no way I can think of that this can be done electronically or in advance.
I suppose one way round this would be for the absent voter to provide a proxy that is solely for the purpose of a committee vote
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
I’ve agreed with Scallywag (post #1) about the potential for those voting electronically at General Meetings to be disenfranchised to the extent that they would not be able to cast a vote for persons who are properly nominated for election to the Strata Committee at the physical meeting (as opposed to for those who nominate prior to the electronic distribution of the Agenda), but as it would be unusual for the numbers of nominees to exceed the numbers of Strata Committee Members decided upon at the Meeting, a ballot would be in most circumstances unnecessary.
Still and all there appears to be a conflict in the Regulation between the procedures for electronically electing pre-nominated candidates to the Strata Committee and for electing those who are later nominated at the physical Meeting of the Owners Corporation.
Is it too late for you to seek some clarification from your contacts in the Minister’s Office Jimmy?
@Whale said:
Is it too late for you to seek some clarification from your contacts in the Minister’s Office Jimmy?There is one way to find out! I’ll get back to you ASAP.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
In a nutshell, you can’t vote for your committee by postal vote, emails or on a website. However, you can vote by “live” telecommunication methods if you are effectively “present” at the meeting via Skype, telephone or teleconferencing:
The following is from a Fair Trading spokesperson:
Postal voting is not included as a means of voting for owners corporations or strata committees. In addition, pre-meeting electronic voting cannot be conducted for the election of members of the strata committee by the owners corporation. The reason for this is that clause 9 (1) (b) of the Strata Schemes Management Regulation 2016 permits the chairperson to call for nominations of candidates for election by the owners corporation at the meeting. If pre-meeting electronic voting was permitted, anyone nominated at the meeting would be excluded.
Clause 10 of the Regulation sets out the procedure to be followed for the election of the members of the strata committee for schemes comprising more than 2 lots. If a ballot is required (the number of persons nominated being greater than the number of positions on the committee), then the chairperson provides each person present and entitled to vote with a blank piece of paper. The voter is required to write the name of the persons they wish to vote for, and include other information, including the capacity in which the voter is exercising their right to vote.
Clause 14 (1) (a) allows owners corporations to permit voting by means of teleconference, video-conferencing, email or other electronic means for members of the owners corporation who may be in remote locations whilst participating in the meeting whilst it is being held. In these circumstances they may vote for members of the committee, as they would be made aware of nominations (and be able to nominate), for membership of the committee.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
Thanks for the follow-up Jimmy, but I must say that the explanation by the Department’s spokesperson both defies logic and in opposition to what I thought were the objectives of introducing the option electronic voting for General Meetings, being to facilitate greater involvement by Owners in the overall management of their Scheme, and particularly so by the elected members of their Strata Committee.
If it’s good enough for the State Government to have a cut-off date for people to pre-nominate for election to its Parliament, and even for those nominating for the Board of Registered Organisations to do so at least 30 days in advance of the applicable General Meeting, I don’t understand why that’s not available for the election of Strata Committees?
I agree. This could be fixed by a tweak of the regulations that said, where electronic voting was to be employed, the EC could set for a closing date for nominations of 14 days prior to the AGM, provided all owners were informed of this, say, 28 days before the AGM. Can’t see much wrong with that.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
Jimmy – I agree, with the only further proviso being that at its first Annual General Meeting (AGM) post December 2016, the Agenda would need to include Motions:
1) To resolve that nominations for election to the Strata Committee must be by the individuals themselves, include any preference/s they have for consideration as an Officer of the Committee, and that nominations will close (say) 30 days prior to the date of each AGM; and
2) To resolve the maximum number of Strata Committee members that it will in future elect.
Both Motions should have an incorporated condition that the outcome of those Resolutions will remain in force until otherwise amended at a subsequent AGM.
In that way a ballot at the physical AGM would be unnecessary, and the Agenda for an on-line vote could at the applicable Motion instruct Owners to vote there for the pre-nominated candidate/s of their choice up to “… the number determined by the owners corporation as the (maximum) number of members of the strata committee” [ref: Reg.2016 – Sect.10,Cl.3(a)]
I’m sure that a well designed software package could block any votes in excess of that maximum number.
The process to then nominate and elect Officers of the Strata Committee could occur at a subsequent Meeting of that Committee, which with the assistance of the preferences indicated at the time of Members’ pre-nomination, could also be conducted on-line if necessary, or by teleconference or Skype® otherwise.
All of the above is a bit of a “fiddle” around the edges of the Regulation 2016, but I can’t see anyone challenging such a strategy so long as it’s initially transparent, and subsequently open to amendment by way of a later majority vote at an AGM.
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