Counterpoint

A Vote for Change

Denise Lash

Opponents of electronic voting are scared. Scared thatelectronic voting is going to expose the archaic and flawedsystem of proxy voting for what it is - unnecessary and obso

lete. They're scared because they know thatit is largely through proxy voting that somepeople have been able to maintain and securetheir positions for extended periods - givingthem years, sometimes decades, of unchallenged control and all the benefits thatcome with it. So, while the rest of the world

has already adopted electronic voting or ismoving quickly to embrace it, in Canada we see self-interestedpockets of resistance trying to hang on to the status quo.The first telling observation is that these pockets of resistance

are not condominium owners themselves. If that strikes youas strange, it should. Ask any owner who has used electronicvoting and they will tell you the inescapable truth - they loveit. They get to cast their own vote, using an encrypted emaillink that connects with a secure online voting site. They vote attheir convenience and in private. They participate in the votingprocess and express their personal preferences - free from theself-interested influence, or worse, interference, of others.

None of this should come as any surprise. Owners are nodifferent than any other consumer - they expect the sameseamless and easy-to-use digital experience in their condominium living as they experience in all other areas of their life.A proxy? The very notion that an owner should need to use aproxy - whether electronic or paper - to give someone else theright to cast their vote in this day and age of the internet mustseem like a quaint holdover from the Victorian era.

It's easy to see why electronic voting is now the norm in overhalf the states in the U.S. and spreading rapidly. It's also easy tosee why some states, like Arizona and Florida, have passed legislation which prohibits proxy voting, and other states are in theprocess of doing the same. More on that in a moment.Condominium owners are not the only ones who love

electronic voting. High performing condominium directors,boards and managers who are motivated by the best interestsof their unit owners also love it. Electronic voting dramaticallyincreases unit owner participation - frequently up to levels of90% or more. Unit owners engage in the voting process andexpress their opinion, because it's easy to do -"click", and they'vevoted. Boards have clear mandates as a result. The increased

participation also ensures that quorum is easily obtained, often

45

weeks, and at least days, in advance of ameeting. Electronic voting translatesinto owner participation, and ownerparticipation translates into accountability. High-performing directors,boards and managers welcome this kindof accountability - for them, it meansaffirmation and recognition of a job welldone. It's only poor performers, or worse,those taking advantage of their positionfor personal gain or conducting themselves inappropriately, who fear the lossof control that occurs when electronic

voting makes proxies irrelevant.

Back to Arizona, Florida and the U.S.

experience, where electronic votingis steadily leading to the extinction ofthe proxy. Arizona, the sunny retirement state with one of the highestdensities of condominiums in the U.S.,

prohibits proxy voting after the developer's control of the condominium hasended (which is to say, for most of thecondominium's life). Similarly, Florida,another high-density condominiumstate, prohibits proxy voting for the election of directors. Illinois provides thatonce a condominium adopts electronic

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voting rules and regulations, proxyvoting is no longer allowed for boardelections. New Jersey recently allowedcondominiums to use electronic votingand at the same time, passed a law whichprohibits condominiums from offeringproxies to owners unless they also allowowners to cast absentee ballots, effec

tively rendering proxies meaningless.Why are these states passing laws to

prohibit or severely curtail the use ofproxies? The answer is simple. Experiencehas shown that proxies may entrenchincumbent directors to the detriment

of the condominium - concentrat

ing power and decision-making in thehands of a few, resulting in low directorturnover, minimal accountability, andconflicts of interest that favour the few

at the expense of the many.The danger lurking in proxies is

such that U.S. states are now discussingwhether the ban on proxies should beextended from the election of directors

to include votes of any type the condominium conducts. There's a reason proxieshave been banned in political elections inmost advanced democracies - if the goalis to ensure the integrity of the electoralprocess, allowing someone else to vote onyour behalf makes no sense.Canadians have historically been slow

adopters. That's not a bad thing. We area cautious lot by nature, we encourageconsultation, and we seek consensus

- all of which takes some time. In the

case of electronic voting, its widespreadacceptance is inevitable - for all the rightreasons. It's a matter ofwhen, not if. Those

seeking to resist the tides of change andhang on to the antiquated and inherentlyflawed system of proxy voting, whetherby electronic or paper means, may havetheir own self-interested reasons for doingso, but at some point they'll be forced toconcede that electronic voting is both thepresent and the future, and in the bestinterests of the unit owners they serve. ■

Denise Lash is the principal of LashCondo Law www.lashcondolaw.com

and principal of CondoVoter, a firmwhich specializes in providing electronicvoting services to condominiums. Shehas been the leading voice in supportof bringing electronic voting for condominiums to Canada and the first to

make it available to condominiums in

Ontario. For information on electronic

voting visit www.condovoter.com.

Brought to you by the Association of Condominium Managers of Ontario

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