Cumulative Elections

In conventional HOA voting, the formula to guarantee a director's election is based on the number of members and open seats. For example, in a board with 5 open seats and 100 members, about 17 votes per director are needed for a win. Cumulative voting, used in director elections and recalls, lets members allocate their votes across candidates as they choose. For example, in a board with 5 open seats and 100 members, a candidate would need around 84 votes to ensure election. Cumulative voting is mandated by law if allowed in the HOA's documents, but it's complex and often unnecessary, primarily benefiting minority interests. For more details, visit Davis-Stirling's page on HOA Cumulative Elections.

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Think of CUMULATIVE VOTING like a strategy game with power-ups. If your HOA has 5 open seats and more than 5 candidates running, you can use your votes (like power-ups) in different ways:

• Flexibility: You can give all your votes to one candidate or spread them out. For instance, you could:

  • Cast all 5 votes for your favorite candidate.

  • Give 4 votes to one and 1 to another.

  • Split them evenly or in any combination you like, as long as you don’t exceed the total votes you have.

• Tactical Voting: You can even choose to not use all your votes, like giving 2 votes to one candidate and none to others.

• When Cumulative Voting Happens:

  • It's used if your HOA’s rules allow it.

  • It's mainly for choosing board directors.

  • If it's used to elect directors, it’s also used for removing them.

• Winning the Game: The formula to figure out how many votes guarantee a win is a bit like a video game combo. Let’s say your HOA has 100 members and 5 open seats. You’d calculate it like this: (100 members x 5 seats) / (5 seats + 1) + 1 = 84 votes needed for a win.

• Why It’s a Big Deal: Cumulative voting can be a game-changer but also confusing. It's like having a wildcard in a card game – it gives minority groups more influence but can complicate things. Some argue it's better for smaller communities, similar to giving a voice to the underdog in a multiplayer game.
   

NON-CUMULATIVE VOTING

Imagine you're in a competition where you're trying to get your top picks elected to the board of your favorite online community. Here's how it works:

• The Basic Idea: In this kind of election, you can only give one like (vote) to each candidate.

• The Winning Formula: To figure out how many likes each of your favorite candidates needs to secure a win, there's a simple math formula.

  Let's say there are 100 members in the community and 5 spots on the board. The formula goes like this:

  Votes needed = (Total Members / (Total Spots + 1)) + 1

  So, it’s like dividing the total number of members (100) by one more than the number of spots (5 + 1), which is 6. Then you add 1. If you get a decimal, just drop anything after the dot.

  In our case, it's 100 divided by 6, plus 1, which equals 17.7. After dropping the decimal, you get 17.

• What This Means: Each of your favorite candidates needs 17 likes to win a spot. If there are more candidates than spots, you need to make sure your favorites get these 17 likes each. If each gets 17 likes, there won't be enough likes left for others to win over your favorites.

• In Short: It's like strategizing in a game to ensure your favorites get just enough support to make it to the top, without wasting any effort.