Civil Code § 5110

Inspectors of Election

Quorum Requirement:

A quorum is the minimum number of members that must participate in an election for the results to be valid. This participation can be through voting in person, by proxy, or by secret ballot. The specific quorum percentage is usually defined in the association's governing documents.

 

Scheduled Election without Quorum:

If, during a scheduled election, the required quorum is not met (meaning not enough members participated), the election cannot proceed as valid under the usual rules.

 

Calling a Subsequent Meeting:

To address this, the board of directors has the option to call another meeting for the election. This subsequent meeting must be scheduled at least 20 days after the initial scheduled election.

 

Reduced Quorum for Subsequent Meeting:

At this subsequent meeting, the quorum requirement is significantly reduced. The statement indicates that the quorum will be just 20% of the association’s members. So, if the association initially required, say, 50% of members to participate for the election to be valid, this requirement drops to 20% for the subsequent meeting.

 

Purpose:

This rule is in place to ensure that board elections can still proceed even if the initial meeting fails to attract enough members to meet the original quorum requirement. It's a way of making sure the association can still function and have elected directors even if member participation is low. In summary, if not enough members vote in the first scheduled election, the board can hold another meeting where only 20% of member participation is needed to make the election valid. This helps to avoid situations where the board cannot function due to a lack of elected directors.