To enhance voter participation, security, and efficiency in our election processes, I move that Surfside HOA adopt ElectionBuddy, an advanced and secure online voting platform, for implementing electronic voting, mirroring the successful process used by an HOA in Virginia. ElectionBuddy is a professional software company with thousands of organizations running 260000 elections with 38 million voters. 

A electionBuddy case study published highlights the significant improvements in voter participation and election efficiency achieved by a Virginia HOA by adopting ElectionBuddy. With approximately 3,500 members, this HOA experienced an increase in voter turnout and successfully met quorum requirements using a hybrid voting system of paper and electronic ballots. It took three days to setup electronic voting. They made no changes to paper ballot voting; they just expanded ease of voting by sending electronic ballots to all members by email, giving them the option to cast ballots electronically or on paper. The HOA is home to FBI and DOJ employees who had no issue with the security of electronic voting or providing personal emails. The cost was 1200 dollars.

Read an article about the successful Virginia HOA election Buddy experience: HOA adopts ElectionBuddy: A Case Study in Electronic Voting. – Surfside Washington News

Benefits of Implementing ElectionBuddy:

1. Increased Voter Participation: The convenience of electronic voting is likely to increase voter turnout, as evidenced by nearly 100% positive feedback in the Virginia HOA’s post-election survey.
2. Enhanced Security: ElectionBuddy employs advanced security measures to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of votes, which is trusted even by residents working in IT and federal agencies.
3. Transparency: ElectionBuddy provides detailed audit trails and reports, ensuring a transparent election process.
4. Efficiency: The entire setup process for the election was completed in less than two weeks.
5. Independence: The HOA had no involvement except to release the email list to ElectionBuddy. ElectionBuddy ran the election and just provided the results, eliminating conflicts of interest compared to having a management company with a financial conflict of interest by running an election while being paid for other services..

Hybrid Voting System: the motion is to Implement a hybrid voting system by distributing paper and electronic ballots to members. This approach ensures compliance with existing bylaws that require paper ballots while also providing the convenience of electronic voting, particularly for remote voters. Many have reported issues with receiving their ballots late or not at all. For example, I received three ballots: one with “candidate” instead of names, one with my name misspelled, and one correct ballot. Additionally, some members reported not receiving the budget vote ballots. These issues disenfranchise remote voters and need to be addressed. Adopting ElectionBuddy will modernize our election process, making it more efficient, secure, and accessible for all members. This initiative will significantly enhance voter participation and satisfaction, ensuring the smooth and transparent conduct of our elections.