Voting Procedures

MLC Voting Procedures

These are guidelines; unlike the voting policy, the Elections Committee is allowed to revise these procedures as circumstances warrant.

Voting Process for Members using Paper Ballots

  1. The voter will sign and legibly print the voter’s name on an envelope enclosing the unsigned ballot.
  2. Voters will either deposit envelopes containing completed ballots in a ballot box provided at the MLC and NWK bulletin boards or mail completed ballots (with the annotation BALLOT on envelope) to MLC, 9601 Miccosukee Rd #23A, Tallahassee, FL 32309.

Voting Process for Members Voting Electronically

  1. Once Town Council directs the Coordinator or Designee to conduct an election, the Elections Committee finalizes the ballot and prepares an electronic ballot to disseminate to the Voter List. The administrator of the electronic voting system will prepare this ballot using a free online secure voting system called Ballotbin. In the future, if this system becomes unavailable or no longer meets our needs, the Elections Committee will search for a suitable substitute.
  2. The administrator of the electronic voting system will send each voter, via email, their own voting code (generated randomly by the system) with directions to vote. This is a closed list election, meaning ballots will be sent only to those on the current electronic voter List described above. The administrator will send each electronic voter the following instructions:

To vote: Go to ballotbin.com and paste your voting code [e.g.,59881,j1k,phow@nettally.com]

You must use this exact voting code including your email address.  

After you vote: After you vote, you will be shown a screen confirming that Ballotbin has counted your vote.  You will receive an e-mail with a Receipt number and a secret word.  Write this down in case any discrepancies should occur. You may only vote once. You will be locked out of the system if you have already voted or if the election has closed.

  1. Once the voting period nears the end, the administrator or designee will send a reminder email to those who haven’t cast a vote. This electronic voting system is set up for secret voting. The administrator can see who has voted but not how they voted.
  2. After an election closes, the election administrator will bring printed-out individual ballots (called receipts) to the vote count. These will be kept on file for MLC records along with the paper ballots. Also, the administrator will bring a print out of the individual voters (email addresses) that voted and those who didn’t vote but were sent an electronic ballot.

Ensuring a Valid Vote, Counting the Votes, Submitting Results

  1. At appropriate times during the voting period, the Elections Committee will open the ballot box and will prepare a list of all eligible voters who have not yet voted either by written ballot or electronically. The Coordinator, with help from the elections committee and group reps, will contact these voters and encourage them to vote before the voting period ends.
  2. The Coordinator or Designee will publicly notice the date and time of any vote count.
  3. The Coordinator will provide the most recently updated list of MLC eligible voters to the committee for the vote count.
  4. Elections Committee members will check off the names of all who voted, based on the outside envelopes received from members who voted by written ballot and the list of voters who voted electronically. The Elections Committee will count the number of votes received and ensure that the required proportion have voted in order for the vote to count (based on requirements of the MLC Covenants and Restrictions and the MLC Bylaws.) If there is an insufficient number, the vote count will be terminated and Town Council will be notified.
  5. If there is a sufficient count for a valid vote, the Elections Committee members open all ballots received, and determine the outcome of the vote.
  6. The Coordinator will circulate results of the vote to the MLC email list and will post results at the MLC and NWK bulletin boards. Results will also be published in the next AC.

Approved 4/20/17.