Washington condo and HOA annual meeting voting checklist

A Washington association's annual meeting is not one task. It is a chain of decisions about statutory applicability, governing documents, nominations, notice, agenda, owner eligibility, quorum, proxies, absentee or electronic voting, remote access, ballot security, meeting procedure, minutes, and record retention. A late problem in any link can undermine owner confidence even when the result is ultimately valid.

Start with applicability. RCW 64.90 generally applies in full to common interest communities created on or after July 1, 2018 and to communities that validly elect into the chapter. RCW 64.90.365 also extends Section 64.90.445, the meetings section, to many communities created before July 1, 2018, subject to listed exceptions. It does not place Sections 64.90.450, .455, .495, or .518 on that general pre-2018 list. Older condominiums and HOAs therefore should have Washington counsel identify the governing act, declaration, bylaws, amendments, and any election into WUCIOA before applying the quorum, voting, election-notice, or records provisions summarized here.

For communities governed by RCW 64.90.445, the association must hold a unit-owner meeting at least annually. Notice of an annual or special unit-owner meeting must be sent no fewer than 14 and no more than 50 days before the meeting. It must state the time, date, place, and agenda items, including the text of any proposed declaration or organizational-document amendment and any proposal to remove a board member or owner-elected officer. Owners must receive a reasonable opportunity to comment on association or community matters.

Build the calendar backward from the meeting. Before choosing a date, confirm director terms, open positions, nomination rights, notice range, ballot-production time, mail or electronic delivery rules, proxy rules, remote-meeting setup, inspector or teller needs, and any management or counsel review. If RCW 64.90.518 applies, the pre-election notice must tell owners how many board positions may be filled, candidate qualifications, and the process and deadline for nominations; a disqualified nominee must receive the basis and appeal procedure.

Prepare an owner roster as a controlled election record. Reconcile units, voting allocations, current contact addresses, registered email addresses, joint ownership, entity owners, representatives, known ownership changes, and any voting suspension authority. The meeting chair, registration team, and ballot team should use the same approved snapshot. Do not improvise eligibility decisions at the sign-in table without the declaration, policy, and counsel-approved procedure.

For communities governed by RCW 64.90.450, the default unit-owner quorum is people entitled to cast 20 percent of association votes at the beginning of the meeting, counted through attendance in person, proxy, permitted remote participation, or absentee ballot. The organizational documents may provide otherwise. This is different from board-meeting quorum, which defaults to a majority of board votes unless the documents require more. The chair should announce the applicable quorum rule, the count by method, and whether quorum is present before substantive owner action begins.

RCW 64.90.455 provides multiple voting paths for covered communities. At a meeting, voting may generally occur by voice, show of hands, standing, written ballot, or another authorized method, subject to the documents and the secret-ballot rule. Remote participation requires reasonable identity-verification measures. An absentee ballot is available when the candidates and proposal text are supplied with the meeting notice and the association provides the ballot; a board-election ballot must include blank space for write-in votes. The association must be able to verify that the absentee ballot came from the unit owner entitled to cast it.

If proxies are permitted, use a written review checklist before counting them. Under RCW 64.90.455, the association uses reasonable measures to verify the owner and proxy holder; an undated proxy is void, and the section addresses revocation and duration. The board should not rewrite a proxy, resolve ambiguous directions informally, or disclose how a directed proxy was voted beyond what law and the process require. Record accepted, rejected, superseded, and revoked proxies with the reason and reviewer.

Covered associations also may conduct a vote without a meeting under RCW 64.90.455(4). The notice must identify the action, voting deadline, approval percentage, and how owners may distribute information; the deadline is generally at least 14 days after notice. The statute includes paper and consent-based electronic ballot procedures, verification requirements, and limited deadline extensions. Do not combine a meeting vote and a no-meeting ballot process without counsel designing how notice, quorum, revocation, duplicate submissions, and counting will work.

For communities subject to RCW 64.90.455(9), board elections, board-member removal votes, and governing-document amendments must use secret ballots. Incumbent directors and candidates may not possess, access, or count the ballots before they are opened, counted, or reviewed and the result announced at a meeting. Design custody before ballots are sent: return channel, envelopes or electronic controls, access permissions, storage, opening, duplicate detection, tally, challenge handling, and result announcement.

At the meeting, keep registration, quorum, parliamentary procedure, owner comment, voting, and ballot custody assigned to named roles. The agenda should identify the order of business, but the chair should also have a script for quorum failure, election ties, challenged credentials, late ballots, candidate withdrawals, technical failure, adjournment, and reconvening. Robert's Rules may guide procedure only if the governing documents or adopted rules make it applicable; it does not override Washington law or the declaration.

Close the record promptly. Minutes should identify the meeting type, date, time, place or remote method, notice, quorum determination, directors present, motions, votes, election results, recess or adjournment, and follow-up assignments without turning the minutes into a transcript. For communities governed by RCW 64.90.495, ballots, proxies, absentee ballots, and other unit-owner voting records must be retained for one year after the election, action, or vote. Other governing acts and documents may require different or additional retention.

This checklist is general board education, not legal advice or an election opinion. Washington's statutory transition is complex, and meeting, quorum, voting, election-notice, records, nonprofit-corporation, and governing-document rules may not apply identically to every community. Ask Washington association counsel to approve the calendar, forms, applicability analysis, disputed eligibility decisions, and any nonstandard voting process.