Condominium Election Mistakes: The Procedural Errors That Get a Florida Election Overturned

Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA
Founder & Managing Shareholder

• Published September 25, 2026
• Reviewed by Jason Hamilton Mikes, JD, MBA, September 26, 2026
• Florida Statutes as of July 1, 2026
• Applies to: Condominiums · Cooperatives

Florida condominium elections are set aside for procedure, almost never for substance. The statute and the Division's election rule prescribe a calendar, a notice package, an envelope procedure and a counting procedure, and a board that departs from any of them hands a losing candidate a ready-made challenge. Some departures can be fixed by restarting the calendar. Others cannot be fixed at all once the envelopes are open. Knowing which is which keeps a board out of arbitration.

The election calendar is the whole ballgame

Section 718.112(2)(d)5.a. sets four deadlines, all counted backward from the date of the election. The regular election must occur on the date of the annual meeting, so the meeting date fixes the whole schedule.

1. At least 60 days before the election, the association mails, delivers or electronically transmits a first notice of the date of the election to each unit owner entitled to vote. It may go separately or be included in another association mailing, including a newsletter.
2. At least 40 days before the election, a unit owner or other eligible person who wants to be a candidate must give the association written notice of intent to be a candidate.
3. At least 35 days before the election, a candidate who wants an information sheet included must furnish it to the association.
4. Not less than 14 and not more than 34 days before the election, the association transmits the second notice of election, with the annual meeting notice and agenda and a ballot listing all candidates.

The second notice window is the one boards miss most, because it is a window and not a floor: a package sent 40 days out is as defective as one sent 10 days out. The annual meeting notice carries its own requirement under § 718.112(2)(d)4.: transmitted at least 14 days before the meeting and posted for at least 14 continuous days, with an affidavit or certificate of mailing placed in the official records.

What goes wrong is usually arithmetic. A board picks a November meeting date, sends the first notice the day someone remembers, and lands at 57 days. Or it moves the meeting and never recalculates the 40-day deadline, so a candidate who filed on time under the old date is treated as late. Our election calendar for association boards works the dates backward from the meeting.

A blown 60-day or 40-day deadline is curable if the board catches it early. Move the meeting, restart the notice sequence from the new date, and record the reason in the minutes. Once ballots are in owners' hands the only remedy is to run the election again.

The second notice, the ballot and the candidate information sheets

The second notice is not a reminder. It is the package that must physically contain the meeting notice, the agenda, a ballot listing all candidates, any timely information sheets, and the inner and outer envelopes.

The ballot must list every person who filed a timely notice of intent and was eligible at the 40-day deadline. Leaving a qualified candidate off is the most reliable way to lose a challenge, because the missing name is by definition capable of affecting the outcome. If the board believes a candidate is disqualified, decide and document that before the ballot is printed. Our guide to candidate eligibility covers the grounds.

On request, the association must include a candidate's information sheet, no larger than 8 1/2 by 11 inches, furnished at least 35 days before the election. The association pays for copying and mailing and may print on both sides, and the statute says plainly that the association is not liable for the contents. That sentence answers the question boards ask most often: a board that dislikes what a candidate wrote has no authority to edit it, redact it, append a rebuttal, or decline to send it. A sheet that is oversized or late may be declined on those grounds, in writing, at the time.

The Division's rule also bars campaigning in the ballot package. The second notice may not contain any board communication that endorses, disapproves or otherwise comments on a candidate. Boards cross that line by folding a president's letter or a slate recommendation in with the ballot.

One thing the statute does not require is a quorum. At least 20 percent of eligible voters must cast a ballot for the election to be valid, and the election is decided by a plurality of ballots cast. An election that draws 18 percent is not a close election. It is not an election.

The outer envelope and the inner envelope

The two-envelope procedure does two incompatible things at once: it verifies that the voter is entitled to vote, and it keeps the vote secret. It works only if the envelopes stay in the right order.

The owner marks the ballot, places it in the smaller inner envelope and seals it. The sealed inner envelope goes inside the larger outer envelope. The outside of the outer envelope carries the voter's name, the unit or units being voted, and a signature space, and the voter signs it. Nothing identifying the voter goes on the ballot or the inner envelope.

An outer envelope not signed by the eligible voter is marked "Disregarded" or words to that effect, and the ballot inside is not counted. That is not a discretionary call, so resist the urge to sign for an owner or to set the envelope aside for later. Mark it, keep it, move on.

Where a unit is owned by several people or by an entity, the answer usually lies in the bylaws and the voting certificate on file. Settle that before the election, not at the table while owners watch. Our overview of ballots, proxies and voting certificates works through the common situations.

Opening ballots early, and who handles them

This is where elections are actually lost. Envelopes returned before the meeting are not opened; they are held and transported to the meeting location sealed. The Division's rule permits an impartial committee designated by the board to verify the outer envelope information in advance, but that committee may not include current board members, officers, candidates, or the spouse of any of them.

At the meeting the outer envelopes are opened, the sealed inner envelopes are separated from them, and only then are the inner envelopes opened and the ballots counted in the presence of the unit owners. The moment the opening of outer envelopes begins, or electronic votes are first accessed, the polls close and no further ballots may be accepted. A board that starts opening envelopes at 6:40 for a 7:00 meeting has closed the polls at 6:40, and every owner arriving at 6:55 with a ballot has been disenfranchised.

The rule permits an impartial committee; it does not require one. Counting in the presence of the unit owners is not optional, and a tally done in a side room will not survive a challenge however good the arithmetic.

Counting ballots from units that were not eligible to vote

Boards routinely confuse two different delinquency rules, in both directions.

For candidates, § 718.112(2)(d)3. disqualifies a person delinquent in the payment of any assessment due to the association. There is no dollar threshold and no grace period. A person is delinquent if payment was not made by the due date identified in the declaration, bylaws or articles, and if no due date is identified there, the due date is the first day of the assessment period.

For voting, the threshold is far higher. Section 718.303(5) permits suspension of a unit owner's voting rights for nonpayment of a fee, fine or other monetary obligation that is more than $1,000 and more than 90 days delinquent. The suspension must be approved at a properly noticed board meeting, and the association must then notify the owner by mail or hand delivery. At least 90 days before an election the association must also warn an owner that voting rights may be suspended for nonpayment. A suspended voting interest is subtracted from the total, so it comes out of the denominator for the 20 percent requirement as well.

The errors run both ways. A board that refuses a ballot from an owner who owes $400 has treated a lawful vote as unlawful. A board that counts a ballot from a unit whose rights were properly suspended has done the reverse. And a board that suspended voting rights informally, without the board vote or the notice, has no suspension at all and must count the ballot. If arrears are the underlying problem, deal with them well before election season.

Proxies in an election where proxies are not permitted

Section 718.112(2)(d)5. is explicit: the board of a residential condominium is elected by written ballot or voting machine, and proxies may not be used in electing the board in general elections or in elections to fill vacancies caused by recall, resignation or otherwise.

Proxies remain proper at the same meeting for quorum and for other agenda items, which is what creates the confusion. An owner hands in a limited proxy, it is counted toward quorum, and somebody then treats it as a vote for the slate named on it. It is not a vote. The statute adds that an owner may not authorize another person to vote his or her ballot, that improperly cast ballots are invalid, and that a violating owner may be fined under § 718.303.

There are narrow exceptions. The election provisions do not apply to timeshare or nonresidential condominiums, and an association of 10 or fewer units may, by affirmative vote of a majority of the total voting interests, adopt different voting and election procedures in its bylaws, which may include elections by proxy. If your association relies on that opt-out, confirm the vote happened and the amendment exists. Boards frequently believe they opted out in the 1990s and cannot produce the document.

Ballots not retained

Section 718.111(12)(a)12. makes ballots, sign-in sheets, voting proxies and all other papers and electronic records relating to voting official records, kept for one year from the date of the election, vote or meeting. The Division's rule likewise requires envelopes and ballots to be retained for one year. Nothing stops an association from keeping them longer, and it should whenever a challenge is rumored.

The failure is mundane: the meeting ends late, somebody carries the box to the management office, and three months later it is gone. The consequences are not. Ballots are records an owner may inspect, so their absence is a records violation, and § 718.112(2)(q) requires removal of a director or officer charged by information or indictment with destroying an official record in furtherance of a crime, or with forgery of a ballot envelope.

Seal the box at the meeting, label it with the election date, and store it where the association's other official records live. If a challenge is threatened, nothing in that box is touched until counsel says so.

Fatal or curable: how to think about it

Not every error requires a new election. An arbitrator asks whether the error could have affected the outcome. A board asks whether the error can still be undone by restarting the calendar. Together the two questions produce this rough map.

Two habits prevent nearly all of this. Put the four deadlines on a calendar the day the meeting date is set and work backward. Then decide in advance who is touching the envelopes and name them in the minutes, so on the night of the meeting the answer is settled. Our condominium election checklist puts both on one page, and if the election has already happened and somebody is unhappy, our guide to challenging a condominium election takes it from there.

Contact Hamilton Mikes

Hamilton Mikes runs election calendars, reviews ballot packages before they mail, and advises boards and managers on envelope handling and counting procedure for condominium and cooperative associations throughout Lee, Collier and Charlotte Counties. Call 239-594-7227 or visit our Corporate Governance page.