2024 August Vote

You Should have Recieved:

If you did not recieve the following or your envelope has been ripped, please email severnwoodshoa@gmail.com.

If inside the community

If outside the community

You should have recieved the exact same thing in the following envelope but with an interior ballot envelope being pre-stamped for you.

How to turn in ballot:

Either:

Drop off at temporary community dropbox as shown on Cover Letter.

or:

Include postage and mail it to P.O. box as shown on Contact page

Timeline:

July 30 - Homeowners in community given ballots, setup the ballot box setup, and homeowners out of community mailed ballots.
August 30, 11:59pm - Ballots must be dropped off at the ballot box or mailed to our P.O. box. NOTE - ballots that are mailed must be received by this deadline (not just postmarked by) in order to be counted.
August 31, 9:00am - Board members will empty P.O. Box for the ballots of homeowners not living in the community or those that choose to mail it.
August 31, 10:00am (pending weather) - All members of the Board will open the community ballot box together at tot lot, set up a folding table next to it, and then begin counting procedures. Counting procedures can be below following this section. Witnesses welcome because voting is not anonymous due to Covenants requiring signatures for any kind of change. In the event of severe weather or other delay, the Board will notify homeowners electronically of the updated time, else update the previous page mentioned.
By August 31, 11:59pm - Results posted electronically under this page and homeowners notified electronically.
In September - If any vote caused a change, results will also be physically delivered.
Between September 1 and September 9 - All emails and ballots with signatures will be destroyed to protect security/signatures of homeowners. Homeowners have until then to challenge results or ensure their vote was counted.
September, 2024 - If there was any change to our governing documents, these will go through attorney review for verbiage, etc. and go into effect thereafter. Upon going into effect, all homeowners will then again be notified.
Any updates from this will appear here and be noted as being updated.

Proposition Drafts

What follows is the proposed language for propositions #4 and #9a. These may be modified slightly by a attorney if they deem it necessary after a review but otherwise would go in as they are written. All of these propositions like all of our governing rules and procedures are living documents that can be changed and built upon as time passes. If however, you feel they would pose a danger in their current state, please mark Opposed for that proposition until they can be fixed.

Counting Procedures (for this vote)

No black pens shall be present during counting.
No photos or video shall be taken and no photo or video taking devices such as smart phones should be visible during counting.
Counting must be done outside at an area and time disclosed to the Owners. In the event of severe weather or if the Board otherwise cannot make that happen, the Board may elect a future time to commence with counting so long as the Owners are either notified or were told ahead of time where they can check for updates (i.e. the website).
Witnesses shall be welcome.
Votes with multiple markings on sections where it is not allowed shall not be counted if not following the proper instructions for correcting it. Empty votes or not selecting one of the options for a given section shall be permitted as a “Present” vote but to prevent potential abuse is not encouraged.
Entire ballots shall not be counted if any of the required fields are missing (i.e. signature, full name, date), there is some kind of mismatch in marking instruments used, or there is some other suspicious irregularity as agreed upon by the Board.
Each Owner is only allowed one vote per lot. If multiple ballots are submitted for the same Lot, if all responses are identical in terms of vote, one ballot will be counted. If any responses are different in terms of voting, both ballots shall be thrown out. Refer to Articles of Incorporation for full rules on number of votes, who can vote, etc.
If a majority of the witnesses present at the counting of ballots, to include Board members, have qualms with how a certain ballot was counted or treated, those challenged ballots must be placed to the side and remain uncounted. Upon finishing counting, if the uncounted challenged ballots have the ability to sway the outcome, official results must be suspended until the next homeowner meeting.
Whereupon at such a meeting, each challenged ballot shall be taken to all present Owners to decide, with majority ruling as to how such ballot shall be treated.