HOA Proxy Voting Rules by State in 2026: Where Proxies Count and Where They Do Not

Quick Answer

Proxy voting is permitted in most US states, but six of them change the answer for board elections specifically: Arizona bans proxies outright once declarant control ends, Nevada bans them for electing or removing directors, Florida bans them in residential condominium board elections, Illinois bans them in board elections once the association adopts balloting rules, and Ohio and North Dakota run the default backwards — no proxy at all unless the articles, bylaws or regulations affirmatively allow one. California adds a seventh answer: proxies are fine, but one cannot be the vote. The table below sorts all 50 states into four categories using the statutes on file in the vote.direct state HOA voting rules guide.

The four categories:

• Capped by the association act. The state's condominium, planned community or HOA statute carries its own proxy provision — a duration, a holder cap, or a rule that the proxy dies with the meeting. Thirty-one states sit here, which makes this the normal case, not the exception.
• Capped by the corporate act. The community association statute says nothing about proxies, so the nonprofit or general corporation act supplies the rule — usually eleven months. Arkansas, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.
• Cannot replace a ballot. California. A proxy authorizes someone to cast the member's secret ballot; it is not itself the vote.
• Barred, or barred by default. Arizona, Nevada, Florida residential condominiums, and Illinois once balloting rules are adopted. Ohio and North Dakota run the default backwards: no proxy unless your articles, bylaws or regulations affirmatively allow one.

A proxy form that is perfectly valid in Texas is void in a California board election, and a thirteen-month-old one is void almost everywhere. That difference, and not the form itself, is what decides most proxy disputes.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Proxy rules come from your state's statutes and your governing documents, and they change. Confirm yours with an attorney licensed in your state before you rely on them.

Why the Same Piece of Paper Is Legal in One State and Void in Another

A proxy is a creature of corporate law. Your association is almost certainly a nonprofit corporation, and the state's nonprofit corporation act supplies the background rule: a member may authorize someone else to act for them in writing, and that authorization lasts a default period, commonly eleven months from signing.

Then the community association statute lands on top of it. Every state with a modern HOA or condominium act has had to decide whether the corporate proxy is an acceptable instrument for the one vote that matters most, the election of directors. Several legislatures decided it is not, because a proxy is the only voting instrument where a third party fills in the answer.

That layering is why "are proxies allowed in my state" is almost never the whole question. Arizona's association act removes proxies from the picture entirely. California leaves them standing but will not let one carry the vote. Ohio flips the corporate default, so an association that never amended its regulations may have no proxy right at all while believing it does.

Ask three questions, in this order:

• 1Does the community association act say anything about proxies for this specific decision, a board election being the decision most often carved out?

• 2If it is silent, what does the nonprofit corporation act supply as the default duration and form?

• 3What do the bylaws add? They can be stricter than the statute. They cannot be looser.

The 50-State Proxy Table

Every row is built from the statute list and proxy notes in the vote.direct state guide, checked against the legislature's own text. The headline finding is that "check your governing documents" is almost never the whole answer: every state puts a proxy rule somewhere in statute, and thirty-six of them put it inside the community association act itself. In the other fourteen the act is silent and the corporate act fills the gap, which is what the last column names.

For the full picture in the states with the most detailed regimes, see California HOA election rules, Texas HOA election rules, Arizona HOA election rules, Nevada HOA election rules, Colorado HOA election rules, North Carolina HOA election rules and Georgia HOA election rules.

How to Read a "Capped by the Corporate Act" Row

Twelve rows put the rule in the corporate act because the community association statute has no proxy provision at all — and Ohio and North Dakota make fourteen, since their reversal of the default comes from the corporate act too. That is not the same as "proxies are fine" or "anything goes." It means the answer comes from two other places, and you have to go read them.

The nonprofit or general corporation act. Most associations are incorporated, and the state's corporate act carries a proxy provision with a default duration. Eleven months from execution is the most common, which is why so many bylaws quote that number without citing a source — but it is not universal. Massachusetts gives a proxy six months and kills it at the final adjournment of the meeting it names. Michigan and Oklahoma allow three years. Ohio and North Dakota give you nothing at all unless the articles say otherwise.

The bylaws and declaration. These are where the remaining limits live: whether proxies are accepted at all, who may hold one, how many, when it must be delivered, and whether it dies at adjournment. Almost no corporate act caps the number one person may hold, so if your bylaws are silent on that, you have no cap, and one person arriving with forty signed forms is a legal outcome.

There is one more trap in these states. Older bylaws often say members may vote "in person or by proxy" and nothing else, and read literally that clause can be argued to exclude mail and electronic ballots, which is the opposite of what a board reaching for online voting expects. Read the voting clause word for word before you change how the vote is delivered, and see electronic voting by state for what your state permits.

Directed vs Undirected Proxies

The single most useful distinction in this whole subject is whether the proxy carries instructions.

A general or undirected proxy hands over judgment. The holder votes as they see fit on whatever comes up. The member has delegated the decision, not just their attendance.

A directed or limited proxy records the member's answer to each question and binds the holder to it. Functionally it is an absentee ballot with a courier attached.

A quorum-only proxy counts the member as present so the meeting can be validly held, and grants no voting authority at all. It is the right instrument when the only problem is attendance.

Six rows name the choice. Five of them — Connecticut, Kansas, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington — use the statutory phrase "directed or undirected" verbatim, and Colorado's entry records the same permission. New Hampshire goes furthest and puts the choice in the owner's hands rather than the board's. That is a statutory permission, not a recommendation. Where you have the choice, the directed proxy is the safer instrument for one reason: it removes the discretion that makes proxy harvesting worth doing. A blank general proxy is valuable to whoever collects it. A directed proxy is worth nothing to a collector, because the answers are already written.

Six states cap proxy accumulation by statute rather than leaving it to the bylaws. Connecticut, Kansas and Vermont each stop one person from casting undirected proxies for more than fifteen per cent of the votes in the association, New Hampshire holds any one person to ten per cent of the votes cast in an association over twenty units, Idaho caps a single owner at fifty per cent of the total votes, and Maryland lets an undirected proxy count only for quorum and non-election business. Boards everywhere else should at minimum set their own cap, verify signatures against the roster on receipt, and log arrival times so duplicates resolve in time order. How this goes wrong in practice is in HOA proxy voting fraud; the anatomy of a valid form is in proxy voting explained.

Proxy, Absentee Ballot, and Electronic Ballot Are Three Different Instruments

Boards conflate these constantly, and the conflation is what produces the void election. They differ in who exercises judgment.

Arizona is the clearest illustration. Removing proxies from association elections did not remove the member's ability to participate remotely: absentee ballots, including by mail, email, fax, or other electronic delivery, are the statutory substitute. Texas points the other direction and requires that owners be offered one of three — absentee ballot, proxy, or electronic ballot — though since September 1, 2025 the association need not provide more than one unless a dedicatory instrument says otherwise. Texas then breaks the tie with a rule most boards forget: an in-person vote supersedes an absentee or electronic ballot already submitted for that proposal.

New York cooperatives sit in an interesting middle. Proxies are permitted under the Not-for-Profit and Business Corporation Laws, and the annual meeting frequently cannot reach quorum without them, which is exactly the dependency that gives a proxy solicitation its leverage. See the NYC co-op shareholder election guide, and mail ballot vs absentee ballot for the difference between the two paper instruments.

If your state requires a secret ballot, note what that does to the proxy. A holder who knows how the member wants to vote is, by definition, a person who knows how that member voted. That is why California will not let a proxy be the ballot, and it is worth reading HOA secret ballot rules by state alongside this table.

Where Proxies Get Elections Overturned

Proxy challenges rarely turn on fraud that anyone can prove. They turn on paperwork nobody checked. Five patterns account for most of them.

1. The wrong instrument for the state. A Florida condominium that accepts proxies in a board election has violated FS §718.112(2)(b) on the face of the record, whether or not the proxies changed anything. Arizona is the same after declarant control. This is the failure that voids an election with no argument about intent.

2. The blank holder line. A form collected with the holder's name empty and filled in afterwards. It is the reason "proxy harvesting" is a phrase, and it is nearly impossible to defend once a challenger produces one.

3. The stale proxy. An eleven-month proxy used at a meeting thirteen months later. A Wisconsin proxy at day 181, or an Indiana one at day 181, or a Maryland condominium proxy at day 181 — three different statutes, the same short fuse. A Hawaii, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico or Vermont proxy used at any meeting other than the one it was cast for, because in those states a proxy is valid only for that meeting and its recessed session. A Massachusetts proxy more than six months old, or one used after the named meeting finally adjourned. Each of those is a specific statutory defect, not a technicality.

4. No revocation trail. A member who attends in person revokes their proxy, whether or not anyone announces it. If the tally counted both, the tally is wrong. Texas puts this in the statute; most states get there through general proxy law.

5. Holder accumulation. One person arriving with a block large enough to decide the outcome. Legal in many states, corrosive in all of them, and the fastest way to turn a result into a lawsuit.

The consequences are not uniformly civil. Nevada treats fraud that alters an election outcome as a Category D felony (NRS 116.31107). Florida's 2024 reforms, HB 1203 for HOAs and HB 1021 for condominiums, added criminal penalties for election fraud including forged ballot envelopes and voting certificates. California gives members a specific statutory path to challenge an election under Civil Code §5145 rather than leaving it to general litigation.

If a challenge has already landed, what happens if your HOA election is challenged covers the sequence and the cost, and quorum-driven proxy pressure is covered in HOA quorum requirements by state.

What to Settle Before the Notice Goes Out

• 1Name the decision, then check the statute. Not "does my state allow proxies," but "does my state allow a proxy for a board election." Those have different answers in Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Illinois, California, Ohio and North Dakota — and in Alabama, where a proxy is fine for everything except removing a director.

• 2Read the voting clause in your bylaws word for word. If it says "in person or by proxy" and nothing else, decide now whether you are amending it.

• 3Pick directed over general where your documents allow the choice, and print each question on the form in the same words as the ballot.

• 4Set a cap and a deadline for how many proxies one person may hold and when a proxy must arrive to be validated.

• 5Say in the notice whether proxies will be accepted. Minnesota requires the notice to state the procedure for appointing one (Minn. Stat. §515B.3-108(c)); New Hampshire requires the board to enclose control-numbered directed and undirected forms with the notice. Do it everywhere.

• 6Log every proxy on arrival, check the room against that log, and retain the proxies with the ballots as part of the election record.

The Structural Fix

Proxies exist because attendance is hard, not because delegation is good. Almost every problem in this article traces back to one design assumption: that a member who cannot be in a room on a Tuesday evening has to hand their vote to someone who can. When members can vote from a phone over a two-week window, that assumption stops holding, and proxy disputes shrink to the handful of cases where a proxy is genuinely required.

That is what vote.direct is for: every eligible member gets a private ballot link, votes are recorded against a verified identity with a timestamped audit trail, and the tally does not depend on anyone arriving with forty signed forms.

Be clear about the limits. No software, vote.direct included, can make a proxy valid that your statute does not allow, make an election legally binding, or substitute for reading your governing documents. What it can do is remove most of the reason to use proxies at all, and produce a tamper-evident record of who voted and when if the result is questioned.

Self-serve elections start at $4.99 for up to 50 voters. If you would rather hand the whole thing over, a fully managed election starts at $199 for a digital election of up to 100 voters.

FAQ

Q: What is a proxy vote?

A proxy vote is a vote cast by one person on behalf of another under a written authorization. The member who cannot attend signs a proxy naming a holder to act for them at a specific meeting. It is the only voting instrument in association governance where somebody other than the member fills in the answer, which is why so many states restrict it.

Q: Which states ban proxy voting in HOA board elections?

Arizona bans them for planned communities and condominiums once declarant control ends (ARS §33-1812 and §33-1250). Nevada bans them for electing or removing executive board members (NRS §116.311(6)). Florida bans them in residential condominium board elections, and bars general proxies in residential condominiums for every vote (FS §718.112(2)(b)2.), though Chapter 720 HOAs may still use them. Illinois bans them in board elections once the association adopts balloting rules — 765 ILCS 605/18(b)(9)(B) and (B-5) for condominiums, 765 ILCS 160/1-25(i) for common interest communities. Two more restrict differently: under ORC §1702.20(D) an Ohio natural-person member may not vote by proxy unless the articles or regulations authorize it, and under NDCC §10-33-77 a North Dakota member may cast a proxy vote only if the articles or bylaws permit it. Louisiana bars proxies for directors voting at board meetings (La. R.S. §9:1141.28(A)), and Alabama bars them for removing a director (Ala. Code §35-8A-303(g)).

Q: Can California HOAs use proxies?

Proxies are permitted under the Davis-Stirling Act, but Civil Code §5130(b) says they "shall not be construed or used in lieu of a ballot." Board elections, assessments, amendments to the governing documents, and grants of exclusive use of common area all have to be decided on a secret ballot (§5100), so a proxy authorizes someone to cast the member's secret ballot rather than being the vote itself. Any instruction on how to vote goes on a separate detachable page, and the member may revoke the proxy until the inspector of elections receives the ballot (§5130(c)). Duration comes from the Corporations Code: 11 months unless the proxy says otherwise, three years maximum (Corp. Code §7613(b)). See California HOA election rules.

Q: How long is an HOA proxy valid?

It depends on the state, and the spread is wider than most boards assume. Eleven months is the most common default — Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New York, North Carolina (planned communities), South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Washington and Wyoming all use it. One year is a hard ceiling, not a default, in Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia: the proxy may say sooner, never later. Shorter still: Indiana caps a homeowners association proxy at 180 days, Maryland caps a condominium proxy at 180 days, Wisconsin at 180 days, Massachusetts at six months, and Florida kills any condominium or Chapter 720 proxy 90 days after the meeting it was given for. Longer: Michigan and Oklahoma allow three years. And in Hawaii, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Vermont and Virginia condominiums, a proxy is valid only for the meeting it names. Your bylaws can set a shorter period than the statute, and frequently do.

Q: Can one person hold unlimited proxies?

Only if nothing stops them, but more statutes stop them than boards expect. Connecticut, Kansas and Vermont each bar any one person from casting undirected proxies for more than fifteen per cent of the votes in the association. New Hampshire holds one person to ten per cent of the votes cast in an association over twenty units, and to less than a majority in one under twenty. Idaho caps a single owner at fifty per cent of the total votes. Maryland lets an undirected proxy count only for quorum and business other than an election. Nevada restricts who may hold a proxy at all — an immediate family member, a resident tenant, another resident owner, or an authorized delegate — and makes the holder disclose how many they carry at the start of the meeting. Everywhere else, the cap has to come from your bylaws or election rules.

Q: Does attending the meeting cancel my proxy?

Yes, essentially everywhere, though the mechanism differs. Several corporate acts say it outright: in Idaho, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming an appointment is revoked when the member attends the meeting and votes in person. The UCIOA-derived condominium acts get there another way, by requiring actual notice of revocation to the person presiding — so the member has to say so, not merely show up. Texas puts a related rule in the statute at Property Code §209.00592(b)(2), where an in-person vote supersedes an absentee or electronic ballot previously submitted for that proposal; note that the statutory override names ballots, not proxies. Somebody has to check the room against the proxy log before the tally, or both votes get counted.

Q: Do proxies count toward quorum?

In most states that permit proxies, yes, a member represented by proxy is treated as present. This is exactly why proxy solicitation carries so much leverage in communities that struggle to reach quorum, and why boards under quorum pressure end up accepting forms they have not verified. See HOA quorum requirements by state.

Q: Is electronic voting a substitute for proxies?

Functionally, for most members, yes: an electronic ballot lets the member decide the question themselves without attending, which is what a proxy was standing in for. Legally it is a separate authorization. Your bylaws have to permit the method, and a voting clause that says "in person or by proxy" may need amending first. Check electronic voting by state before you assume.

The Bottom Line

There is no national proxy rule, and the state-level answer changes depending on which decision is on the ballot. Thirty-one states have written a proxy provision into their community association statute. Twelve more leave it to the corporate act, where eleven months is the usual answer but six months, 180 days and three years all appear. Six states restrict or reverse the right entirely. In every one of them, something in statute already constrains the form your board is about to accept.

The pattern across the states that legislated hardest is worth noticing. Arizona replaced proxies with absentee ballots. Nevada removed them from board elections and restricted who may hold the rest. Florida removed them from residential condominium board elections and abolished the general proxy outright. Illinois removes them from board elections the moment an association adopts balloting rules. California left them standing but refused to let them carry the vote. Five legislatures, five mechanisms, one shared conclusion: for the election of directors, the member's own ballot is the instrument, and a form naming somebody else is not a good enough substitute.

Sources:

• 1Alabama Ala. Code §35-8A-310(b): condominium proxies, one-year cap; §35-8A-303(g): removing a director takes an in-person vote

• 2Arizona ARS §33-1812: proxy prohibition and absentee ballots, planned communities

• 3Arizona ARS §33-1250: proxy prohibition and absentee ballots, condominiums

• 4California Civil Code §5100: secret ballot requirement; §5115: notice, ballot procedure and quorum

• 5California Civil Code §5130: proxies — "shall not be construed or used in lieu of a ballot"

• 6California Corporations Code §7613(b): proxy duration, 11 months / three years

• 7California Civil Code §5145: election challenge procedures

• 8Colorado CRS §38-33.3-310: proxies, duration, and secret ballots

• 9Connecticut CGS §47-252(c): directed and undirected proxies, one-year cap, 15% undirected ceiling

• 10Florida Statutes §718.112(2)(b)2.–3.: no general proxy in a residential condominium, no proxy in a board election, 90-day expiry

• 11Florida Statutes §720.306(8)(a): HOA proxy formalities and 90-day expiry

• 12Florida HB 1203 and HB 1021 (2024): criminal penalties for election fraud

• 13Georgia OCGA §44-3-224(b) and §44-3-79(c): association proxies, void if undated; OCGA §14-3-724: duration and electronic appointment

• 14Hawaii HRS §514B-123: proxy valid only for the named meeting, second-business-day delivery deadline

• 15Idaho Idaho Code §55-3204B(2): no owner may hold proxies for more than 50% of the total votes

• 16Illinois 765 ILCS 605/18(b)(9)(B) and (B-5); 765 ILCS 160/1-25(i): no proxy voting in board elections once balloting rules are adopted

• 17Indiana IC §32-25.5-3-10: statutory proxy form, void if noncompliant, 180-day limit

• 18Kansas KSA §58-4614(c): proxy valid only for that meeting; 15% undirected ceiling

• 19Maryland Md. Real Property §11-109(c)(9)–(12): 180-day condominium proxy, undirected proxies limited in director elections

• 20Maryland Md. Real Property §11B-118 (SB 758, Chapter 512 of the Acts of 2025): independent conduct of association elections

• 21Massachusetts MGL c. 180, §6A: proxy void after six months and after final adjournment

• 22Michigan MCL §450.2421: proxies under the Nonprofit Corporation Act, three-year default term; MCL §559.154: mandatory contents of condominium bylaws

• 23Minnesota Statutes §515B.3-110(b): proxies permitted if the articles or bylaws allow; §317A.453: 11 months / three years; §515B.3-108(c): the notice must state the appointment procedure

• 24Nevada NRS §116.311(3)–(6): proxy prohibition for board elections and holder restrictions

• 25Nevada NRS 116.31107: election fraud as a Category D felony

• 26New Hampshire RSA 356-B:39, IV: directed or undirected at the owner's choice, 10% holder cap, control-numbered forms

• 27New Jersey N.J.S.A. §45:22A-45.2(a): voluntary-proxy disclosure and the absentee ballot condition

• 28New Mexico NMSA §47-16-9: proxy voting must be offered; valid only for the meeting at which it is cast

• 29North Carolina NCGS §47F-3-110(b): 11 months, planned communities; §47C-3-110(b): one year, condominiums

• 30North Dakota NDCC §10-33-77: no proxy unless the articles or bylaws permit it

• 31Ohio ORC §1702.20(D): no proxy for natural-person members absent authorization

• 32Pennsylvania 68 Pa.C.S. §3310(b) and §5310(b): proxy terminates one year after its date; §3310(e): absentee and electronic ballots

• 33Texas Property Code §209.00592(a-1) as amended by S.B. 2629 (eff. Sept. 1, 2025): absentee ballot, proxy, or electronic ballot, one of the three; §209.0058(d): optional secret-ballot rules

• 34Vermont 27A V.S.A. §3-110(c): meeting-only proxies, 15% undirected ceiling

• 35Virginia Va. Code §55.1-1953(D): condominium proxy terminates after the first meeting on or after its date

• 36Washington RCW 64.90.455(3): directed or undirected, identity verification, 11 months

• 37Wisconsin Wis. Stat. §703.15(4)(d)1.: condominium proxy effective only 180 days