Quick Answer
Yes, if the statute your co-op was formed under and your bylaws allow it. Several state cooperative statutes expressly let members vote by mail or electronically, and each one quoted below makes that depend on the articles or bylaws, the board, or both. Some also require the co-op to be able to confirm that the person voting is the member.
| Question | Short answer | Where it is decided |
|---|---|---|
| Can members vote by mail or online? | Yes where the statute and bylaws allow it. Minnesota, Wisconsin and California cooperative law, and New York's rural electric cooperative law, provide for it expressly | Your bylaws, then the statute you were formed under |
| Who switches it on? | The bylaws for electronic votes in Wisconsin (§185.12(5)); the articles or bylaws for Minnesota director elections (§308A.311 subd. 4); the board for other Minnesota votes (§308A.635 subd. 4) | The statute's own words |
| How is the member verified? | In Minnesota and Wisconsin an electronic vote is allowed only if the co-op can authenticate that the member is the one voting (Minn. Stat. §308A.635 subd. 6(d); Wis. Stat. §185.12(5)) | Your election procedure |
| How many votes does a member get? | One, by default, in the general cooperative acts quoted here (Minn. Stat. §308A.635 subd. 1; Wis. Stat. §185.12(2)) | Articles and bylaws |
| What about joint memberships? | In Wisconsin the bylaws may say how a jointly held membership votes (§185.12(1)) | Your bylaws |
| Are proxies allowed? | Not in Wisconsin cooperatives (§185.12(3)); in New York electric cooperatives no one may vote as proxy for more than three members (Rural Elec. Coop. Law §17(e)) | Statute, then bylaws |
| Do remote ballots count toward quorum? | Minnesota counts members represented by mail vote (§308A.631 subd. 2); Wisconsin counts signed ballots only on the motions they were cast on (§185.14(2)) | Statute and bylaws |
This is our reading of the statutes quoted, offered to support your own review, and it is not legal advice. Cooperatives are formed under many different statutes, and your articles and bylaws often control. Confirm with your cooperative's attorney before you change how members vote.
Does Co-op Law Allow Online Voting?
Start with the statute your co-op was formed under; if nobody on the board is sure which it is, ask counsel. Different kinds of co-op can sit under different acts in the same state. New York's Cooperative Corporations Law and its Rural Electric Cooperative Law, for example, are separate chapters with different voting rules, and a housing co-op may be organized as a business or not-for-profit corporation rather than under a cooperative act at all. Credit unions follow their own rules, covered in credit union board election requirements.
Five statutes, read at the legislatures' own sites, show what an express provision looks like:
| Statute | What it allows | The condition |
|---|---|---|
| Minnesota Cooperative Law, Minn. Stat. ch. 308A | Mail or electronic votes for directors, and on any motion, resolution or amendment the board submits for a vote by mail; each counts as the absent member's vote | For directors, the articles or bylaws must authorize it; an electronic vote needs the co-op to authenticate the member (§308A.311 subd. 4; §308A.635 subd. 4, 6) |
| Minnesota Cooperative Associations Act, ch. 308B | "Alternative ballot" voting, which may include electronic, telephonic and Internet voting | The board prescribes the method in advance (§308B.005 subd. 3; §308B.411 subd. 5) |
| Wisconsin cooperatives, Wis. Stat. ch. 185 | Signed or electronic ballots from absent members, including to elect or remove directors | Electronic votes, and any ballots in director elections, only if the bylaws provide for them; an electronic vote needs authentication and the same effect as any other vote (§185.12(5)) |
| California Cooperative Corporation Law, Corp. Code §12200 and following | Action by written ballot without a meeting, sent and returned electronically if the board approves | The articles or bylaws must not prohibit it; directors only where they authorize it, and not with cumulative voting (§12463(a), (e)) |
| New York Rural Electric Cooperative Law | Voting in person or by proxy, mail or electronic means, or any combination | The bylaws must prescribe the conditions (§17(e)) |
Housing co-ops can have their own statute. Florida's cooperative act, for co-ops that own real property for their members, lets an association conduct elections and other owner votes through an Internet-based online voting system if the owner consents, and it lists what the system must do, including authenticate the owner, send a receipt, permanently separate a board-election ballot from the owner's identity, and store votes for recount and review. The board adopts it by resolution, with at least 14 days' notice of the meeting that considers it (Fla. Stat. §719.129). A Florida co-op should check any system against that list before the board votes.
Not every statute goes that far. New York's Cooperative Corporations Law gives each member one vote, allows proxies only as far as the bylaws provide, and elects directors by a plurality of the votes cast at a meeting (Coop. Corp. Law §44). A co-op under a statute like that needs counsel's view before it moves votes off the meeting floor.
In each statute quoted here that allows remote voting, someone has to act before members use it: the bylaws, the articles or the board decide whether and how. The rules by co-op type are compared in cooperative election rules by type.
What Your Bylaws Need to Settle
Read your bylaws for these points before the first online election, and amend them where they are silent or say members vote "in person":
- Which methods, for which votes. Mail, online or both, and whether director elections are included. Minnesota and Wisconsin treat director elections separately (§308A.311 subd. 4; §185.12(5)(b)).
- Who sets the ballot form. In Minnesota, the board (§308A.311 subd. 4(b); §308A.635 subd. 6(b)).
- The deadline. Say "received by" and name the date. A Minnesota director ballot counts if the co-op receives it on or before the date of the regular members' meeting (§308A.311 subd. 4(e)).
- How members are verified, in words that match the statute's authentication condition.
- Whether remote ballots count toward quorum.
- When nominations close. California lets the nomination procedure close nominations before ballots are printed (§12463(e)).
- Whether a cast ballot can be changed. In California a written ballot cannot be revoked unless the articles or bylaws say otherwise (§12463(d)).
California also requires every solicitation for a ballot vote without a meeting to state the number of responses needed for quorum, the percentage of approvals needed for anything other than a director election, and the deadline for receipt (§12463(c)). That is a good checklist for any co-op's notice. Which questions go to members at all is covered in cooperative board versus member decisions.
One Member, One Vote, or Weighted
The general cooperative acts quoted here start from one vote per member. Minnesota says a member "is only entitled to one vote", except in a cooperative made up wholly or partly of other cooperatives or associations (§308A.635 subd. 1). Wisconsin gives each member one vote at a member meeting unless the articles allow a member association extra votes or patronage-based voting where members include other associations (§185.12(2)). New York's general and electric cooperative laws also give each member one vote (Coop. Corp. Law §44; Rural Elec. Coop. Law §17(e)).
A housing co-op organized as a business corporation is different. In New York, every shareholder of record gets one vote per share unless the certificate of incorporation says otherwise (Bus. Corp. Law §612(a)), which is why the NYC co-op shareholder election guide treats those elections as share-weighted. The full comparison, including patronage voting, is in one member, one vote versus shares. vote.direct supports weighted voting when your documents call for it.
Verifying Members and Joint Memberships
Minnesota and Wisconsin ask for a result, not a technology: the co-op must be able to authenticate that the member is the one casting the vote (Minn. Stat. §308A.635 subd. 6(d); Wis. Stat. §185.12(5)(a)3.c.). That starts with the membership record.
- One ballot per membership. Build the voter list from the membership register, one row for each membership entitled to vote, not one for each person or email address.
- Joint memberships. Wisconsin lets the bylaws say how a jointly held membership votes (§185.12(1)). California lets a co-op acting in good faith accept a ballot signed by one of two or more co-holders who appears to act for all of them (Corp. Code §12466(b)(3)). Minnesota lets a member's spouse vote on the member's behalf unless the member has indicated otherwise (§308A.635 subd. 2).
- Doubtful ballots. California lets the officer counting votes reject a ballot where there is a reasonable basis for doubt about the signature or the signer's authority (§12466(c)).
On vote.direct each membership on the roster receives one ballot by email or text with its own code. If a membership has two contact people, decide under your bylaws which one receives it.
Be honest
What's actually stopping your organization from switching to online voting?
Mixing Mailed and Online Ballots
Members without email, or who prefer paper, still need a way to vote. Minnesota and Wisconsin treat both channels as the same vote:
- Minnesota counts a properly executed mail or electronic ballot as the vote of the absent member (§308A.311 subd. 4(e); §308A.635 subd. 6(e)). A mailed ballot comes back in a sealed plain envelope inside another envelope bearing the member's name (§308A.311 subd. 4(c); §308A.635 subd. 6(c)): the outer envelope shows who voted, and the inner one keeps the choice apart from the name.
- Wisconsin gives an electronic vote the same effect as a signed ballot or a vote cast at the meeting (§185.12(5)(a)3.d., (5)(b)3.).
One caution from Wisconsin. If ballots on a motion went out with the meeting notice and the exact text, and a member has returned a signed one, the motion cannot be amended at the meeting (§185.12(5)(a)1.). If ballots went out without meeting every condition, an amendment at the meeting voids them (§185.12(5)(a)2.). Do not plan floor amendments to a question members are already voting on by mail or online.
Run both channels from one membership list so each membership has one ballot whichever way it comes back. On vote.direct a member can be mailed a paper packet with a prepaid return envelope, and numbered paper ballots your team prints can be scanned in, in the same election as the online ballots. Each $6.00 packet includes domestic US mail, up to 4 pages, and a return envelope with prepaid postage: the packet goes out, and it comes back in an envelope that already has the postage paid on it, so the member never buys a stamp. There is no separate postage line on your invoice.
Quorum When Members Vote Remotely
| Statute | Default quorum | Do remote ballots count? |
|---|---|---|
| Minn. Stat. §308A.631 | 10 percent of the members if there are 500 or fewer, otherwise 50 members, unless the articles or bylaws adopted a larger quorum in the way subd. 1(b) allows | Mail votes, yes: members represented by mail vote are counted (subd. 2) |
| Wis. Stat. §185.14 | 10 percent of the first 100 members plus 5 percent of the rest, never more than 50 unless the bylaws set more, and never fewer than 5 members or a majority, whichever is smaller | Signed ballots count only on the motions they were submitted for (§185.14(2)) |
| Cal. Corp. Code §12462(a) | The lesser of 250 members or members representing 5 percent of the voting power, unless a bylaw sets another | Ballots sent before a meeting count as present only for the action on the ballot (§12461(h)); a vote by ballot alone needs at least a quorum's worth of ballots (§12463(b)) |
| N.Y. Rural Elec. Coop. Law §17(d) | 5 percent of the members if there are 1,000 or fewer, otherwise 50 members, unless the bylaws require more | Members present electronically count, unless a bylaw allows only an in-person quorum |
In a hypothetical 300-member Wisconsin co-op the default is 10 plus 10, or 20 members. Remote ballots raise turnout only if they count, so settle the quorum question in the bylaws and watch it while voting is open. vote.direct tracks turnout against the quorum you set, and the quorum calculator does the arithmetic.
How to Switch: A Timeline
- 1Read the statute and the bylaws, two to three months out. Find the authority to vote by mail or electronically, the notice window and the quorum. If the bylaws require voting in person, amend them first, by the procedure they set.
- 2Adopt the procedure. A board resolution that names the methods, the ballot form, the deadline and how members are verified. A Florida housing co-op adopting online voting gives at least 14 days' notice of the meeting that considers the resolution (§719.129(4)).
- 3Clean the membership list. One row per membership, with an email address or mobile number, a mailing address for paper, and a note on joint memberships.
- 4Rehearse. A free test election on vote.direct goes to up to 5 test voters; send it to the board and check that the ballot reads the way the bylaws say.
- 5Send the notice inside the statutory window. Wisconsin: 7 to 30 days before the meeting (§185.13(4)). California: 10 to 90 days, and at least 20 days if mailed other than first-class, registered or certified (§12461(a)). New York electric co-ops: 10 to 45 days (§17(c)).
- 6Open voting, then close it on the deadline. Send paper to the members who asked for it.
- 7Announce the result and keep the record with the minutes: the roster, the notice, the returned ballots and the tally.
The full election sequence, from nominations to the count, is in how to run a cooperative board election.
What It Costs
On vote.direct a 300-member food co-op pays $24.99 per election, and a 2,500-member electric or farm co-op pays $249.99. The flat rate starts at $4.99 for up to 50 voters, and elections of up to 25 voters are free. Self-serve covers up to 5,000 voters, and larger memberships are quoted. If the board would rather not run it, vote.direct will run your whole election for you (ballot build, roster, notices, reminders, quorum monitoring, close, tally, and a result certificate with the audit package) from $199 for a digital election of up to 100 voters. Co-op details are at managed cooperative elections and co-op elections on vote.direct, and platforms are compared in cooperative election software.
FAQ
Q: How does voting work in cooperative organizations?
Members elect the board, and the board runs the co-op between meetings. Members also vote on the largest decisions, such as amending the bylaws; in a New York cooperative corporation a member vote to amend them takes two-thirds of those voting at a meeting (Coop. Corp. Law §16). In the general cooperative acts quoted here each member has one vote (Minn. Stat. §308A.635 subd. 1; Wis. Stat. §185.12(2)).
Q: Can a cooperative hold its board election online?
Yes, where the statute and the bylaws allow it. In Minnesota a member may vote for a director by mail or electronic means only if the articles or bylaws authorize it (§308A.311 subd. 4(a)), and in Wisconsin the bylaws must provide for electronic voting on director elections (§185.12(5)(b)).
Q: Can co-op members vote by proxy?
It depends on the statute. Wisconsin bars proxy voting in any cooperative (§185.12(3)). Minnesota allows no proxy at a members' meeting except a spouse voting for a member and delegates (§308A.635 subd. 4). New York's electric cooperatives may allow proxies if the bylaws provide, with no one voting as proxy for more than three members (§17(e)).
Q: Can a co-op mix mail and online ballots in one election?
Yes, where both are authorized. Minnesota counts either as the absent member's vote (§308A.635 subd. 6), and Wisconsin gives an electronic vote the same effect as a signed ballot (§185.12(5)). Use one membership list so each membership has one ballot.
Q: Do mail and online ballots count toward quorum?
In Minnesota, members represented by mail vote are counted (§308A.631 subd. 2). In Wisconsin, signed ballots count only on the motions they were submitted for (§185.14(2)). Your bylaws can settle what the statute leaves open.
Q: What is the quorum for a co-op annual meeting?
Whatever your bylaws set within the statute. Defaults differ: 10 percent of the members or 50 members in Minnesota (§308A.631 subd. 1), a sliding formula in Wisconsin (§185.14), and the lesser of 250 members or 5 percent of the voting power in California (Corp. Code §12462(a)).
The Bottom Line
A co-op can move its member elections online once three things line up: a statute that allows it, bylaws that switch it on, and a membership list with one row per membership. Where the statutes quoted here set a condition on an electronic vote, they start from the same one: the co-op must be able to show the member cast it. Keep paper for the members who need it, count both channels in one tally, and settle in the bylaws whether remote ballots count toward quorum.
Sources: Minnesota Statutes §308A.311, §308A.631 and §308A.635 (Minnesota Cooperative Law) and §308B.005 and §308B.411 (Minnesota Cooperative Associations Act), read at revisor.mn.gov; Wisconsin Statutes §185.12, §185.13 and §185.14, read at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov; California Corporations Code §12200, §12461 to §12463 and §12466 (Cooperative Corporation Law), read at leginfo.legislature.ca.gov; New York Cooperative Corporations Law §16 and §44, Rural Electric Cooperative Law §17 and Business Corporation Law §612(a), read at nysenate.gov; Florida Statutes §719.103 and §719.129 (2026), read at flsenate.gov. Read on November 12, 2026.
This article is general information, not legal advice. We recommend you do your own research and confirm anything you plan to act on. Where this article states law, the section is cited so you can read the primary source yourself rather than take our word for it. That is what the citations are for. Election requirements also turn on your own governing documents, which we have not seen, and statutes are amended. For advice about your community, consult a qualified attorney licensed in your state.
We work hard to verify every citation against the primary source, but laws change and errors happen. If you spot an inaccuracy, email support@vote.direct and we will correct it. See our editorial standards for how these pages are researched and checked.
