Quick Answer
Texas Property Code Chapter 209 puts five hard rules on a property owners' association election: written notice no later than 10 days and no earlier than 60 days before a vote taken at a meeting (§209.0056(a)); a written, signed ballot for board seats, assessment increases, document amendments and board removals (§209.0058(a)); an absentee ballot or a proxy that every owner must be allowed to use (§209.00592(a-1)); a tabulator who is not a candidate or a candidate's relative (§209.00594(a)); and a 15-day window for any owner to demand a recount at the owner's expense (§209.0057(b)).
Three things Chapter 209 does not do, which is where Texas boards get caught:
- No quorum percentage. Section 209.00592 is titled "Voting; Quorum," and its only quorum rule is that an absentee or electronic ballot counts toward quorum only for items appearing on that ballot. The threshold comes from your bylaws.
- No ballot retention period. The schedule in §209.005(m) covers minutes, financial books and contracts. Ballots are not on the list.
- Nothing about the annual budget. Texas gives members no statutory vote on the operating budget and no statutory answer when one fails.
Electronic ballots are fully valid here: §209.0058(b) deems a vote cast electronically under §209.00592 written and signed, provided it meets the three conditions in §209.00592(d). Those conditions are the whole test, and the test vote.direct is built around. Self-serve elections are priced per election: Free for up to 25 voters, $4.99 for 26–50 voters, $9.99 for 51–100 voters, $19.99 for 101–200 voters, $24.99 for 201–400 voters, $69.99 for 401–1,000 voters, $149.99 for 1,001–2,000 voters. Above 2,000 voters, talk to us.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Software cannot make an election legally binding, and no platform can certify that an association met every statutory, notice, or governing-document requirement. Consult a Texas attorney about your association.
Which Statute Actually Governs Your Election
Chapter 209 does not reach every association in the state, so the first job is knowing which body of law you sit under.
| Source | Applies to | What it controls |
|---|---|---|
| Property Code Chapter 209 (Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act) | Residential property owners' associations with a mandatory-membership subdivision | Notice, ballots, voting methods, quorum counting, tabulation, recounts, records, board membership |
| Property Code Chapter 82 (Texas Uniform Condominium Act) | Condominiums, generally those declared on or after January 1, 1994 | Quorum defaults (§82.109), voting and proxies (§82.110), budget and assessments (§82.112) |
| Business Organizations Code Chapter 22 | Associations incorporated as Texas nonprofit corporations | Default member quorum (§22.159), member proxies (§22.160), removal of directors (§22.211) |
| Dedicatory instruments | Every association | Quorum thresholds, nomination procedure, terms, whether members vote on the budget |
Two subsections settle most conflicts: §209.0056(b) says the notice rule "supersedes any contrary requirement in a dedicatory instrument," and §209.00592(f) says the same for voting and quorum. Where Chapter 209 speaks, your bylaws do not get to disagree.
One trap: §209.0055, which bars denying a vote over delinquent assessments or a pending enforcement action, is not a general Texas rule — by its terms it reaches only a narrow class of associations with non-mandatory membership incorporated before 2006. The broadly applicable rule is §209.0059(a): a dedicatory-instrument provision that would disqualify an owner from voting is void.
Notice Requirements
Texas splits the notice rule by where the vote happens, and boards routinely apply the wrong half.
| Situation | Deadline | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| Election or vote taken at a meeting of owners | No later than the 10th day and no earlier than the 60th day before the vote | §209.0056(a) |
| Election or vote not taken at a meeting | No later than the 20th day before the latest date a ballot may be submitted to be counted | §209.0056(a-1) |
| Candidate solicitation, association of more than 100 lots | Notice at least 10 days before ballots go out; the submission deadline may not fall earlier than the 10th day after that notice | §209.00593(a-1) |
| Board fails to call the annual meeting | Owner may demand one be called within 30 days, by certified mail, return receipt requested | §209.014(b) |
The 20-day rule surprises people. If your association runs its board vote by mailed or electronic ballot with no floor vote, the clock does not run to a meeting date. It runs to the last day a ballot can still be counted.
Section 209.00593 does more than set a deadline. Any board member whose term has expired must be elected by the owners, whatever the dedicatory instruments say; a vacancy may be filled by appointment, but only for the unexpired term, and an appointment in violation is void ((a), (c)). Subsection (a-3) puts every eligible candidate who filed a timely request on the ballot, which ends any argument that a nominating committee is the gate.
If the board never calls the meeting at all, §209.014 gives owners self-help: written demand by certified mail, and if no meeting follows within 30 days, three or more owners may form an election committee, file notice with the county clerk in each county the subdivision sits in, and call a meeting solely to elect board members. That committee dissolves by law if it has not held a successful election within four months of filing. Members of an incorporated association have a parallel right to compel the meeting by legal action after the 61st day (BOC §22.154).
Quorum
Chapter 209 does not set a quorum percentage. It sets a counting rule: under §209.00592(b)(1), an absentee or electronic ballot counts as an owner present and voting for quorum only for items appearing on the ballot. An item raised at the meeting but not printed on the ballot gets no quorum help from any ballot already in hand. The threshold itself comes from elsewhere:
| Community type | Default if the documents are silent | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| Incorporated nonprofit POA | Members holding one-tenth of the votes entitled to be cast, in person or by proxy | BOC §22.159(a) |
| Condominium under TUCA | 20 percent of the votes that may be cast for election of the board, present in person or by proxy at the start of the meeting; the bylaws may not go below 10 percent | §82.109(a) |
| Any association | Whatever the bylaws say, which almost always overrides the default | Dedicatory instruments |
Once quorum exists, BOC §22.159(b) makes a majority of the votes entitled to be cast by members present or represented by proxy the act of the members, unless a greater number is required.
The takeaway: put every question you intend to decide on the ballot, in the exact words you intend to decide it in. Anything left off needs bodies in the room. See HOA quorum requirements by state and what happens when quorum fails.
Absentee and Electronic Ballots
Section 209.00592(a) lists four ways a vote may be cast: in person or by proxy at a meeting, by absentee ballot, by electronic ballot, or by a representative or delegated method the dedicatory instruments provide. Subsection (a-1) then narrows it: unless a dedicatory instrument provides otherwise, an association is not required to provide an owner with more than one voting method, but an owner must be allowed to vote by absentee ballot or proxy. Texas does not force you to run four channels. It forces you to run at least one that works for an owner who cannot attend.
Three rules govern how those ballots meet the meeting:
- In-person votes win. An absentee or electronic ballot is not counted, however properly delivered, if the owner attends any meeting to vote in person (§209.00592(b)(2)).
- An amended motion kills the ballot. It is not counted on the final vote if the motion was amended at the meeting to differ from the ballot's exact language (§209.00592(b)(3)).
- A floor nomination is not an amendment. Section 209.00592(b-1) carves out board elections, so a nomination from the floor does not disqualify ballots already cast.
Section 209.00592(c) also prescribes the absentee package: a ballot listing each proposed action with a for-or-against option, delivery instructions including the delivery location, and a statutory warning beginning, "By casting your vote via absentee ballot you will forgo the opportunity to consider and vote on any action from the floor on these proposals." That language is not paraphrasable.
The written-and-signed rule, and where secrecy comes from
Section 209.0058(a) requires a vote to be in writing and signed when it is cast outside a meeting, in an election to fill a board position, on the adoption or amendment of a dedicatory instrument, on a proposed increase in a regular assessment or the adoption of a special assessment, or on the proposed removal of a board member.
Two exceptions matter. Subsection (c) drops the requirement for uncontested races. Subsection (d) lets an association adopt rules to allow voting by secret ballot — Texas permits secrecy rather than mandating it, on conditions: no member may overvote, every eligible vote must be counted, and in a board election each candidate may name one person to observe the counting without being shown who cast any ballot.
For the states that do mandate secrecy, see HOA secret ballot requirements by state and mail ballot versus absentee ballot.
Electronic Voting: What Chapter 209 Allows, and the Three Conditions
Texas is one of the clearest electronic-voting states in the country, and the clarity comes from one sentence: §209.0058(b), "Electronic votes cast under Section 209.00592 constitute written and signed ballots." That answers the objection a challenger would otherwise raise against every digital ballot. Section 209.00592(d) defines what qualifies — an electronic ballot must meet all three of these:
| Condition | Statutory text | What it means when you buy software |
|---|---|---|
| Channel | Given by e-mail, facsimile, or posting on an Internet website | An emailed link, a texted link to a web ballot, or a web form all fit; a phone call does not |
| Identity | The identity of the property owner submitting the ballot can be confirmed | The roster must tie to a credential the owner controls, and you must be able to show the tie afterwards |
| Receipt | The owner may receive a receipt of the electronic transmission and of the owner's ballot | The voter gets a confirmation and the association keeps a record that one issued |
One requirement is easy to miss: if the ballot is posted on a website rather than pushed to the owner, §209.00592(e) requires a notice of the posting sent to each owner with instructions for obtaining access. Publishing a link on the association portal and waiting is not compliance. For an incorporated association, BOC §22.160(d) separately allows a member vote by mail, fax, or electronic message when the bylaws authorize it.
What the statute does not require matters just as much: nothing about encryption, vendor accreditation, or a paper alternative. That is a low floor, not an endorsement. A system that never authenticates a voter and keeps no record sits inside the letter of the statute and collapses the first time a losing candidate asks how you know who voted.
A self-administered election for a 150-lot association runs $19.99 on vote.direct, email and SMS verification included, government-ID checks $3.00 per voter. $199 buys a managed digital election of up to 100 voters; $499 adds vote.direct as the appointed tabulator — the role §209.00594 keeps away from candidates and their relatives — in the states where we take it: Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Texas, Arizona and Maryland. See also electronic voting for HOAs, state by state.
This one gets heated
Should community boards be required to use independent election administrators?
Counting and Recounts
Texas is unusually specific about who may touch a ballot. Under §209.00594(a), a candidate, a person otherwise the subject of the vote, or a person related to either within the third degree by consanguinity or affinity, may not tabulate or be given access to the ballots. Third degree reaches a niece or nephew, an aunt or uncle, a great-grandparent or great-grandchild, and the equivalents by marriage. A board president running for re-election cannot count. Neither can the president's brother-in-law.
The rest follows: anyone else may tabulate ((b)); the tabulator and any recount official may not disclose how an individual voted ((b-1)); ballot access is limited to those two roles ((c)); a court order for release still controls ((d)). Add §209.0058(d)(3) where secret-ballot rules are in force, and a clean Texas count is a neutral tabulator, one observer per candidate, and no observer shown a voter's name. Texas does not require an inspector of elections the way California does, but §209.00594 means a contested board cannot count its own race — see when an HOA needs an inspector of elections.
The recount clock
Section 209.0057 is a complete procedure, and the association carries most of the deadlines.
| Step | Deadline | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| Owner demands a recount | Within 15 days after the later of the meeting or the announcement of results | §209.0057(b) |
| How the demand is sent | Verified mail or USPS signature confirmation to the address on the latest management certificate, or in person to the managing agent or the absentee-ballot address | §209.0057(b)(1)–(2) |
| Association invoices the estimated cost | Within 20 days of receiving the demand | §209.0057(b-1) |
| Owner pays | Within 30 days of the invoice, or the demand is considered withdrawn | §209.0057(b-2), (b-3) |
| Recount completed, results provided | Within 30 days of receiving payment | §209.0057(d) |
| Association reimburses the owner if the result changes | Within 30 days of providing results | §209.0057(d) |
The recount is performed at the owner's expense by someone who is not an association member, not related to a board member within the third degree, and is a current or former county judge, county elections administrator, justice of the peace, or county voter registrar — or a person the association and each requesting owner agree on (§209.0057(c)). A software vendor qualifies only under that last prong. Board action taken between the initial tally and the completed recount is unaffected by it.
What you have to keep
Section 209.005(m) makes an association of more than 14 lots adopt a retention policy with statutory minimums: formation documents, bylaws and covenants permanently; financial books, minutes of owner and board meetings, and tax and audit records seven years; current owners' account records five years; contracts of a year or more four years past expiration.
Ballots are not on that list, so your own policy has to cover them: keep every ballot, the eligibility roster and the tally at least through the recount window, and a year is the working floor most Texas counsel will name. A member refused records may petition a justice of the peace for release plus costs and fees (§209.005(n)), after the 10-business-day pre-suit notice in §209.005(p).
What Happens If the Budget Does Not Pass
Texas has no HOA budget-ratification statute. Chapter 209 does not give members a vote on the annual operating budget, does not require the board to submit one, and does not say what happens if a budget vote fails. For condominiums, TUCA §82.112(a) requires assessments to be based on a budget adopted at least annually by the association — the association adopts it, with no member veto of the kind Florida's condominium act provides.
So if your members vote on the budget at all, it is because the declaration or bylaws say they do. Read them for four things: who adopts the budget, whether members ratify it (effective only on approval) or may reject it (effective unless voted down), the threshold, and what happens on failure. Texas documents usually name one of three outcomes — the prior year's budget and assessment level continue, the board must revise and re-present, or the board adopts at the level it can set without a member vote. If yours name none, that is a gap, and the answer comes from counsel rather than the Property Code.
Chapter 209 does govern the mechanics once your documents send a budget question to the members:
- The ballot must be written and signed. A vote on a proposed increase in a regular assessment or the adoption of a special assessment sits squarely in §209.0058(a). Electronic ballots satisfy it under §209.0058(b).
- The notice deadlines apply. Ten to 60 days for a vote at a meeting, or 20 days before the last day to return a ballot for a vote held outside one (§209.0056).
- Ballots only help quorum on printed items. Put the budget question on the ballot in the exact language you intend to adopt, or those ballots do nothing for quorum on it (§209.00592(b)(1)).
The subsection that quietly kills budget votes
Here is the trap. Section 209.00592(b)(3) says an absentee or electronic ballot may not be counted on the final vote of a proposal if the motion was amended at the meeting to be different from the exact language on the ballot. The carve-out in §209.00592(b-1) covers floor nominations in board elections only. It does not cover budget amendments.
A budget meeting is exactly where someone moves to trim the reserve contribution or strike a line item. The moment that amendment passes, every absentee and electronic ballot on the budget drops out of the final tally, and the question is decided by the handful of owners in the room. Boards then report that the members voted the budget down. Often the members did no such thing: the motion moved, and the ballots already cast on the original language were disqualified by statute.
Three ways to avoid it:
- 1Put the exact figure on the ballot and resolve foreseeable objections before the notice goes out.
- 2If an amendment is likely, ballot the alternatives as separate items so each version carries its own printed language.
- 3If the motion is amended anyway, adjourn and re-notice rather than counting a rump vote a challenger can attack under §209.00592(b)(3).
A failed budget vote does not suspend the board's obligation to fund common expenses, and it does not authorize collecting at a rate the documents do not permit. See HOA annual budget voting: when members must approve; if the fix requires changing the documents, see how to amend HOA bylaws and CC&Rs.
FAQ
Q: Does Texas require a secret ballot for HOA board elections?
No. Section 209.0058(a) requires a vote in a board election to be in writing and signed, and §209.0058(b) counts an electronic vote as written and signed. Secrecy is optional: under §209.0058(d) an association may adopt secret-ballot rules, and if it does it must ensure no member overvotes, that every eligible vote is counted, and that each candidate may name one observer who is not shown who cast any ballot.
Q: Can a Texas HOA run its board election entirely online?
Yes, if the ballot meets all three conditions in §209.00592(d): given by e-mail, fax, or a posting on an internet website; the owner's identity can be confirmed; and the owner may receive a receipt of the transmission and of the ballot. Section 209.0058(b) then treats it as written and signed. A website posting also needs notice of the posting with access instructions (§209.00592(e)), and every owner must still be allowed an absentee ballot or proxy.
Q: What is the quorum for a Texas HOA annual meeting?
Chapter 209 does not set one. Where an incorporated association's documents are silent, BOC §22.159(a) defaults to members holding one-tenth of the votes entitled to be cast, in person or by proxy; for a condominium, §82.109(a) sets 20 percent and forbids the bylaws going below 10 percent. Usually the bylaws state a threshold and it controls. Absentee and electronic ballots count toward quorum only for items printed on the ballot (§209.00592(b)(1)).
Q: If Texas HOA members vote down the annual budget, what happens?
The Property Code does not answer that, because Texas gives members no statutory vote on the operating budget in the first place. The answer is in the documents that created the vote: commonly the prior year's budget and assessment level continue until a new one is approved, or the board must revise and re-present. For condominiums, §82.112(a) requires assessments to be based on a budget adopted at least annually by the association, with no member veto. Before concluding the members rejected it, check whether the motion was amended at the meeting — under §209.00592(b)(3) that disqualifies every absentee and electronic ballot on the final vote.
The Bottom Line
Texas gives boards more latitude than California or Florida, and the latitude hides how sharp the few mandatory rules are. Notice windows supersede your bylaws. Five categories of vote require a signed ballot. Candidates and their relatives cannot go near the ballots. Any owner can demand a recount by a qualified outside tabulator within 15 days, at the owner's expense.
The provision worth reading twice is §209.00592(b)(3): one sentence, applying to every proposal that is not a board election, and the reason a well-attended budget meeting can produce a result that does not reflect what the membership actually voted. Print the exact language. Do not let the motion move.
Run the vote on a roster you can prove, with a ballot that issues a receipt and an export you can hand a recount official, and Chapter 209 becomes a short list of dates. See the HOA election timeline checklist by state, or, if a result is already contested, what to do when an HOA election is challenged.
Sources (section titles and text verified against the Texas Legislature's published chapters):
- 1Tex. Prop. Code Ch. 209: §209.005 Association Records; §209.0055 Voting; §209.0056 Notice of Election or Association Vote; §209.0057 Recount of Votes; §209.0058 Ballots; §209.0059 Right to Vote; §209.00591 Board Membership; §209.00592 Voting; Quorum; §209.00593 Election of Board Members; §209.00594 Tabulation of and Access to Ballots; §209.014 Mandatory Election Required After Failure to Call Regular Meeting
- 2Tex. Prop. Code Ch. 82 (Uniform Condominium Act): §82.109 Quorums; §82.110 Voting and Proxies; §82.112 Assessments for Common Expenses
- 3Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code Ch. 22: §22.154 Failure to Call Annual Meeting; §22.159 Quorum of Members; §22.160 Voting of Members; §22.211 Removal of Director
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 [email protected] and we will correct it. See our editorial standards for how these pages are researched and checked.
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