Who Runs Your HOA Election? The Five Options, Priced

Quick Answer

Five parties can run an HOA election: the board itself, your management company, an independent inspector of elections, a mail-ballot vendor, or a platform that runs the whole thing — and vote.direct runs the whole thing from $199. Which of the five you may use is not entirely your decision. Several states take options off the table, and California takes two.

This article is general information, not legal advice. No software can make an election legally binding or guarantee that it complies with your statute and your governing documents. Community association law varies by state, and your documents may be stricter than your statute. Confirm both before you commit to a method.

Option 1: The Board Runs It

Most associations do this, and most never chose it. The board names two or three volunteers as tellers, ballots come back to the manager's office or a director's mailbox, envelopes are opened at the annual meeting, and somebody reads the totals aloud.

It holds up until the race is close. Then the flaw is obvious to everyone except the people who set it up: in a contested board election, the volunteers counting the ballots are frequently on the ballot. Even a perfectly accurate count cannot be shown to have been neutral, and nobody can say what the roster looked like when voting opened or how many envelopes were rejected and why.

Five states have written that conflict out of the law. Texas (Prop. Code §209.00594(a)) bars a candidate, or a relative within the third degree, from tabulating or even accessing ballots. Nevada (NRS §116.31034) bars incumbents and candidates from possessing, opening or counting ballots until tabulation ends, and requires the count at a meeting open to unit owners. Colorado (C.R.S. §38-33.3-310(1)(b)) requires a neutral third party or a committee of owner volunteers who are not directors and, in a contested election, not candidates. Florida condominium ballots go to an impartial committee excluding directors, officers, candidates and their spouses (Fla. Stat. §718.112(2)(d); Fla. Admin. Code 61B-23.0021). California removes the option outright.

Where it is still allowed, the version that survives a challenge is: a committee of members who are neither directors nor candidates, two counters plus an observer, a signed tally sheet naming everyone present, and ballots retained for the statutory period — in Arizona, for instance, at least one year, available for member inspection (Ariz. Rev. Stat. §33-1812 and §33-1250). The full path is in our self-managed HOA election guide, and the director conflict rules are in the board ethics and conflict of interest guide.

Option 2: The Management Company

For a professionally managed association this is the path of least resistance: the manager already holds the roster, already sends the notices, and already has an office mail can be returned to. Two things to check before you assume it is covered.

Election work is often not in the contract. "We handle the annual meeting" and "we administer the election" are different scopes, and the second frequently arrives as a per-election charge with printing and postage billed on top. Get the number in writing before nominations open, not after ballots are in the mail. Managers running elections across a portfolio face a different problem than a single board does, covered in the property manager's guide to scaling HOA elections.

The contract itself can be the disqualifier. California Civil Code §5110(b) says the inspector may not be a person or business currently under contract to the association for compensable services other than serving as inspector. A management company is, by definition, under contract, so it cannot be your inspector.

Outside California the manager is usually a permissible counter: Nevada expressly contemplates a management employee who is not a candidate, Florida allows management staff as impartial counters, and Texas only cares that the tabulator is not a candidate or a close relative of one.

Option 3: An Independent Inspector of Elections

The inspector is the only one of the five defined by statute as a role. In California the association appoints one or three, and the inspector — not the board, not the manager — owns the roster, the ballots, the count and the record. The duties are consistent wherever the role exists:

• Determine who may vote and at what voting power
• Rule on the validity of proxies, where proxies are allowed
• Receive ballots, and hear and decide challenges
• Determine when the polls close, then count and determine the result
• Report the result and keep custody of the record

California spells out who may serve: a volunteer poll worker with the county registrar of voters, a licensee of the California Board of Accountancy, a notary public, a member who is not a director, not a candidate and not related to either, or a professional inspector service engaged only for that purpose. Directors, candidates, their relatives, and anyone under contract for other compensable services are out.

A California engagement runs about $500–$2,500 and scales with community size and how messy the election is — recalls, contested amendments and close races all cost more than a routine board vote. The size-banded breakdown and where to find inspectors are in the HOA inspector of elections guide and California inspector of elections compliance.

What boards get wrong: outside California, almost no state uses the words "inspector of elections" for HOAs at all. Colorado, Nevada, Texas and Florida each require the function — a neutral party, neither on the board nor on the ballot, receives and counts — without naming the role. "We don't need an inspector in our state" is usually true and almost never the end of it. Somebody neutral still has to count.

Option 4: A Mail-Ballot Vendor

A mail-ballot vendor is a print-and-mail house with an election product on top. They print packets, stuff the double envelopes, address them from your roster, mail them, and often receive returns at their own address and tabulate. They are genuinely good at reaching owners with no working email address, running the double-envelope secrecy procedure at volume, and getting several hundred packets out on a fixed date. If your documents require a mailed paper ballot, this is a real answer.

Three things they typically do not solve:

• They do not own your calendar. The vendor mails what you send, when you send it. Notice periods, nomination deadlines and the ballot window stay with the board — work backward from the meeting date with the election timeline checklist.
• Return postage is usually the member's problem. This is where paper turnout dies; a member who has to find a stamp mostly does not. Ask whether the return envelope is prepaid, because "mailed ballots" rarely means round trip.
• The receipt rule gets settled too late. Received-by or postmarked-by? Decide it in the notice, or somebody is adjudicating a smudged postmark after the count has started.

Do the postage arithmetic before signing. At the 82-cent First-Class rate effective July 12, 2026 (USPS), postage alone for 100 owners in both directions is $164.00, before a sheet is printed and before the vendor's fee. The legal difference between a mail-in ballot and an absentee ballot is in mail ballot vs absentee ballot.

Option 5: A Platform That Runs the Whole Thing

The fifth option is the least understood, because until recently it had no published price attached to 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.

Nobody in this category publishes a managed price: on the vendor pages we checked in July 2026, Simply Voting quotes managed elections through sales and AssociationVoting quotes everything past its election setup service, so a board that wants somebody else to run the vote sits through a call before it hears a number. $199 is vote.direct's published price for that work — a digital election of up to 100 voters — in public, before any call.

The split of work: the platform builds the ballot, loads and dedupes the roster and flags addresses that will bounce, drafts and sends the notices your documents and state law require, runs the reminder cadence, answers the voters so the support inbox is not your manager's, watches quorum daily, then closes, tallies and issues the result certificate and audit package. Three things stay with the board, and any vendor who says otherwise is selling something it cannot deliver: nominations and candidate statements, legal review, and adopting the election rules.

If some members need paper, packets are $6.00 each on top, and that is a round trip rather than a one-way letter. The $6.00 covers the trip both ways: the packet out, and a return 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.

Where an inspector is wanted, vote.direct can be appointed for $300 more, or $499 all in — but only in Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Texas and Arizona, and never in California, because Cal. Civ. Code §5110(b) bars a vendor under contract to the association from serving. Where we cannot serve, we help find someone who can; the role by state is on the inspector of elections page.

The honest limit: running your ballot on a platform does not make the election valid. It makes the record complete. Validity comes from your notice, your roster, your quorum and your governing documents. Full scope is on managed elections, and the association version is on managed elections for HOAs.

What Each Costs

Published managed pricing, for the option where somebody else does the work:

If you want the software but intend to run the election yourself, the self-serve ladder is separate and much cheaper: $4.99 for up to 50 voters, $9.99 for 51–100 voters, $19.99 for 101–200 voters, $39.99 for 201–550 voters, $79.99 for 551–1,550 voters. Above 1,550 voters, talk to us. (50% off list through August 31, 2026) That is a flat fee per election, email and SMS verification included, no subscription, with mailed access letters at $3.00 per letter one way.

The comparison that matters is against how you ran it last time. A traditional 200-unit paper election costs $2,000–$5,000 all in, and a California inspector adds $500–$2,500 on top — both figures, with the arithmetic, are in HOA election cost: paper vs digital. A verified online election for that same 200-home community is $19.99.

Two costs never appear on a quote: the second meeting when quorum fails and you spend a share of the printing and postage twice ([what that costs](/blog/hoa-annual-meeting-quorum-failure-consequences)), and the challenge, which nobody on this list prices per hour (what happens then).

Where the Law Takes the Choice Away From You

California is where the choice is not yours. Under Civil Code §5110, every association election, recall, assessment vote and governing-document amendment must be run by one or three independent inspectors appointed by the board. There is no small-association exemption: a twelve-unit development is under the same rule as a five-thousand-unit master plan. Two of the five options above are therefore gone before you evaluate anything else. The board cannot run it, and the management company cannot be the inspector — nor can the voting platform, because §5110(b) disqualifies anyone under contract to the association for other compensable services.

Electronic voting does not remove the appointment. AB 2159 authorized electronic secret ballots for common interest developments with member opt-outs, and the inspector still oversees the roster, the opt-outs, the tabulation and the result. See California HOA election rules and electronic voting for HOAs by state.

Elsewhere the constraint is narrower but real: Colorado, Nevada, Texas and Florida each remove interested people from the count without naming an inspector, and secret ballot requirements by state covers who that leaves. Arizona names nobody, leaving it to your CC&Rs — usually a tellers or election committee.

How to Decide, in One Sitting

Five questions, in this order. Most boards can answer all five in one meeting.

• 1Does our statute name a required counter? California does; Colorado, Nevada, Texas and Florida constrain who it can be. If so, options 1 and 2 may already be gone.

• 2Do our documents require a mailed paper ballot? Check the election article, not the meeting article. If so, you need option 4 or a managed election with packets.

• 3Is this election likely to be contested? A recall, a special assessment, or an organized opposition slate raises the value of a neutral third party, statute or no statute.

• 4Who actually has the hours? The comparison is not vendor against vendor. It is a vendor against the volunteer evenings your treasurer is about to spend.

• 5How much lead time is left? A managed election needs 10 days before ballots open, a mail vendor longer, and an inspector must be appointed before the roster is frozen.

If the answer to question five is "two weeks", the decision is made: you are running it in-house this cycle. Do it properly, and put the choice on next year's calendar in the same motion.

FAQ

Q: Who is legally allowed to count HOA ballots?

It depends on the state. California requires an independent inspector under Civil Code §5110 and disqualifies directors, candidates, their relatives and anyone under contract to the association for other services. Colorado requires a neutral third party or owner volunteers who are not directors and, in a contested election, not candidates (C.R.S. §38-33.3-310(1)(b)). Nevada bars incumbents and candidates until tabulation is complete (NRS §116.31034). Texas bars candidates and relatives within the third degree (Prop. Code §209.0058). Florida condominium ballots go to an impartial committee.

Q: Can a board member count ballots in an election they are running in?

Not in California, Colorado, Nevada, Texas or Florida condominiums, and it is a poor idea everywhere else. Even where lawful, a count performed by candidates cannot be shown to have been neutral, which is exactly what a losing candidate will argue.

Q: Does our management company count as an independent inspector?

Not in California. Civil Code §5110(b) excludes anyone currently under contract to the association for compensable services other than serving as inspector, which is what a management agreement is. In most other states a manager who is not a candidate may act as the neutral counter, and Nevada and Florida both contemplate that.

Q: How much does it cost to have someone else run our HOA election?

Published vote.direct prices are $99 for setup and launch, $199 for a full managed digital election of up to 100 voters, $6.00 per mailed packet on top, and $499 where we also serve as inspector. A California inspector engagement alone typically runs $500–$2,500; a traditional 200-unit election on paper costs $2,000–$5,000.

Q: Can a software platform be our inspector of elections?

Not in California, and be skeptical of any product claiming otherwise. §5110 asks the association to appoint an independent third party who then bears responsibility for the ballot, and a subscription cannot bear that. In Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Texas and Arizona an association may appoint vote.direct. In four of those five the statute describes the function without naming an officer — Colorado asks for a neutral third party or a committee of owners who are neither directors nor candidates, and Nevada, Texas and Florida come at it from the other side by keeping ballots away from the people on them. Arizona names no inspector at all; there the requirement, if any, comes from your CC&Rs and bylaws. In California we help you find an independent inspector instead.

Q: What is the difference between a mail-ballot vendor and a managed election?

A mail vendor prints and mails what you give it. A managed election covers the calendar — ballot build, roster, notices, reminders, quorum monitoring, close, tally and the result certificate — with mailed packets as an option inside it rather than the whole service. If the only thing you lack is a print shop, use a mail vendor.

Q: Do we need an inspector of elections if we vote online?

In California, yes. AB 2159 authorized electronic secret ballots and left Civil Code §5110 untouched, so the appointment still happens; the inspector reviews an exported audit package instead of opening envelopes. Elsewhere, an online election still needs a neutral tabulator wherever your statute or bylaws require one.

Q: How far ahead do we need to decide who runs the election?

Before the roster is frozen, and ideally before nominations close. A managed election needs 10 days of lead time; mail vendors and professional inspectors need more, especially in the September-to-December season when most annual meetings happen. Appointing an inspector after ballots start arriving fixes nothing.

The Bottom Line

Most boards do not choose an election administrator. They inherit one — usually the volunteer who did it last year — and discover the constraint only when a losing candidate reads the statute more carefully than they did.

The choice is worth ten minutes: whether your state names a required counter, whether your documents demand paper, and how many volunteer hours you actually have. In California the first check settles most of it. Everywhere else the deciding factor is usually the fourth question, not the first.

Not sure which of the five your documents allow? Call or text (512) 222-8191, or email [email protected] with your election article and your state. We will tell you plainly, including when the answer is an independent inspector we are not allowed to be.

Sources:

• 1California Civil Code §5110 (inspector; §5110(b) disqualifications), §5100 and §5115 (secret ballot, notice), §5120 (15-day reporting), §5125 (retention), §5145 (challenges); AB 2159 (2024)

• 2Colorado Revised Statutes §38-33.3-310(1)(b): neutral counting

• 3Nevada Revised Statutes §116.31034: ballot custody and open tabulation

• 4Texas Property Code §209.00594: tabulation by non-candidates; §209.00592: electronic ballots

• 5Florida Statutes §718.112(2)(d), §718.128, §720.306, §720.317; Fla. Admin. Code 61B-23.0021

• 6Arizona Revised Statutes §33-1812(A)(6) and §33-1250(C)(6): secret ballots optional, permitted only where the community or condominium documents allow; §33-1812(A)(7), §33-1250(C)(7): one-year retention

• 7USPS First-Class Mail retail price effective July 12, 2026 (https://pe.usps.com/PriceChange/Index)