HOA Voting Rules in Delaware

Yes. 25 Del. C. §81-310(a) expressly lists voting electronically from a source known to the community, such as an email address registered with the association, and voting by electronic voting software, and confirms that a signature may be in ink or electronic. 25 Del. C. §81-310(f)(1) separately lets the association take any action without a meeting by delivering a written or electronic ballot to every member entitled to vote, unless the declaration or bylaws prohibit or limit it. Check your declaration and bylaws for a prohibition — that is the only thing that removes the option.

Under 25 Del. C. §81-309(a), the default quorum is at least 20% of the votes in the association present in person, by proxy or by ballot at the beginning of the meeting, provided at least 25% of the unit owners not related to the declarant are present — unless your BYLAWS provide otherwise. Returned ballots count toward that quorum, which is the single most useful fact for an association running a vote online.

Delaware HOAs can modernize by amending their bylaws to explicitly authorize electronic voting, then adopting a platform like vote.direct. This provides identity verification, anonymous ballot casting, real-time quorum tracking, and a complete audit trail, all while reducing the administrative burden on volunteer board members.

Quorum in Delaware: Under 25 Del. C. §81-309(a), unless the BYLAWS provide otherwise, a quorum is present throughout any meeting of the association if persons entitled to cast at least 20% of the votes in the association are present in person, by proxy or by ballot at the beginning of the meeting, provided that at least 25% of the unit owners not related to the declarant are present. Ballots solicited under §81-310(f) and delivered to the secretary in a timely manner also count toward that quorum. For the executive board, §81-309(b) sets quorum at a majority of the votes on that board. Section 81-309(a) applies even to communities created before DUCIOA took effect: 25 Del. C. §81-119 names it in the list of sections that reach preexisting communities, alongside §81-127, §81-308A and §81-310. (§81-121 is a different section — Amendments to governing instruments.) If a vote falls short, most bylaws allow the meeting to be adjourned and reconvened, often at a reduced threshold on the second attempt. Check your declaration for the exact procedure, because the fallback rule is usually in your governing documents rather than in statute. Online voting is the most direct fix: members vote from a phone or laptop instead of attending in person, and Vote.Direct tracks quorum progress live and reminds the members who haven't voted yet.

Under 25 Del. C. §81-308, not fewer than 10 nor more than 60 days in advance of any regular or special meeting of the unit owners, the secretary or other officer specified in the bylaws must cause notice to be delivered to each unit owner by any means described in 25 Del. C. §81-127 or sent prepaid by United States mail to any mailing address the owner designated in writing; emergency meetings may be held without prior notice. The notice must state the time and place of the meeting and the items on the agenda — including any proposed amendment to the declaration or bylaws, any budget changes, and any proposal to remove an officer or board member — or state the website address where the agenda is posted, provided the association furnishes a copy to any owner who asks. Section 81-127 sets the delivery methods: hand delivery, prepaid United States mail, or electronic means where the unit owner has given the association prior written authorization together with an electronic address. Executive board meetings run on the same 10-to-60-day track under 25 Del. C. §81-308A(b). Your governing documents can require more notice than the statutory floor, never less. Count the notice window backwards from your meeting date before you open voting, and keep a copy of the notice and its delivery date with the election record.

Delaware permits proxies and gives them a one-year life. Under 25 Del. C. §81-310(b), votes allocated to a unit may be cast pursuant to a proxy duly executed by a unit owner; a proxy is void if it is not dated or purports to be revocable without notice; a unit owner may revoke a proxy only by actual notice of revocation to the person presiding over a meeting of the association; and a proxy terminates one year after its date unless it specifies a shorter term. DUCIOA contains no bar on proxies in board elections. Proxies also count toward quorum: 25 Del. C. §81-309(a)(1) counts owners present in person, by proxy or by ballot. Online voting is the cleaner substitute — §81-310(a) puts voting electronically and voting by electronic voting software on the same footing as an in-person vote, so owners can vote directly instead of handing their votes to a proxy holder. Proxies exist mainly to solve an attendance problem. When members can cast a verified ballot online during a multi-day voting window, most communities find proxy use drops sharply, along with the disputes about whether a given proxy was valid.