How Directors Are Supposed to Be Chosen

Jamacha Greens has its own Rules for Elections and Voting, adopted to comply with SB 323. They are worth reading in full. The short version:

The 2026 election is under way🔗

The annual meeting is September 17, 2026 at 5:00 PM, by Zoom. Ballot packages went out on or before August 17, 2026, so yours should have arrived or be close behind.

A ballot returned by mail must reach the Inspector of Elections by 1:00 PM on September 17 — four hours before the meeting starts. A postmark does not save a late ballot.

HOA Elect CA, ATTN: Inspectors of Election 6161 El Cajon Blvd., Suite B437, San Diego, CA 92115

The Board appointed HOA Elect CA, LLC as independent Inspector of Elections, which Civil Code § 5110 requires. Under Civil Code § 5105(a)(7) you may ask them to confirm the member information they hold for you — support@hoaelectca.com, or 855-701-VOTE.

Five seats, four candidates🔗

All five seats are on this ballot. Four members were nominated by the June 28 deadline: Greg Atherton, Lori Barker, Jan Furstenfeld and Tricia Halsema.

With fewer candidates than seats, the fifth seat is not filled by the election. It falls to the incoming Board to appoint someone under Bylaws Art. IV § 7 — the same route by which two current directors joined. An owner interested in serving does not need to wait for the 2027 nomination window to say so.

Returning your ballot is the whole ballgame🔗

Quorum is the thing that decides whether this election happens at all. It has already failed once:

“I determined that a quorum of members was not reached either by presence in person or by absentee ballot. I received a total of 51 valid ballot return envelopes. Due to lack of quorum, the meeting was adjourned until the next Annual Meeting, the ballots were not opened, and the current Directors will remain in place until the Director’s successor is elected.”

That is the Inspector of Election’s certified report for the meeting held February 15, 2024, with 192 members entitled to vote. Fifty-one ballots came back — 26.6% — and none of them were opened.

Note that figure against the rule. Civil Code § 5115 lets a properly noticed reconvened election meeting proceed on a 20% quorum, and this year’s notice says the Board may use it. A 26.6% return would clear that bar. The 2024 meeting was adjourned a full year instead.

Sources: Notice of Annual Meeting & Election of Directors, HOA Elect CA; Report of Inspectors of Election, Lisa Schwartz, February 15, 2024.

One thing worth asking the Inspector🔗

The notice and the nomination form describe different terms for the same five seats.

Document	Terms it states
Notice of Annual Meeting	three seats for two years, two seats for one year
Candidate Nomination Form	two seats for three years, two for two years, one for one year
Bylaws Art. IV § 6	that stagger at the first annual meeting; thereafter each successor “shall be elected to serve a term of three years”

Three documents, three answers. Which terms are actually being elected determines when each seat next comes up for a vote, so it is a fair question to put to the Inspector of Elections before ballots are counted.

When the annual meeting is supposed to be🔗

Three of our own documents give three different answers.

Source	What it says
Bylaws Art. III § 3 (1971)	“the annual meetings of the Association shall be held on the second Wednesday of September each succeeding year”
Rules and Regulations, page 5 (2011)	“Annual Association Meetings although subject to change, are held on the third (3rd) Thursday of August each year”
2026 notice	Thursday, September 17, 2026

The Bylaws control. Civil Code § 4205 ranks the governing documents — law first, then the Declaration, then the Articles of Incorporation, then the Bylaws, then the operating rules. The Rules and Regulations are operating rules, so where the two conflict the Bylaws prevail and the September date is the operative one.

In practice the date has moved around. The second Wednesday of September 2026 was the 9th; the meeting is the 17th. The meeting for the 2023 election year was held on February 15, 2024, and the 2025 meeting was set for December 3.

If a meeting is not held at all🔗

Corporations Code § 7510(b) requires the regular meeting to be held on the date “stated in or fixed in accordance with the bylaws,” in any year in which directors are to be elected.

If it is not, § 7510(c) gives a member a remedy. Where a corporation “fails to hold the regular meeting for a period of 60 days after the date designated therefor,” the superior court “may summarily order the meeting to be held” on the application of a member or the Attorney General. Sixty days after the second Wednesday of September falls in the second week of November.

That is a route to getting a meeting held, not a route to a different board — but it exists, and it belongs to any owner who wants to use it.

Sources: Bylaws Art. III § 3; Rules and Regulations, page 5; Notice of Annual Meeting & Election of Directors, HOA Elect CA; Report of Inspectors of Election, February 15, 2024; Regular Session Minutes, July 17, 2025.

The basic machinery🔗

• Secret ballot is mandatory for electing directors, amending governing documents, votes on assessments, and grants of exclusive use of common area (Election Rules § 5.1; Civil Code § 5100).
• An independent inspector of elections must run the vote. Our Election Rules § 4.1 expressly bar the association’s current management company and its attorneys from serving in that role.
• Ballots are mailed at least 30 days before the meeting, along with a copy of the election rules (Election Rules § 4.1.1(i)).
• Ballots are counted in public, at a properly noticed open meeting, and any member may witness the count (Election Rules § 8.1; Civil Code § 5120).
• Results must be publicized to all members within 15 days (Election Rules § 8.2).
• Association funds may not be used for campaign purposes (Election Rules § 10.1; Civil Code § 5135).

Who can run🔗

Under Election Rules § 2.1, any member may nominate themselves. The association may only disqualify a candidate on the specific grounds listed in § 2.1.2 — most notably being delinquent on assessments, having been a member for less than one year, or a joint owner already serving.

Importantly, § 2.1.2(a) says a member is not disqualified for delinquency if they have paid under protest (Civil Code § 5658), entered a payment plan (§ 5665), or requested internal dispute resolution.

The acclamation shortcut🔗

Civil Code § 5100, as amended by AB 502, permits a board to seat candidates by acclamation, without mailing ballots, when the number of qualified candidates is at or below the number of open seats at the close of nominations.

This is not inherently improper — it saves the association the real cost of running an election. But its practical effect is that an uncontested seat is not really an election at all. The only way to force a full secret-ballot election is for more qualified candidates to run than there are open seats.

What has actually happened here🔗

The board’s own minutes record the consequence of an uncontested field. From the January 16, 2025 regular session minutes:

“The Board discussed the recent cancellation of the annual meeting due to no applicants sending in candidacy forms causing the meeting to stop its process.”

No candidates came forward, so there was no election. Vacancies were then filled by the sitting board under Bylaws Article IV, Section 7, which lets remaining directors appoint replacements by majority vote.

The minutes show this happening twice in 2025:

• May 22, 2025 — Georgia Taylor appointed director at large for the remainder of an open term.
• June 26, 2025 — Greg Atherton appointed to the board.

Both appointments were lawful under the Bylaws. Both also mean that two of five current directors reached the board without ever appearing on a ballot.

Contesting an election🔗

Civil Code § 5145 lets a member sue for declaratory or equitable relief within one year of the results being announced. If the member shows by a preponderance of the evidence that election procedures were not followed, the court must void the results unless the association proves the noncompliance did not affect the outcome. A prevailing member is entitled to costs and reasonable attorney’s fees, and the court may impose a civil penalty of up to $500 per violation.