Subject: 2020 Board Elections Voting Information – NEW PROCESS PLEASE READ
As a forward thinking community and to address owner requests for easier and secure voting the Board of Directors has moved to electronic voting for the 2020 Board of Director’s elections. The elections will be managed by Simply Voting, a company researched and vetted by the Voting Ad Hoc Committee and Elections Committee and approved by the Board of Directors. Below and attached to this notice are links and other information you will find necessary and useful in order to vote in this year’s elections. If receiving this notice via email we do recommend you print out the notice with the attachment or save this notice on your computer so that you can find it easily for quick reference as we move forward with electronic voting.
As you will be contacted by Simply Voting with instructions and your log in information via the email address you have registered on the Tidewater portal it is vital that all owners log on and verify the main email you have listed. Once on the portal and logged into your owner account go to My Account >Manage Account> User Information. The first line is the email address that will be used and is the one you need to verify. If it is not the correct email you want listed please contact the office. If you do not have an owner account set up, please do so immediately. If you need assistance with setting up your account please contact the office.
If you are one of the very few owners that currently does not accept Association correspondence via email we do encourage you to reconsider this choice and move to receiving information via email, however, if you have absolutely no option but to receive information via US Mail you will receive instruction from Simply Voting advising how you can vote in the upcoming election as well. Any changes to your email/owner portal account must be done no later than September 18th to ensure changes are added and able to be provided to Simply Voting.
Voting starts September 24, 2020 at 8 am and ends October 9 at 7 pm
QUEEN’S LANDING COUNCIL OF UNIT OWNERS, INC.
Simply Voting is a full-service provider of the most secure and cost-effective, hosted online elections. You can view the information on this company at https://www.simplyvoting.com/. You can even do a Demo election by visiting https://demo.simplyvoting.com to get a feel of how this will work.
If after reading all of the information contained in this notice you still have questions or need additional assistance, we have set up an election committee email at [email protected] for you to submit those questions.
How will I know it’s from QL and valid? The unit owner will receive an email from the website Queenslanding.simplyvoting.com. The email will come from the email address [email protected] so please add that email address to your safe sender list.
How will we receive our ballot? Email Blast feature is used to send out a mass email containing a link to the ballot as well as unique, secure authentication credentials to each eligible voter.
What do I need to do to ensure my email is correct? Login in to the Tidewater Portal and go to My Account, manage account and the email is the first line and verify your email. Make sure the box is checked to receive emails. If you have been getting emails from Tidewater that is the email which will be used.
What if we don’t have email? Telephone voting with an audio ballot is another option. Simply Voting will setup a telephone voting system that voters will be able to access to conduct their voting ballot via a touchtone telephone.
What if either of the above is not an option? Please contact the management office so we can take note as there is a kiosk option we can provide and we can work out those details.
What if I don’t receive an email? First check your spam email. If not there contact the election email so we can verify the email address on file and loaded into Simply Voting.
What if I delete my email in error? Email [email protected] so one can be resent.
Are write in nominations allowed? Once you log in to the secure ballot, you will see below the candidates an area to write in a nomination. According to our bylaws a nominee must consent to the election prior to the completion of the vote. The write in person will be contacted by the Election Committee to verify their willingness to accept the nomination.
Are nominations allowed from the floor the night of the meeting? Nominations will not be allowed from the floor as per the bylaws they may be allowed. The person being nominated would have to be present in order to confirm willingness to accept the nomination which due to Covid-19 restrictions and the online voting this is just not possible. you have already voted you will not be able to change your vote.
What about the proxy? The proxy counts towards quorum for the annual meeting to be held. So if a unit owner cannot attend the Annual Meeting they can assign someone to be their proxy so that your unit can be counted towards quorum. Again, this is for quorum only so that we can hold the annual meeting and have the elections. Your proxy does not give anyone the right to vote for a Board Member – only the owner can vote. The proxy form will be available on the ballot online.
Once I vote and confirm it, can I change it? No once you vote, your ballot is cast you will be blocked from voting again. You will be issued a receipt with a receipt code once you have confirmed your vote.
How will I see the candidate’s resume to decide? Once you follow the link to the website, the candidates and their resume will be available to review. You do not have to vote once you login as you can visit the website many times to review. However once you cast your ballot and confirm, you will be blocked and won’t be able to vote again.
How are the ballots maintained? Once a voter submits a ballot, the results are encrypted and kept anonymous. Once the results are published you will be able to see your vote by your receipt code and choices.
How long do I have to vote? Voting time limits are set by our bylaws. The voting will open on Sept 24th and continue for a short period of time after the call to order for the annual meeting in order to allow nominations from the floor.
What happens when the voting ends? Once voting has ended the results are immediately tabulated. They will be downloaded and the report will then be provided to the Board Secretary.
When will I be able to see the results? The results will be published within 24 hours from the end of meeting. The results will be made available to the public on our voting website and owners will be able to verify the results by downloading a file containing votes and receipt numbers. Again this will be anonymous, no unit owners identifying information will appear as the report will only show the receipt code and votes.
Certified Results-
Trust is an important advantage of having the experts power your election. With the security of an independently managed server and service, unit owners can rest assured that their votes will be counted properly. Simply Voting will display a certified by Simply Voting seal on your published results. On request, we also provide a Letters of Certification attesting to the validity of your results.
Please note:
Top–Notch Security
Simply Voting was designed from the ground–up to eliminate the risk of electoral fraud or breach of secrecy:
- Voters who bypass authentication or have already voted are denied access to the ballot.
- One–vote–per-voter is guaranteed by marking electors as voted and storing the vote in a single transaction. Even if a voter submits the ballot simultaneously on several devices, this technology guarantees that only one vote is accepted.
- Ballots are rigorously checked for validity before being accepted.
- All administrator and voter activity is logged with timestamp and IP address.
- Communication between the voter‘s computer and our website is encrypted with TLS 1.2 and strong cipher suites to protect against current and future encryption attacks.
- The entire voting system database is encrypted at rest using AES–256 encryption.
Should you have further questions, please email [email protected] so that we can resolve any issues you may have. Valid election information will ONLY come from Tidewater Property Management, the election committee at [email protected] or Simply Voting. Information received from any other source is not official information and should not be viewed as such.
Thank You,
Elections Committee