How Florida condo board elections work, step by step.

By Carlos Castellano · Current as of July 16, 2026

A condominium board election is not something you can call together on a Tuesday and hold on Thursday. Florida choreographs the whole thing by statute and by administrative rule, on a calendar that starts 60 days out, and a board that skips a step can have its election challenged and undone. Elections are one of the topics the state requires every new condo director to study for exactly this reason. Here is the process, counted backward from election day, and how it differs from an HOA election.

HOA and condo elections are not the same process

Before anything else, know which set of rules you are under, because they are genuinely different. A Florida condominium election follows a detailed statutory script in Section 718.112(2)(d), Florida Statutes, filled in by the Division’s election rule, Rule 61B-23.0021, Florida Administrative Code: fixed notice deadlines, a secret two-envelope ballot, no proxies. A homeowners’ association election is far more open-ended. Section 720.306(9) largely points HOA boards back to their own governing documents. Most of this article is about the condo process, because that is the one the law scripts; the HOA differences are gathered at the end.

The condo election calendar, counted backward from election day

The condo election runs on four deadlines, all measured backward from the date of the election. Section 718.112(2)(d) sets them, and they apply even if your bylaws say something different.

• At least 60 days before the election: the first notice. The association mails, delivers, or electronically transmits a first notice of the date of the election to every unit owner. This notice opens the window; it is what tells owners an election is coming and that they may run.
• At least 40 days before: candidates give notice. A unit owner or other eligible person who wants to be a candidate must give the association written notice of that intent at least 40 days before the election. Miss this deadline and you are not on the ballot. There are no write-in candidates and no nominations from the floor in a condo election.
• At least 35 days before: the candidate information sheet. A candidate who wants one may furnish an information sheet, no larger than one 8.5-by-11-inch page, and if it reaches the association at least 35 days before the election, the association must include it with the ballot mailing. The board cannot edit or refuse it.
• Not less than 14 and not more than 34 days before: the second notice and the ballot. The association sends the second notice of the election together with the meeting notice, the agenda, and a ballot listing all the candidates. This is the ballot owners actually vote.

Those four dates are the spine of a compliant condo election. If you get one wrong, the safe move is to reset the calendar rather than proceed, because a defective election is the kind of thing a unit owner can contest.

When you do not hold an election at all

Here is the part that surprises new boards: much of the time, there is no vote. Under Rule 61B-23.0021, balloting is not necessary to fill a vacancy unless there are two or more eligible candidates for that seat. The statute puts the same rule the other way around: an election is not required if the number of vacancies equals or exceeds the number of candidates. So if three seats are open and three eligible people give their 40-day notice, all three simply take office. You still send the first notice and open the candidacy window; you just do not print ballots or hold a vote if the race is uncontested.

Who is allowed to run

Not every owner is eligible. Section 718.112(2)(d) bars a few categories of candidate:

• A person who is delinquent in the payment of a monetary obligation to the association is not eligible to be a candidate or to serve on the board.
• A person convicted of a felony is not eligible unless their civil rights have been restored for at least 5 years.
• Co-owners of the same unit may not serve on the board at the same time unless they own more than one unit, or unless there are not enough eligible candidates to fill the vacancies.

Eligibility is checked as of the deadlines, so a candidate who clears a past-due balance before running is treated differently from one who is still behind. When in doubt about a specific candidate, this is a good question for the association’s attorney.

The secret ballot, in two envelopes

Condo elections are by secret ballot, and Rule 61B-23.0021 spells out the mechanics precisely, because secrecy and verification have to happen at the same time. Each voter gets two envelopes:

• The ballot goes inside a small inner envelope, which the voter seals. The ballot itself carries nothing that identifies the voter, and it does not mark which candidates are incumbents.
• The inner envelope goes inside a larger outer envelope, which the voter also seals. The outside of that outer envelope shows the voter’s name, the unit number, and the voter’s signature.

That separation is the whole point. The signed outer envelope proves the vote is from an eligible owner; the sealed inner envelope keeps how they voted secret. Only one ballot goes in each inner envelope. A voter entitled to cast more than one ballot uses a separate inner envelope for each, though those may travel inside a single outer envelope. Once the association receives a ballot, it cannot be rescinded or changed.

Counting the ballots

Ballots are opened and counted at the duly noticed meeting, in the presence of any unit owners who attend. A quorum is not required to hold the election or open the ballots. The count follows the two-envelope logic in reverse: the signature and unit on each outer envelope are checked against the list of eligible voters first, and only then are the inner envelopes separated out and opened, so no one can tie a ballot back to a voter.

Certain ballots are set aside. An outer envelope with no signature is disregarded. An inner envelope holding more than one ballot is disregarded. A ballot from someone who is not an eligible voter is not counted. And there is a floor on participation: Section 718.112(2)(d) provides that there is no quorum requirement for the election, but at least 20 percent of the eligible voters must cast a ballot for the election to be valid. The winners are decided by a plurality of the ballots cast, and if two candidates tie for the last seat, the rule calls for a runoff rather than a coin flip.

Proxies do not elect the board

Owners often assume a proxy works for everything. It does not work for electing directors. Section 718.112(2)(d) provides that proxies may not be used in electing the board, whether in a general election or one to fill a vacancy. An owner who cannot attend still votes, but by returning the secret ballot in its two envelopes, not by handing their vote to someone else.

Small associations, online voting, and email ballots

Two narrower rules are worth knowing. First, a very small building has an exit. Section 718.112(2)(d) lets an association of 10 or fewer units, by an affirmative vote of a majority of the total voting interests, provide for different voting and election procedures in its bylaws. If your condo is that small and has opted out, your bylaws control instead of the calendar above.

Second, a condo may run its elections through a secure online voting system, but only on an opt-in basis. Under Section 718.128, Florida Statutes, the board must first adopt a resolution authorizing online voting, and each unit owner must consent, in writing or electronically, before their vote is cast online. The system has to authenticate the owner’s identity, keep the ballot secret, and send the owner a receipt. No board can push an owner onto that system without their consent.

Third, and this is the part boards most often get backwards: choosing not to adopt an online voting system does not put your association back on paper alone. Section 718.128(7) provides that unless the association has adopted electronic voting under subsections (1) through (6), it must designate an email address for receiving electronically transmitted ballots, and it must count a completed ballot sent to that address. The emailed ballot has to identify the unit and carry the owner’s name, which serves as the signature, and it has to reach the association no later than the scheduled date and time of the meeting at which the vote is taken.

The statute is explicit that a ballot sent this way counts without complying with Section 718.112(2)(d)4. or the rules providing for the secrecy of ballots. That is the trade the owner is making, and the statute makes the association spell it out. The email the association sends the owner has to carry a statement, capitalized and in a font larger than anything else in that email, saying that waiving secrecy is the owner’s choice, that they do not have to waive it in order to vote, that emailing the completed ballot waives it, and that an owner who wants to keep their ballot secret should attend the meeting in person instead.

One practical protection for the board sits at the end of the subsection. If a director, an officer, an agent of the association, or a licensed community association manager signs a sworn affidavit attesting that they reviewed every folder on the designated email account, the association gets a rebuttable presumption that it did so. That is the answer to the owner who says their ballot was sent and the spam filter ate it, so whoever owns that mailbox should be checking the junk folder and be prepared to swear to it.

So the two-envelope method is still the default, and it is still the only way to vote in absence and keep your ballot secret. But it is no longer the only lawful way an absent owner may cast one, and an association that has adopted no online voting system and designated no email address is out of compliance with Section 718.128(7).

How HOA elections work

Homeowners’ associations run on a different and looser track. Section 720.306(9), Florida Statutes, does not impose the 60-40-35 notice cascade or the two-envelope ballot. Instead it says elections are conducted according to the procedures in the association’s governing documents, so your declaration and bylaws are the first place to look. A few statutory points still stand out:

• No election unless it is contested. As with condos, an election is not required unless more candidates are nominated or declare than there are vacancies. If the seats are uncontested, the candidates take office, whether or not a quorum shows up at the annual meeting.
• Meeting notice runs on the general rule. The association gives members notice of the meeting at least 14 days in advance under Section 720.306(5), rather than the condo’s 60-day election notice.
• The governing documents fill the gaps. Whether nominations come from the floor, whether there is an advance-candidacy deadline, and how ballots are cast are set by your documents, not by a uniform statute. Two HOAs can run their elections quite differently and both be compliant.

The practical takeaway for an HOA board: read your own bylaws closely and follow them to the letter, because they are the rulebook a disputed election will be measured against. For how these duties divide among the officers running the meeting, see president, secretary, treasurer: who does what, and for the records side of notices and ballots, see the board secretary’s job, explained.

Elections are one of the topics the condo certification curriculum is required to cover, alongside recordkeeping, financial transparency, fines, and the building-safety duties. The full two-part condo requirement is walked through in condo board certification after the 2024 and 2025 laws.