The straight answer is that HOAs are now required — need — to have an election inspector. This can still be a community volunteer and the HOA is not required to hire a professional to run or manage their elections.

If an HOA can find one (or three) homeowner who is qualified and willing to both do the work and take on the liability of running their associations elections, it’s perfectly within the California rules for them to do so.

In fact, in the HOA community where I am a homeowner and board member, our initial solution to the new California rules requiring election inspectors was to take advantage of a homeowner who stepped forward and said he would run the next board election for us — serving as a volunteer election inspector. It was a bold and generous offer. Unfortunately, once he saw what was actually required to run a legal HOA election and once he understood that he would have personal liability in the matter if the process or results were challenged, he quickly backed out. None of us could blame him, and that was back in 2020. Election rules have since become even more complex.

How about outsourcing just part of the election?

Another question we frequently get is if an HOA can reduce the cost of an election by performing all the required functions (such as mailed election notifications, receiving and vetting of board nominations, and preparation and distribution of ballots and voting instructions), and then just hire an election inspector to receive and open the ballots. The answer is that an HOA can choose to go that route. But a number of professional election inspectors won’t support that process. Why? Part of it might be because it results in less revenue, but I also suspect that it’s because they (like us) have found that election disputes are rarely about the ballot collection, ballot opening, and ballot tabulation phases. They are almost always disputes around the very first steps — especially the timing of notifications, the collection and confirmation of nominees, and errors in following required communications that have to happen ahead of ballots being distributed.

For the HOA Election Team, we have participated in projects where we are only hired to receive, open, and tabulate ballots. But we usually recommend against it, and especially so for recall elections, proposed special assessments, or any ballot that is likely to be contentious.

So, what kind of company should you hire to be your HOA election inspector? For more info on some options and what to consider, read our February 2025 blog post.