WSJ: Political Hothouse: Florida Sends Help For Condo Elections

The Wall Street Journal

Political Hothouse: Florida Sends Help For Condo Elections

At Parker Plaza, Uproar Over Storm Windows; Raphans Counsel Peace
By MICHAEL CORKERY
March 11, 2006; Page A1

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. -- The bitter campaign at the beachfront Parker Plaza condominiums here featured 17 candidates challenging incumbents for all nine seats on the association's governing board. Accusations flew about the design of an outdoor fountain, the cost of the biometric hand scan at the front door and a proposed $14.3 million assessment for hurricane-resistant windows and some repairs, which would have set back some unit owners nearly $28,000. One of a series of anonymous fliers took a gratuitous dig at a candidate's new car: "How about the new Jaguar you got." And when residents here finally went to the polls, the ballots were counted under the watchful eye of government-appointed election monitors to squelch any doubt about the results.

Election monitors are usually sent to watch over voting in developing countries and war zones. But in Florida -- home to infamous hanging chads and other election irregularities that led to the 2000 presidential recount -- the state legislature has created a new office to oversee some of its most contentious races: the battle for condo board seats.

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On election night at Parker Plaza last month, Mr. Raphan and his wife sorted through a stack of about 400 secret ballots and checked them twice against a list of eligible voters. At previous elections, there were fears that the ballots were being steamed open or thrown out. So this year, nearly half the residents mailed their ballots in advance to Mr. Raphan's office in nearby Fort Lauderdale for safekeeping.

Squabbles break out in condos, home-owners' associations and co-ops all the time. It's part of the inevitable tension that occurs when people who live cheek by jowl have to share expenses and abide by shared rules. But in parts of fast-growing Florida, officials say fights between boards and unit owners have been escalating. The condo ombudsman office, created in 2004, says it's currently fielding about 700 complaints and requests for help each week. The office conducted 43 elections last year. It has already been asked to conduct that many this year. The state office that oversees condos, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, says its number of formal complaints are staying steady. In the past two fiscal years, it received about 1,800 complaints a year.

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secure condo elections, but don't worry about the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
Remember Jeb taking all those ballots off in the plane and presumably dropping them in the deep dark sea? Condo elections. Give me a freakin break.

while the federal election doesn't appear to them to have such an effect...which is wrong...but that is how they view it.

Simular to union elections in some ways, or to stockholders elections.

Have you posted this to the election reform forum?

As anyone who has ever lived under some kind of association rules, these places are the worst demonstration of democracy run amok. The reason, mostly, is because most home owners do not want to be bothered so only the most ambitious controlling people run and get elected to these boards. I think that California has enacted some laws when it was found that these boards have the power to foreclose on a house for lack of due payments of a couple of hundred dollars.

I lived in a "community". It was a nightmare. I just wanted to be left alone but there are some who play sheriff. They see all and know all. He even told me, don't worry, I'll take care of this. I suggested that if there is a problem, let me know and I can deal with it on a personal basis. If no one tells me there is a problem, there is not a problem. Heresay and gossip do not a problem make. Can we pass a law requiring people to grow up?

table in his backyard, which is fenced. And some of us immediately told him that it is no one's business what kind of table someone has in the back yard, as long as it is not permanently attached to the building. And he had to back off. Funny that one of the board members was a high school principal and I often thought that he could not tell the difference between high-school kids and responsible home owners.