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Online Voting vs Paper Ballots: Turnout, Cost, Security and Trust Compared
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Most body corporate and homeowners’ association AGMs have the same problem. A scheme with two hundred owners holds its meeting on a weeknight, thirty owners attend, a pile of paper proxies arrives at the door, and the managing agent spends the next morning counting votes by participation quota in a spreadsheet. Decisions that bind every owner are made by the handful who could be in the room.
Electronic voting changes that. Every owner can vote, from wherever they live, before the meeting or during it, and the result — weighted correctly — is calculated the moment voting closes. Here is how it works.
Why AGM Voting Is Hard
- Attendance: owners who live elsewhere, travel, or simply cannot make a weeknight meeting never vote at all.
- Proxies: paper proxies arrive late, incomplete or unsigned, and someone has to decide on the spot which ones count.
- Weighted counting: a body corporate does not vote one person one vote. Votes are usually counted by value — each unit’s participation quota — and some resolutions are counted by number of owners as well. Doing that by hand, under pressure, invites mistakes and disputes.
What Changes With Electronic Voting
Each owner receives their own voting link and single-use code. They read the resolutions and supporting documents, and vote on their phone, tablet or laptop — no app to install, no meeting to travel to. The voting window can open before the AGM, so absent owners take part, run during the meeting, or both. When it closes, the result is already counted.
Counting Votes the Way Your Scheme Does
This is where a generic polling tool fails and a proper voting system earns its place. Before the vote, each unit’s weight is loaded once:
- Sectional title schemes: each unit’s participation quota, so votes can be counted by value.
- Estates and HOAs: usually one vote per erf or per member, as the constitution sets out.
- Resolutions that need both: some resolutions must pass by a set majority in both value and number. A good system counts both at once, so the chairperson sees immediately whether each threshold was met.
Check which counting method your rules, and the legislation that applies to your scheme, require for each type of resolution — and configure the vote to match before it opens.
Proxies, Properly Counted
An owner who wants someone else to vote for them appoints a proxy before the vote. The proxy then votes with the weight of the owner they represent, and the system makes sure that weight is counted once — never twice, and never lost because a form was filled in wrongly at the door.
Knowing When Enough Owners Have Voted
Trustees and the managing agent can follow turnout as voting progresses, so they know well before the meeting whether enough owners are taking part, and can send reminders while there is still time.
Before You Switch: A Checklist
- Confirm that your scheme’s rules or constitution allow owners to participate and vote electronically, and take advice if you are unsure.
- Bring the owners’ register up to date: an email address or cellphone number for every owner.
- Load each unit’s participation quota or each erf’s vote.
- Collect proxy appointments before the vote opens.
- Include the voting link and the voting window in the notice of the AGM.
- Decide which items go to an electronic vote: budget and levies, rule changes, trustee elections, special resolutions.
How an Electronic AGM Vote Runs
- Register: the owners’ register and each unit’s weight are loaded.
- Notice: owners receive the notice, the resolutions and their personal voting link.
- Proxies: proxy appointments are captured before the vote opens.
- Voting: owners vote before or during the meeting, from anywhere.
- Result: the weighted result is calculated the moment voting closes and handed to the chairperson.
For Managing Agents
A managing agent running AGMs for a portfolio of schemes can run every one on the same system, each with its own register, weights and ballot. The AGM season stops being a month of spreadsheets.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is electronic voting allowed at a body corporate or HOA AGM?
Many schemes’ rules allow owners to participate and vote by electronic means. Check your scheme’s rules or constitution and the legislation that applies to your scheme, and take advice if you are unsure, before you move a vote online.
Can votes be weighted by participation quota?
Yes. Each unit’s participation quota is loaded before the vote and applied automatically when votes are counted, and resolutions that need a majority in both value and number can be counted both ways at once.
Can owners vote by proxy in an electronic vote?
Yes. Proxies are appointed before the vote opens, and a proxy votes with the weight of the owner they represent.
Can owners vote before the AGM?
Yes. The voting window can open before the meeting, run during it, or both, so owners who cannot attend still vote.
Wolfatek runs electronic AGM voting for HOAs, estates and body corporates on WEVS, with votes weighted by participation quota and proxies counted at their weight. See HOA & Body Corporate Voting, or request a voting proposal.
