How Many Condo Meeting Agenda Items on One Proxy?

V.C. from New Haven County writes:

Dear Mister Condo,

Can you add Budget approval to your annual meeting proxy, along with the board member names that are up for re-election? or do you need to send out a separate ballot for budget approval?

Mister Condo replies:

V.C., that’s a great question and one which I sought guidance from an attorney who specializes in Connecticut community association law. Here’s what the attorney had to offer:

“You can add these things to either a ballot or a proxy, but remember that those two documents serve very different purposes. By mentioning them in the proxy, you’re just giving the unit owner an easy way to direct the proxyholder how to vote on those questions when the proxyholder attends the meeting. The only way the unit owner can personally cast a vote on paper without attending a meeting would be if the association conducts the vote by ballot instead of a meeting using the procedures laid out in CIOA.  State law does not allow for “absentee ballots” to count as votes on these issues at a live meeting.”

There’s your answer, V.C.. Good luck!