An OPA Board of Directors' discussion of reports from the Elections Committee during the board meeting of 2/18/2023 was troubling. There was so much misinformation floating around, one can only wonder if all board members really understand what happened in the last election. Nor did the new Election Committee come off looking all that good, but surely undeserving of some caustic remarks from a couple of board members, including former OPA president Colette Horn.

Director Steve Jacobs said multiple times that if, as the committee recommends, internet voting is eliminated for the coming board election, then some 800 lot owners who voted electronically in the last election would be "disenfranchised."

Steve's comments were 100% incorrect, inaccurate, or whatever description would be similarly appropriate. Some might call such an accusation or charge or claim stupid.

Disenfranchisement is taking away the right to vote from a person or group.

Requiring an election process be carried out via mailed-in paper ballots with no option for internet voting, as was the case for elections for over 50 years, disenfranchises no one.

OPA president Doug Parks made the most reasonable comments during the very long discussion, with some board members simply repeating the same tired arguments over and over.

Director Frank Daly asked a simple question of Elections Committee Chairman Tom Piati. Daly asked if we know how many LOTS voted in the last election. Piati paused and finally said the committee did know. He could not know without a special count and review of the returned ballot envelopes, and there is no indication that was done.

If not, neither the Committee nor the Board nor anyone knows how many LOTS cast ballots in the last election. 

We could know via a check of the codes on the returned envelopes but the Committee thus far has more or less refused to check the returned ballots to determine the number of lots each returned ballot represented.

The last election was a disaster, with quite possibly enough lot ballots not counted to result in a change in one of the directors elected. Piati even said not all lots were counted.

While we can never know how those uncounted lots voted, we can absolutely know how many total lots cast ballots - the number Daly requested. The same process would also indicate the number of lots that were not counted, but it seems obvious many on the board and in the community do not really want to know that number.

Incredibly, Piatti suggested new card-type ballots but apparently using the same scanner used last time and new software. Maybe, just maybe, someone should look into using the cards and a Scantron machine for counting. It worked well for perhaps 15 years or more with great success until a prior Election Committee decided to "improve" things.

In short, the last election and the aftermath continue to be a disgrace.

A former OPA employee's name was provided to the Elections Committee. The employee handled tech support until he left in 2012, including operating the Scantron machine to count election ballot cards. His name was passed on to the Committee. In a recent phone conversation, he said he never heard from the Committee but was certainly willing to speak to them.

From 2013 until 2019 or so, the Scantron machine was run by an outside consultant, perhaps John Card or John Connor.  At some point, a prior Elections Committee decided to improve the process and bought an expensive new scanner and expensive new software.  A prelude to the recent disaster.

Internet voting seems like a no-go this year.  Thank goodness. Committee member George Alston wrote, "There is no known internet voting system that can produce a 1st person ballot such as a paper ballot to do a recount." Therein lies the rub. Internet voting may be fine for surveys, but should never be employed to elect those who govern OPA.

An April 2021 review of Internet voting by the American Association for the Advancement of Science states: "Scientists and security experts have documented a number of potential vulnerabilities facing any internet voting platform, including malware and denial of service attacks; voter authentication; ballot protection and anonymization; and how disputed ballots are handled. The lack of a meaningful voter-verified paper record means there is no way to conduct a valid audit of the results."

Association member Larry Malone, responding to former board member Amy Peck, an avid Internet voting advocate, wrote, "We are part-time owners and electronic voting is not important to us. We have been association members since 2010 and have voted every year successfully each year with paper ballots. Our thoughts are: If it isn't broke, don't try to fix it."

Go to the forum home page at OceanPinesForum.com and vote in a poll asking if OPA should return to only paper ballots and a ballot package mailed for each individual lot.