HOA Voting Rules: Proxies, Absentee Ballots, and Quorum

Arizona HOA voting rules come from two statutes that work in parallel: the Condominium Act (ARS 33-1201 through 33-1270) for condominiums and the Planned Communities Act (ARS 33-1801 through 33-1817) for subdivision-style associations. The mechanics are close to identical across both, but the specific code section that applies to your community depends on which type you live in. Everything below covers who can vote, what notice you’re owed, how ballots and proxies work, and the thresholds for the biggest decisions your association will ever make.

Which Statute Applies to You

If you own a condominium, ARS 33-1250 is your primary voting statute. If you live in a planned community, ARS 33-1812 fills the same role. Both prohibit proxies once the developer’s control period ends, both require absentee ballots, and both set a seven-day minimum for returning them. Where the rules diverge, most notably in the threshold to amend the declaration, the difference matters and is called out below.

Notice Before Any Member Vote

No vote is valid unless members received proper notice first. For members’ meetings, the association must deliver notice no fewer than 10 and no more than 50 days before the meeting. Delivery is by hand or by prepaid U.S. mail to the address on file for each unit or lot, or to any alternate address the owner has designated in writing.¹

Every notice must include the date, time, and place. For a special meeting, the notice also has to describe the purpose, including the general nature of any proposed declaration or bylaw amendments, any assessment changes needing member approval, and any proposal to remove a director or officer. A notice that just says “special meeting” without the reason doesn’t meet the statute.¹

Board meetings run on a shorter clock. After declarant control ends, the board must give homeowners at least 48 hours’ advance notice along with the agenda, delivered by newsletter, conspicuous posting, or any other reasonable method. Emergencies that require immediate action are the one exception.¹

One important caveat: if the association sent notice correctly and you simply didn’t receive it, that doesn’t invalidate the vote. The statute protects the association as long as delivery followed the correct procedure.

Proxies Are Only Allowed Before Declarant Control Ends

The “period of declarant control” is the window during which the developer or its designees can appoint or elect board members.² While that period is running, you can authorize someone else to cast your vote by proxy.

Arizona restricts how those proxies work. A proxy must be dated or it’s void. It can only be revoked by delivering actual notice of revocation to the person presiding over the meeting, and a proxy claiming to be revocable without notice is void. Signing a newer proxy automatically replaces an older one. Unless a shorter term is written in, or the proxy is irrevocable because it’s coupled with a financial interest, it expires one year from its date.³

Once declarant control ends, proxies are flatly prohibited. This overrides anything to the contrary in your CC&Rs or bylaws. In place of proxies, the association must offer two voting methods: in person and by absentee ballot. Email, fax, or other electronic delivery may be offered on top of those two, but they don’t substitute for them.² An association that only takes in-person votes after declarant control isn’t complying with the statute.

What an Absentee Ballot Must Contain

Absentee ballots have to meet specific requirements, and ballots that don’t can be challenged. Every absentee ballot must:

Describe each proposed action and give the voter a way to vote for or against each one.
Apply to a single meeting or election only, expiring automatically once that meeting or election ends.
State a return deadline that falls at least seven days after the blank ballot is delivered to the member.
Prohibit any delegation of the vote to another person.
Include the voter’s name, address, and signature on the completed ballot. If the community documents allow secret ballots, that identifying information goes on the outer envelope instead.³

The seven-day minimum is where most disputes happen. If ballots go out late and members have less than a week to return them, any vote taken with those ballots is open to challenge. The same substantive rules apply to electronic ballots, so an online voting system still has to describe each item, give a for/against choice, and honor the seven-day window.

Quorum and Co-Owner Voting

Arizona doesn’t set a single statewide quorum percentage for general member meetings. Quorum is defined in your association’s bylaws and varies from community to community. If the bylaws are silent, the default rules under Arizona’s nonprofit corporation statutes may fill the gap. Absentee ballots count toward quorum, which matters in larger associations where in-person attendance is usually thin.⁴

When a unit is owned by more than one person, the co-owner voting rules are straightforward. If only one co-owner attends, that person casts all the votes for the unit with no extra paperwork. If two or more attend, they need to agree before the vote is cast. Silence counts as agreement: if one co-owner votes and no other co-owner objects to the presiding officer, the vote stands as if everyone consented. If a co-owner does object, the vote can only be cast according to the majority position among them, unless the declaration provides otherwise.³

Thresholds To Amend the Declaration

Changing your community’s declaration takes more than a simple majority, and the required threshold depends on which statute governs.

For condominiums, ARS 33-1227 requires an affirmative vote of owners holding at least 67 percent of the votes in the association.⁵ Clearing that bar usually means running an absentee ballot campaign, because most communities never get two-thirds of their owners in a single room.

For planned communities, ARS 33-1817 defers to whatever percentage the declaration itself sets. If the amendment applies to fewer than all lots, it also needs the consent of every owner whose lot is directly affected. Once adopted, the amendment must be recorded with the county within 30 days and takes effect on recording.⁶

Removing a Board Member by Petition

Homeowners can petition for a special meeting to remove a board member, other than one appointed by the developer during declarant control. The signature threshold depends on the size of the association:

Associations with 1,000 or fewer members: signatures from owners holding at least 25 percent of the votes, or 100 votes, whichever is less.
Associations with more than 1,000 members: signatures from owners holding at least 10 percent of the votes, or 1,000 votes, whichever is less.⁴

Once the board receives a valid petition, it has 30 days to call, notice, and hold the special meeting. If the board doesn’t act within that window, every member of the board is automatically deemed removed from office at midnight on the thirty-first day.⁴ That’s a real consequence, not a paper threat.

At the removal meeting itself, a statutory quorum applies. For associations with 1,000 or fewer members, quorum is the number of owners holding at least 20 percent of the votes, or 1,000 votes, whichever is less. Absentee ballots count toward that threshold.⁴

Two Situations Homeowners Often Ask About

Tenants generally can’t vote. Under the condominium statute, a lessee only steps into the owner’s voting role when the declaration specifically provides that a particular vote must be cast by the lessee. In that narrow case, the lessee gets meeting notices, access to records, and the same voting rights the owner would have.³ If your declaration doesn’t say so, the owner keeps all voting rights even when the unit is rented.

When the association itself owns a unit, the votes for that unit are not cast unless the declaration expressly says otherwise.³ That prevents the board from tipping close votes by casting ballots on units the association happens to hold.

1
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1248 – Open Meetings, Exceptions, Notice, Agenda
2
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1812 – Proxies, Absentee Ballots, Definition
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1250 – Voting, Proxies, Absentee Ballots, Applicability, Definition
4
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1243 – Board of Directors and Officers, Conflict, Powers, Limitations
5
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1227 – Amendment of Declaration
6
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 33-1817 – Declaration Amendment, Design, Architectural Committees