We want to clarify any confusion regarding what residents are voting on. In addition to voting on the Board of Directors Candidates, residents are also being asked to vote to approve the meeting minutes from the 2024 Annual Meeting and to vote on adopting the Resolution for Revenue Ruling 70-604.
These two items are on every annual ballot, and The Association wanted to give owners more background information on these issues by elaborating on what was shared with the community in January’s ‘Notice of Klahanie Homeowners’ Association Annual Meeting and Election Information’ by discussing why they are important and why you are being asked to vote on them. We also wanted to remind you how to vote and explain the process of requesting a voting code.
What’s on the Ballot?
Annual Meeting Minutes
The Board of Directors is in charge of making sure there are accurate records of meetings of the Association. Section 4.6.6 of the Bylaws states that the Board has General Powers to: “Cause to be kept a complete record of all its acts and corporate affairs and to present a statement thereof to the Members at the Annual Meeting of the Members or at any special meeting thereof.”
Because the Annual Meeting is a meeting open to all owners, the owners have the right to vote on whether the minutes of the Annual Meeting accurately state the business that was conducted at the prior meeting. This is similar to how the Board votes each meeting to approve the meeting minutes of the prior Board meeting. Having the ability to vote to accept meeting minutes, whether for the Annual Meeting or monthly board meetings, ensures that accurate meeting minutes are recorded.
Each year, along with voting for Board of Director positions, we ask owners to vote to accept the meeting minutes from the prior year’s Annual Meeting. If you’ve voted in past years, you’ll likely recall seeing this on your ballot, along with an email confirmation of your vote if you voted electronically. You have a choice to approve the minutes, as presented in the elections mailer that was sent to you in late January, and as presented in the attachment on the ballot. If you agree that the meeting minutes capture what happened at last year’s Annual Meeting, you can vote to approve them. If you don’t agree that the Meeting Minutes accurately capture the business conducted at last year’s Annual Meeting, you can vote to reject the meeting minutes. If the meeting minutes are rejected, the Board will attempt to revise them to correct any inaccuracies, and they will be added to next year’s ballot to be approved, along with the 2025 Annual Meeting Minutes from the upcoming Annual Meeting in March.
Please note that on the electronic ballot, it references that the Annual Meeting Minutes can be found on page 7 of the attached document. Because we had to edit the document at the last minute to remove a Board candidate who dropped out of the race, the attached document is now only six pages. The 2024 Annual Meeting minutes can be found on page 6 of the attachment.
Revenue Ruling 70-604
The purpose of revenue ruling 70-604 is to allow a homeowner’s association that has excess member income in a given tax year to either refund that excess to the members or roll it over to the next tax year to avoid taxation of the “inadvertent” excess member income. The Klahanie Association is a non-profit, meaning we do not try to earn income each year, rather we try to bring in enough income to cover our expenses. Sometimes, due to various circumstances, like earning more revenue than expected, or realizing cost savings throughout the year, the Association ends up with a net income at the end of the year.
Revenue Ruling 70-604 may appear to be a very innocuous revenue ruling, but it is one of the most significant tax planning tools available to a homeowner’s association that files Form 1120. This revenue ruling allows an association to make an election which will remove the association's excess membership income from taxation for the year for which the election is made.
Every association should consider making a 70-604 election each year, which is why this item is on the ballot every year. If the association does have excess membership income, then having made a proper 70-604 election can be a lifesaver for the association. The association would be able to safely file Form 1120 subjecting only net non-membership income to be taxed. If the 70-604 election is not made, the excess membership income would be taxed along with the non-membership income of the association. This would be an additional expense to the Association that could be avoided if the revenue ruling 70-604 passes.
The Klahanie Board of Directors (7 candidates, 3 open seats)
The purpose of voting for the Board of Directors is to fill the open seats that were vacated by Directors whose terms expired. Each year, a certain number of seats become available, after directors’ three-year terms are finished. This year, we have three open seats, and seven candidates are running to fill those three seats. Members are being asked to vote for up to three candidates or can write in 1-3 members in good standing. Each home has up to three votes total for three open Board of Directors seats.
Why Are These Items on the Same Ballot as the Board of Directors Positions?
We combine the Annual Meeting Minutes and the Revenue Ruling 70-604 with the Board of Directors voting for a few reasons. First, each vote the Association holds has a cost associated with it, so if we were to separate these votes into different ballots, we’d be paying considerably more to allow owners to vote on these issues. Holding one vote and combining these items on one ballot is the most cost-effective way to present these issues to the community for a vote.
We also need to meet a quorum of voters on these issues and the Board of Directors positions. Many residents are interested in voting to fill open Board seats but likely may not take the time to vote on approving Annual Meeting minutes or voting on the Revenue Ruling 70-604 because they may not seem as important. These two issues and our Board of Directors positions are vitally important to the Association, which is why we combine them on one ballot.
If we were unable to make a quorum on these issues, we’d have to extend the election, at an additional cost to homeowners, until we were able to get enough votes to meet quorum. The quorum for all items is 30% of the community, or 927 votes. If a quorum were not ultimately achievable, we would then, by default, have missing meeting minutes, which goes against the duties of our Board as outlined in our Bylaws, and we would have to pay taxes on any excess member income, which again, would be an additional cost to homeowners.
How to Vote
On or after January 31 through March 7, you can vote by one of the three methods:
1. Follow the instructions in the email invitation from Vote HOA Now. The email will go to the primary email address on your account on 1/31/25, and it will be from Klahanie@ivotehoa.com. Please save this email address in your safe sender list to ensure this email does not go to your spam folder. Reminder emails will be sent approximately every 48 hours by Vote HOA Now to those who have not yet voted.
2. Go to our community voting site, https://klahanie.ivotehoa.com/register, to enter your personal registration code, which you will receive via email. You can also request another registration code on this site if you did not get it via email.
3. You may also vote via a proxy or a paper ballot. Fill out a paper ballot or proxy at the Klahanie Association Office or request a paper ballot be sent to your home address. All paper ballots and proxies must be turned in at the Klahanie Association Office by March 7, 2025, at 4:00 pm so that voter identification and residency can be verified.
Why did I not receive an email from Vote HOA Now?
There are a few reasons why you may not have received a voting email from Vote HOA Now.
The email was sent to another member of your household. Vote HOA Now sends an email to the email address of the primary owner on file. Because each home only gets one vote, we only send the voting email to the primary email address on file. If you didn’t get an email, check if someone else in your household got it.
The email went to your Spam folder. Because the voting emails are sent to a large group of homeowners, some may be going to Spam folders. Check your Spam folder for the message and save Klahanie@ivotehoa.com in your safe sender list to ensure future emails do not go to your spam folder. Vote HOA will send reminder emails approximately every 48 hours Now to remind those who have not yet voted.
The settings on your email account did not allow you to receive the Vote HOA Now email. If your email account has strong security parameters, the Vote HOA Now email may have bounced back as undeliverable due to your security settings. The emails being sent by Vote HOA Now are going to a lot of homeowners, so your email account may have thought it was junk mail and rejected it. Save Klahanie@ivotehoa.com in your safe sender list to ensure future emails get through your security filters.
The email bounced back because we do not have a valid email address on file for you or no email address at all. Please log into the Resident Portal to verify your contact information or contact us at info@klahanie.com to update your information. If you update your information in the Resident Portal, please also let us know because we’ll have to provide the update to Vote HOA Now.
Even if you didn’t receive an email from Vote HOA, you can still vote by requesting a voting code.
How do I Request a Voting Code, and What Happens When I Request it?
To request your voting code, please visit https://klahanie.ivotehoa.com/register
In the “DON’T KNOW YOUR REGISTRATION CODE OR NEED OTHER ASSISTANCE?” section, click on the green button that says, “Contact Us.”
Enter your First Name, Last Name, Email Address, and Address, and note in the “Comments/Questions” section that you need your voting code.
Your request will be emailed to Klahanie staff. You will not get an immediate response. If you make a request in the evening or during the weekend, you will likely need to wait until the next business day for a response.
During business hours, Klahanie staff will email you, asking you to come in and provide ID to verify your identity and residency. This is necessary to ensure fair and valid election results. Once you are verified, you will be given your voting code.
If you cannot make it into the office during business hours to show your ID, you can email a picture of your ID to info@klahanie.com. Once staff has verified your identity and residency, they will email you your voting code.
Once you receive your voting code, you can vote in the office on a computer set up in our lobby. You can vote in the office on a paper ballot or at home on your phone or computer.
Once you have voted through Vote HOA Now, you do not need to bring your ballot or proof/confirmation of voting to the Association Office. Vote HOA Now records all electronic votes; no additional proof is required for your vote to be counted. Vote HOA Now is an independent, third-party voting software company that manages our elections. The Association cannot see any election results, other than the number of people who have voted until the election is final.
The election runs for five weeks, 1/31/25 – 3/7/25, to ensure everyone has enough time to vote. We realize that our residents travel and lead busy lives, so we hope this extended election period gives everyone enough time to vote.
If you cannot vote during this time, please contact the Association to learn more about voting via a proxy.
If you have any questions on these issues or need additional clarification, please contact the Association at 425-392-4663 or email us at info@klahanie.com. Staff will not advise owners on who they should vote for or how they should vote on these issues, but we are happy to help residents understand how to vote and what they are voting on.
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