|
ELECTRONIC VOTING? ARE THE
LEGISLATORS NUTS?
By
Jan Bergemann
Published
July 3, 2015
George Moraitis filed H 791, a community association bill
full of nasty surprises. Common sense? Not much common sense
contained in this bill!
I‘m still trying to figure out what motive caused State
Representative Heather Fitzenhagen to come up with such
nonsense. Who gave her the campaign funds that caused her to
file such a bill (H 1211)?
It definitely was not an owners’ advocacy group that asked her
to file a bill that will cause nothing but havoc in community
associations. It opens the door to even more voting fraud and
election chaos. As if we don’t already hear enough complaints
about voting scams in Florida’s community associations.
If you read the new law (effective July 1, 2015) [Example
FS
720.317 – the wording is the same for Condos (FS
718) and Co-ops (FS 719)] you will quickly find out that there
are lots of requirements for the association to fulfill in order
to allow electronic voting. That makes me think that maybe a
computer-programmer is behind this bill trying to sell a
computer program that may come close to the requirements listed
in the new law? It will be very expensive to purchase such
program – and to my knowledge no such program really exists.
Tests failed – too many ways to cheat. And the bill doesn’t say
what happens if more votes are counted than voters are in the
community?
Or maybe it was her husband, community association attorney
Richard DeBoest, who was looking for more billing hours? Make no
mistake: This new law will definitely create more lawsuits, if
associations really intend to use this electronic voting
procedure as described?
There is a reason why nowhere in the USA electronic voting is
allowed in official elections. It just doesn’t work! Maybe our
esteemed legislators are trying to use community associations as
guinea pigs, so the owners have to pay for the legal fees trying
to sort out the legal mess electronic voting will create?
Anyway, let’s see when we get the first irate complaints from
owners or board members who found out that this electronic
voting provision is just a joke that will never work properly?
We have so many unsolved problems in community associations. Why
are these legislators so gung-ho to create even more problems
with useless laws?
|
|
 |
Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice,
Florida
's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group.
CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in
community
|
associations. He moved to
Florida
in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the
developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues
for his own purposes. End of retirement!
CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in
Tallahassee
- finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a
member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.
The organization has two websites to inform interested
Florida
homeowners and condo owners:
News Website: http://www.ccfj.net/.
Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all
service providers surely have a different interest! We are
trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are
useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking
in
Florida
!
|
