Understanding “Uncontested Elections” and “Election by Acclamation”

State statutes and an association’s governing documents require the election of directors by members of the association. Typically, the membership meetings at which an association’s directors are elected take place annually and in an ideal situation there are more candidates who run for election to the board than there are vacant seats to be filled through the election process. When that is the case, the members will receive election ballots that contain the names of all of the candidates and the number of directors to be elected, and they will be instructed on how to vote for the candidates of their choice and return the completed ballots to the association or its designated representative. In a less than ideal situation, there are less candidates willing to run for election to the board then there are seats to be filled. When that occurs, the concepts of “uncontested election” and “election by acclamation” come into play.

An uncontested election means that the number of candidates for election to an association’s board of directors is either less than or equal to the number of open seats. Thus, if an association has an election scheduled where three directors are needed to fill seats on the board, and there are three or less candidates for the election, it is a certainty that they would all be elected. If that is the case, is it necessary for the association to go through the process of mailing ballots to the members of the association members?