What should our HOA board do when an owner asks for an election recount?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised September 30, 2026

How an HOA board should handle an election recount request: Texas 209.0057 deadlines and costs, Florida and Colorado rules, who may recount, and sample letters.

Part of the HOA board handbook: running the board.

The short answer

Treat the request as routine, not as an attack. Date-stamp it, lock up the ballots, and read what your state and your bylaws require before anyone replies. In Texas, chapter 209 of the Property Code gives owners in a subdivision association a statutory right to a recount, with fixed deadlines and a cost the owner pays up front. Florida and Colorado have no recount statute for HOAs, so the bylaws control and the board decides. Even where the board has the choice, a quick recount by a neutral counter usually costs less than refusing. A refused recount turns into an election dispute, and in Florida that means binding arbitration where the loser pays the winner's attorney fees. This guide covers the board's side of the request. Rules vary by state and by governing documents, and it is education, not legal advice.

The first 48 hours

Write the date and time the request arrived on the request itself, and note how it came in: mail, hand delivery or email. In Texas that date starts the association's clock. Next, confirm who has the ballots, envelopes, proxies, sign-in sheet and tally sheet, and put them in one sealed box or one locked folder. Nobody on the board opens it. Candidates and their relatives should not touch it at all. Keep them for at least a year. Florida (Fla. Stat. 720.303(4)(a)12.) and Colorado (C.R.S. 38-33.3-317(1)(n)) both make ballots, proxies and other voting records official records for one year after the vote. Texas's minimum retention list in Property Code 209.005(m) does not name ballots, so write the rule into your own policy and keep them past any recount or challenge. Then send a short acknowledgment. Do not argue about the result, speculate about errors, or promise anything beyond the process.

Texas: the statutory recount clock

Property Code 209.0057 sets every step. It covers residential subdivision associations under chapter 209. It does not cover condominiums (209.003(d)) or the large associations that fall under the Public Information Act through Government Code 552.0036. Any owner may demand a recount no later than the 15th day after the later of the meeting where the vote happened or the announcement of results. The demand goes by verified mail or USPS signature confirmation to the mailing address on the association's latest management certificate, or in person to the managing agent or the address where absentee ballots are mailed. Within 20 days of receiving it, the association must estimate the cost and invoice the owner. The owner has 30 days from the date the invoice is sent to pay in full. If the owner does not pay, the demand is treated as withdrawn. Within 30 days of receiving payment, the recount must be finished and the result sent to each owner who asked. If the recount changes the outcome, the association refunds the owner's cost within 30 days. A final invoice or refund for any gap between the estimate and the real cost goes out within 30 business days after results. Board actions taken between the first tally and the recount stand either way.

Who may do the recount

Texas is specific. The recount must be done by someone who is not an association member and is not related to a board member within the third degree. That person must be a current or former county judge, county elections administrator, justice of the peace or county voter registrar, or someone the association and each requesting owner agree on (209.0057(c)). Get that agreement in writing. Under 209.00594, a candidate or a candidate's relative may not tabulate or see the ballots, and the recount person may not tell anyone how an individual voted. That means the requesting owner does not get to go through the ballots. For secret ballots, 209.0058(d)(3) lets each candidate in a board race name one observer to watch the count without seeing who cast which ballot. Colorado requires contested board races to use a secret ballot counted by a neutral third party or a committee of owner volunteers chosen at an open meeting. The volunteers may not be board members or candidates (C.R.S. 38-33.3-310(1)(b)(I)(A) and (C)). Use the same kind of counter for a recount. California goes further and lets a member inspect the ballots through the inspector of elections during a recount (Cal. Civ. Code 5125).

Florida and Colorado: the board decides, so decide on purpose

Without a recount statute, look first at the bylaws and any election rules the board adopted. If they are silent, the board chooses, and it should say yes when the margin is thin or the owner points to something specific, such as a ballot rejected for a signature question. Florida sets the stakes. Under Fla. Stat. 720.306(9)(a), any challenge to the election process must start within 60 days after results are announced. Under 720.306(9)(c), an election dispute goes to binding arbitration with the state's Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes or to court. Section 720.311(1) bars presuit mediation for election disputes, sets a filing fee of at least $200, and gives the prevailing party its costs and attorney fees. Condominium election disputes follow 718.1255, which also sends them to the division or a court and puts division petitions on an expedited track. In Colorado, 38-33.3-310(2)(c) through (e) protect an association that rejects a ballot in good faith over a doubtful signature. That protection assumes someone can show the board acted in good faith, so write down every rejected ballot and the reason. When the board offers a recount, set the terms the Texas way: a neutral counter, a date within 30 days, one observer per candidate, and the result reported without names.

A sample timeline and wording

Here is a Texas example. The election is Saturday, March 7, and results are announced that night. An owner's demand arrives by signature mail on March 18, inside the 15-day window that closes March 22. The board sends the cost estimate and invoice on April 1, inside the 20-day limit of April 7. The owner pays on April 15. The recount happens April 29 at a posted time, with one observer per candidate, and results go out May 1, inside the 30-day limit of May 15. Acknowledgment letter: 'We received your request for a recount of the March 7 board election on March 18. The ballots have been sealed and will stay sealed until the recount. Within 20 days you will receive an estimate of the cost and an invoice. The recount will be completed within 30 days after we receive payment, by a qualified person with no ties to the association or the board.' Motion: 'I move that the board engage [name], a former justice of the peace with no relationship to any member or director, to recount the ballots from the March 7 election at the owner's expense, and that the secretary post the date, time and place of the count.'

Mistakes boards make

The worst one is a director or candidate opening the ballot box to 'check quickly' before the recount. In Texas that alone breaks 209.00594, and anywhere else it hands the other side its best argument. The next is missing the Texas invoice deadline because nobody logged when the demand arrived. Boards also pick a counter the requester never agreed to, recount in private, or announce who voted for whom. Some treat the request as a personal insult and respond in the community newsletter. Others destroy ballots after 30 days to clear a closet. Write a one-page election records policy now: who keeps the ballots, where, for how long, and who may recount. Our guide on how an HOA counts election ballots covers the original tally, and our guide on how to challenge an HOA election covers what happens when a recount does not settle it.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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