California · Davis-Stirling Act

California HOA election law, in plain form.

The statutes that decide whether a homeowners association election holds up — reproduced in full, explained section by section, and dated so you can see when each page was last checked.

Jurisdiction California Covers Civ. Code §§ 4275, 5100–5145, 5200, 5260 Last verified 2026-10-10 Next review quarterly

California has about 51,700 community associations covering 5.1 million homes, and every one of them that holds a vote must run it through an independent inspector of elections. Since AB 2159 took effect on 1 January 2025, those elections may be held by electronic secret ballot — subject to a technical checklist written into the statute itself.

This section reproduces the governing text and explains what each provision requires operationally. It does not tell you what to do about your own election. That is a question for your association's counsel.

The sections

Civ. Code § 5110 Inspector of elections Who may serve, who is disqualified, and the technical requirements an electronic voting system must satisfy. AB 2159 · 1 Jan 2025 Electronic secret ballots What the 2024 amendment changed across six sections — and the one category of vote it left on paper. Civ. Code §§ 4340–4365 Adopting the election rules Why election rules run on the rule-change procedure, and the arithmetic behind the 148-day deadline: 90 + 30 + 28. Civ. Code §§ 4035–4045 How notice reaches a member Individual against general notice, the member's annual statement of where to send it, and why a portion of every roll is out of date. Civ. Code § 5105 Election rules What the rules must settle, why delinquency bars candidacy but never the ballot, and the 90-day switch between paper and electronic. Civ. Code § 5103 Election by acclamation Seating candidates without a ballot when nominations do not exceed seats — and the 90-day notice that has to have gone out before anyone counted them. Civ. Code § 5115 · § 4275 Quorum and adjourned meetings The 20 percent fallback, the 15-day notice, and the court petition that exists because amendment votes fail. Civ. Code § 5145 Contesting an election One year to sue, and the court must void the result unless the association proves the violation was harmless. Civ. Code § 5100 · § 5120 Secret ballot and tabulation What has to be secret and from whom, how the double envelope achieves it — and why live quorum is lawful while live results are not. Civ. Code § 5130 Proxies Why a proxy is an instrument rather than a setting, what the inspector decides about each one, and the chains and holder limits nobody tracks. Civ. Code § 5125 · § 5200 Retention and inspection What becomes a record once the count ends, why retention runs with the one-year challenge window, and the conflict with erasure rights nobody plans for. Operational guide Hybrid paper and electronic elections Three rules force paper into an electronic election. What reconciliation requires, and where recounts start. Civ. Code § 5260 Requests that must be in writing Seven member requests that take effect only in writing — including the electronic voting opt-out, which a phone call cannot change. Corp. Code § 7513 · § 7615 Written ballots without a meeting The corporate route to a member vote, the two-limb quorum test it imposes, and the flat bar where cumulative voting applies. Language access Do you have to translate the ballot? No — Civil Code § 51(h) says so directly. Why associations with Spanish-speaking owners translate anyway, and how to do it without creating a new risk. Reference Glossary of election terms Eighteen terms defined in one sentence each, ordered by where they arise in an election rather than alphabetically. Tool Election deadline calculator One meeting date in, the statutory deadlines out, with the days remaining as of today. For owners Your rights in an election Notice, the secret ballot, the written request to switch to paper, the independent inspector, and the year you have to challenge.

Electronic voting in other states

No state forbids electronic voting in community associations. What differs is what has to happen first, and three things vary independently:

Whether the statute specifies authentication. California writes a five-part technical specification into § 5110(c)(4)(B). Several states say only that a receipt must be sent. Others say nothing at all, which leaves the question to the association's own rules.
Which direction consent runs. California operates on opt-out: the association adopts a rule, and the member may decline. Elsewhere the member has to opt in before a single electronic ballot can be sent to them. The difference decides who bears the work of reaching the members who do not respond.
Whether an independent inspector is required at all. California requires one and disqualifies the management company. In much of the country the board may count its own election.

On all three, California is at the strict end. An association moving between states should assume none of its procedure travels.

Why there is no comparison table here

There was one. It set out seven states against those three questions, and it was built from secondary sources — law firm summaries and industry articles — rather than from the statutes themselves. It was probably broadly right.

Probably broadly right is not the standard the rest of this site is held to. Every California section here is reproduced verbatim from the Legislative Counsel's own published database, checked word for word against a second independent source, and dated. When we did that for California we found three amendments attributed to the wrong bill and one section whose subject we had described completely incorrectly — in the body of law we had read most carefully.

A comparison table is the format that most invites reliance, so it is the last place to publish unverified work. Each state will appear here when its statutes have been read at the source and dated, and not before. That is also why this site covers California and the service is offered in California only.