CondoVirus episode 12: Electronic voting

Rod: Hello everybody. Good evening. My name is Rod Escayola and I'm a condominium lawyer with Gowling WLG. Welcome to Condovirus Episode 12. Tonight, very exciting episode. We're going to be covering, in great depth, electronic voting. Last week, you may recall, what we had was a virtual AGM and you may recall that we sort of talked about three different levels of services that you could possibly get. The gold level, perhaps, is when you retain a third party provider that will deal with both your meeting and the voting. A third party provider could be CondoVoter. GetQuorum, just to name those but there's others. That's the gold standard, maybe. The silver second level would be if you were to delegate the voting to one of these platforms but you want to handle your own AGM. You have a smaller condo corporation or you're able to do it. You're a technological whiz, so good on you. Then at the bottom of the barrel, I guess, is what we did last week. We tried to do our own home brew kind of AGM where we handled the voting our self. We handled the platform our self. It's not impossible. It's feasible. It works. We sort of identified various challenges that comes with that and we sort of tried to explain some work arounds to be able to overcome these challenges. Now, what we're going to do today is we're going to sort of focus on the electronic portion of the meeting. So we're not going to go through an AGM, per se. Now before we dive in, let me introduce to you our panel of experts. You'll recognize most of them. They've been at this for 12 weeks. I was going to say 12 months, oh my goodness. 12 weeks. Week after week they answer the call of duty. So we have here, I went with a superhero theme this week, we have a manager from Apollo Property Management, better, stronger, faster than the 6 Million Dollar Man, Sean Cornish. Hello, Sean. How are you?

Sean: Very well, Rod. It's good to be back.

Rod: Thanks for being here. A condo manager from Crossbridge, speaking here on behalf of ACMO, the Bionic Woman of management, Katherine Gow. Hello, Katherine.

Katherine: Welcome everyone. Hi there, Rod.

Rod: Speaking on behalf of CIA Canada, showing great strength and agility, the Wonder Woman of condo law, from Lash Condo, Denise Lash. Hello, Denise.

Denise: Hi, Rod. Hi everyone.

Rod: Now of course, your favourite condo twins. If you look at the way they're dressed today they sort of went for that, I guess. Both condo lawyers with Gowling WLG, quick to react to the bat signal, we have David Plotkin. Hello, David.

David: Hello, good evening everyone.

Rod: Great at solving riddles, the essential component to the dynamic duo, we have Graeme MacPherson. Hello, Graeme.

Graeme: Hi everybody.

Rod: I know. You didn't want to be Robin. You wanted to be Batman. Sorry there buddy.

Graeme: It is what it is. You know? I will say that we are wearing matching uniforms so there's an argument to be made that we're both Batman, but that is neither here nor there.

Rod: Finally, here to complete our regular cast, from the National Life Safety Group, our very own Inspector Gadget, Jason Reid. Hi, Jason.

Jason: Thanks for having me.

Rod: You may not recognize him because he actually broke the dress code. He actually got rid of his beard. Jason, looks good on you. Very well done. Now, we have guests today. I've been waiting for this episode for a long time. I've said it before. We've invited the folks at CondoVoter to come and show us how electronic voting will work. So first we have Adam Arcuri, President of CondoVoter. Hello, Adam. Can you hear us?

Adam: Hey, Rod. Thanks for having us. Excited to be here. Hey everyone.

Rod: Thanks for being here. Second, we have Atif Shaikh, VP of Technology, so I guess he's the wizard behind this in great part. Hello, Atif.

Atif: Hello, Rod. Thank you for having me. Glad to be here.

Rod: Thanks. So, these folks are going to walk us through the electronic voting process from the beginning to end. We're going to talk about the preliminary notice, general notice. We're going to talk about how candidate can upload their disclosure form, their bios on the system. We're going to get to see the electronic ballot, what it looks like, how it feel. We'll get to see how owners get to vote. How to deal with candidates from the floor. How to retrieve the vote results and so on and so forth. You're going to see it from the beginning to the end. Now, I see that the chat channel is open, ready to go, that's great. We did get a request from a couple of our viewers. The chat channel is turning into a bit of a party line and I mean I like that. This is great. Everybody's sort of seeing those faces. We're also sort of feeling very lonely in this COVID world so that is great. But somebody felt that their questions were sort of lost in the pinata shuffle. So maybe what we could do is if you have a question, an actual question you want to submit to us, maybe submit it to through the Q&A. If we don't answer that question then you'll know for sure that we were deliberately ignoring you. That it wasn't just the chat shuffle. But try to put your questions there. But there's a benefit in using the chat channel is that other people get to answer them. Graeme, if you could maybe make sure that the questions are visible to everybody, if you don't mind. We got this out of the way and now the disclaimer. You're favourite part of the presentation. So keep in mind, please folks, that whenever we refer to legislation, we're focused on Ontario. This is the jurisdiction that we're more familiar so you may need to adapt that at home, if you're watching from elsewhere. Keep in mind that the information provided to you is valid as of today. Today is June, can you believe it? June 3^rd. So if you watch this webinar later on, on demand, just keep that in mind because the information may change. Most importantly keep in mind that whatever advice we give, whatever guidance we give today is really of general nature. We don't know the specific of your situation so you really need to go get professional advice, be it an engineer or a lawyer or a manager, to make sure that you get specific answers to your specific questions. Finally, I have to advise you that this session is being recorded. As we have in the past we will upload it on the Condo Advisor website. You'll be able to watch it later on. It usually takes us a couple of days, 4 to 7 days, to post it. But when you do get to see it you'll access it by the top right corner. You have the webinar tab so you'll get to see it later. I think that's it. Let's dive in.

As I said, and I've said it before, I'm actually very excited, Adam and Atif, to have you here. I'm very excited and I've seen the demo already. So this is good, what's around the corner. CondoVoter is not new at this. I mean, you've probably been around since, I think, Denise?

Adam: 2017

Rod: Yeah. But what you've done is you've revamped your platform and folks, it still smells like a brand new car. Wait until you get to see the platform. For those of you who are used to them you'll see there's a lot of new functionalities. It looks different. It feels different. I know CondoVoter has been providing these services across many jurisdictions, across the Provinces, the United States, Puerto Rico. Adam, if you need somebody to chair an AGM in Puerto Rico, I'm your guy. If it's the US of A, pick one of the condo twins to do it.

Adam: Sounds good. I'll take you up on that.

Rod: Denise, I know we're sort of leading the charge on electronic voting in Ontario, in Canada, but where are the other Provinces on that? Can you update us maybe quickly?

Denise: Well, you'll remember back in November 2017, when the Ontario legislation was changed to allow electronic voting. That was big news. That was November 2017 but at that time the legislation said, "Yes, you can do e-voting but corporations have to pass the electronic voting bylaw." So we had that bit of a delay before condominiums, in Ontario, could do electronic voting. So we started seeing electronic voting and we were doing that in June of 2018. The other Provincial legislation and, what's currently out there, is electronic voting is not in the legislation, across Canada. I know Alberta, at one point in time last year, there was a real move to try to introduce electronic voting. It was in some of the draft legislation. Then it was removed and there was no electronic voting. Right now, we know that because of the emergency orders clear across Canada, each Province is able to do electronic voting and virtual meetings, as far as I know. There may be a couple of Provinces that are not. But Alberta, BC and the other Provinces are all now allowed to do virtual meetings and electronic voting. But just for the short term.

Rod: Right, right.

Denise: Hopefully we'll see some changes.

Rod: But Ontario it's for the long term. What's for the short term is you can do it without a bylaw. But if adopt a bylaw, I mean it's in the legislation, so we're really leading the way in Ontario and I think the other Provinces will likely follow when they see how easy it is and all the benefits behind that. What I'm doing to do, Adam, I'm going to stop sharing my screen and I'm going to turn the commands to you now. Start maybe by telling us about how to set this up. So condo corp gets to you, they want to retain CondoVoter and the platform so what are the steps to get the process going?

Adam: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Rod. Can you see my screen here? I should have a PowerPoint open. How it works.

Rod: We see a green screen. Is that what we're supposed to see?

Adam: No. You should see a PowerPoint here. Let me try to share that, again, with you.

Rod: I don't know if it's on my end that I need to do something.

Adam: Can you see this?

Rod: Adam has started to share the screen. So now we see sort of a gray background. That's odd. We had it a minute ago.

Adam: Let me try again here for you.

Rod: The magic of live television everybody.

Adam: What about now?

Rod: Nope. How about if we go to the voting because we did practice that with Atif and we can try to revive your PowerPoint. Atif, we're going to turn the microphone and cameras to you. What we've skipped, well, how about if you just walk us through. Explain the process maybe, Adam, and then we'll deal with the voting.

Adam: Yeah. Absolutely. What I'd like to do is really paint a picture, beginning to end, of what this process would look like for individuals who are interested in e-voting and hosting their own virtual meeting.

Rod: Sorry, Adam. You may want to stop sharing your screen for a minute because we see a black screen now.

Adam: There we go.

Rod: Wonderful.

Adam: Typically this process would start ahead of time and far in advance. We would expect, especially if you're sending a preliminary notice, anywhere from 35 days ahead of time. Now one of the first stages that we interact with you in is really understanding the type of vote, or the type of election or the type of meeting that has to take place. What we do, far in advance, is the CondoVoter team would assign what we refer to as a CondoVoter Moderator, to you to work with you. Now this is an individual who is going to essentially hold your hand through this process from beginning to end, in setting up the ballots, sending out the notices and confirming that those notices are sent, as well as in hosting the meeting. There's a lot of things that are involved in hosting the meeting. We'll go through that as well. A few examples is simply sending out registrations, ensuring that attendees and audience members can join in on the session, doing any Q&A or technical troubleshooting at the time when they're joining and, probably more importantly, helping you do things like hand motions, polling, Q&A questions and answers as well. We start, again about 35 days in advance, and at that time the CondoVoter Moderator is going to create your ballot with you. This is going to be an electronic ballot that individuals can log into the CondoVoter platform and actually complete the vote. That stage is going to start with a preliminary notice being sent. Now by using the CondoVoter platform all of these notices are actually sent automatically through the platform itself. Today they can be sent through email, but we also offer print fulfillment services that we can send them through physical mail as well, for individuals who perhaps do not have an email address on record. As part of that preliminary notice it's going to contain a few things. The first thing it's going to contain is one, the notice of the upcoming meeting and what the meeting's about. The second is all of the access information for the individuals owners to log onto the CondoVoter platform and conduct their voting. With that is going to be instructions on how to do so and, also probably equally as important, instructions on how an owner can nominate themselves as a candidate in certain elections.

Rod: Right. So all of that is in the package that's going to be sent out to the owners about 35 days ahead of time. So they'll get the instructions on how it works, how to nominate themselves and so on. They'll get that by email, I presume.

Adam: That's correct, yup. We'll share with you examples of what these look like as we get into the demonstration as well.

Rod: Sure. So that's 35 days. Now we get a bit closer. I'm going to push you to the 15 day notice.

Adam: 15 days before the meeting. So at this point the notice of the meeting would be sent and, again, that's sent automatically through the CondoVoter platform. This is also when we would usually open up registration for the virtual AGM or the virtual meeting. At that point, as well, instructions are provided as to how individuals can register and how they can access the meeting on the time and date. At the same time we send a confirmation of service of notice to the management team in order to ensure that that has been completed. Finally, early voting begins and voting instructions are provided at that time. This is also the day in which we would open up the platform and individuals can begin to access the CondoVoter system and find all of the relevant information for the meeting, for the elections, for the bylaws and if they choose to do so, they can also place an early vote at that time. If we jump ahead to immediately before the meeting there's a lot of things that we do to interact with the board, the panelists and the building management. First and foremost we offer training on how to use the virtual AGM features. Very similar, Rod, I saw your session last week. It was very well done. We go through all of those different types of features and interactions. The polling, the hand raising, Q&A periods, how to use chat and we share the individual panelists, or the Chairs, how to use those options. Now remember that during those sessions as well, CondoVoter Moderators are going to be on the line with you, to assist if and when necessary.

Rod: Right. Can I ask?

Adam: So that's the simple session. Go ahead.

Rod: Just finished with David. That portion, I'll bring you back a bit. I've got a couple of questions.

Adam: For sure. So that rehearsal session is completed as part of the training and we kind of refer to that as a dress rehearsal.

Rod: Right.

Adam: During this period as well, leading up to the meeting, there's regularly scheduled updates and meeting of notices that are sent to owners. Reminders to register. Reminders of the upcoming votes. Perhaps a new a candidate has registered and you'll see this shortly as well. So we'll send a notice that there's new candidates available on the ballot. Then finally, kind of the day before, or a few days before, that virtual meeting invitation is sent to owners. Similar to how you're conducting these sessions as well, Rod.

Rod: Okay. So a couple of pointy questions here. Let me go back first. I retain you for my corporation, or a manager retains you to do this, how do they provide you with the information on the owners and I guess is it an Excel chart?

Adam: Of course. So great question and you're going to see this in the demonstration. It's typically an Excel template that is provided to us and that will contain a number of pieces of information. First name, last name, emails, whether the owners are in arrears, whether it's an owner occupied unit. We use all of that to populate the electronic platform to send out those invitations.

Rod: Okay. So let's park it. If it's part of the demo let's park that for a second. The other question on the chat channel is what about owners that don't have email addresses?

Adam: So we do print fulfillment as well. So if there's an individual who does not have an email that we can send a notice to we can send them a printed version of that through typical mail.

Rod: Okay. Wonderful. So, that's it. We do get now to see the actual electronic ballot and all that? Is that where we're at now?

Adam: Yeah. Absolutely.

Rod: I will stop sharing my screen and hopefully it's going to work with Atif. It's yours now. There it is.

Adam: Okay. Beautiful. The first thing that we're seeing here is a very simple example of what a preliminary notice of meeting is. You'll notice that this is an email version that has been sent out to all owners in which we had the email address for. Now what we're seeing here is a simple plain text email. You'll notice that there is a blue hyperlink here that says click there. This language that we're seeing in the body of the email can be customized and changed. It can also include any sort of attachments. Any sort of links. It can have HTML editing and coding in there which means we could have images in it. Typically that's something that we would actually not recommend simply so that these things don't get held up in any spam filters when they're being sent to individuals. Again, in this example we've done just some very simple plain text email, and this would have again all the verbiage, all the language that I just explained in the preliminary notice and the notice of meeting as well. Now, from here we're actually going to be able to log directly into the CondoVoter platform. So individuals who receive this email simply need to view it again to access the platform at any time. That can be done by clicking on that hyperlink which Atif's going to do for us right now.

Rod: Okay. So that's what the owner would do, click on that? Okay.

Adam: So immediately upon clicking on to that you're brought into the CondoVoter platform and we're seeing a login screen at this point. Now, as we go through this demonstration, we built this platform to allow for a lot of flexibility. We like to say that we have a number of knobs and switches that we can turn on or off, one way or another, in order to meet certain jurisdictional requirements or certain requirements that the different condo boards or management teams may set. What we're seeing in this example would actually be the requirement to input a password before you proceed into the system. So Atif's going to go ahead and do so right now. Now, as he does that, I'll also mention that this isn't necessarily a requirement. We're using token authentication in order to identify every individual unit owner and ensure that they are indeed the individual who is on the owner list. So only owners would receive these emails, and they would be able to access the platform that way, using that unique identifier in that token.

Rod: Some people are saying that it's a bit small but I think when you go in we'll get to see it better. Like the font right now is a bit small but of course at home you'd be able to zoom in as you want. But I wonder if, Atif, you'll be able to sort of zoom in a bit? Look at that, eh? Wonderful. See folks at home? You just need to ask. We're here to serve.

Adam: It's probably important to note to, at this point, CondoVoter is a web enabled platform. So you can access this from any mobile device, whether it be your phone, your iPad, your laptop. If you have access to internet you'll have access to CondoVoter. I think Atif will be able to show during his presentation all of these screens are what we refer to as responsive. Which simply means that they'll be able to be viewed on your iPad, on your mobile device, in a different format than they would when you're seeing a larger screen in front of you, such as computer screen.

Rod: You're killing me, Adam. You're killing me. Bring me in. Press continue.

Adam: Go ahead, Atif. Bring us in. So here we are on the vote screen. So this is the first screen that an individual's going to see. Now on the screen there's a number of different elements that we're looking at. First and foremost we have a sub-nav on the left hand side. But more importantly we can see the meeting date and the time in the box right next to Atif's cursor there. In this case we see that Gowling Landings Towers 007 is holding a vote on June 5^th at 6:00pm. For me, as an owner, my vote is required for the following. Two open positions for the board of directors, a general operating bylaw, mediation and arbitration and a standard unit bylaw.

Rod: Sorry. Atif, can you zoom in again? I know you zoomed out. We have a lot of people that forgot their glasses. Perfect. Wonderful. Thank you.

Adam: Thanks, Atif. At this point this is the preliminary notice. We're just being notified of this upcoming meeting. Now, if you recall though, at this point we can also apply to be a candidate. Rod, can we take a look at what that would involve, right now?

Rod: So an owner gets this. They login and they realize that I want to be a candidate so I guess they just press on the apply to be a candidate.

Adam: So apply to be a candidate, that giant button right there. Upon doing so it's going to bring us to a different screen. Now this screen is going to provide me instructions on how I can electronically submit my candidacy. The first question, which election would you like to participate in? Well, in this case there's only a single election, two option positions for the board of directors. Now there if there's multiple elections, perhaps an owner occupied election, that would be here as well. So you can actually navigate between those different types on the screen. Now the second stage that's required is uploading your candidate disclosure form. Now, I know this may be unique to Ontario, so this is another specific area where we have switches that we can turn this feature on and off for other jurisdictions that perhaps may not require a disclosure form. At this point if we read the instructions here we can fulfill this obligation by actually clicking here where, Atif's going to, and that's going to download an electronic version of this candidate disclosure form. Now it downloads directly to his device and he could go through and submit or fulfill this disclosure form. Now this would be a fillable form so it can be done electronically. So he can simply, on his computer, fill this out, execute and then upload it again using the next screen. By doing so he's just going to hit that X up there. It's going to take him back. He can go ahead and upload this form once it's fulfilled.

Rod: Right. Okay. So we've uploaded the disclosure form. What if they wanted to put a bio or something in? Like introduce themselves?

Adam: That's a great question. So option 3 here is upload the about me document. Again, this can be an optional or it can be a required document. The about me document is really an opportunity for unit owners to get to know you better. This is what's going to be displayed to individuals if you were actually submitting fulfilling the ballots. Now, in the same sense, Atif is going to upload a document here. This would be something that you would create yourself. So ahead of time Atif has created his own bio. He selected that and he's now going to go ahead and upload it.

Rod: Okay.

Adam: The final step, very straightforward, is just acknowledging that you're eligible to be a candidate and that the information you've provided is accurate and truthful. Once he fulfills that consent he's going to hit the submit button and we can see here that Atif has now successfully submitted himself as a candidate.

Rod: Right. Now, just to make sure that it's clear. The last few steps we took is only for those crazy enough to run for a position on the board. If you're not interested in running you just skip that, altogether. Okay.

Adam: Absolutely. So, at any time Atif also has the ability to go back and make changes to his profile. Perhaps he's edited his bio and if he does need to he can click here, he's returned to this page, and he would simply just upload a new document in the same format and the same fashion that he just did previously.

Rod: Okay.

Adam: So it's that simple to simply change some of the information. Now, important to note that when Atif is doing this, every time he presses that submit button, or every time he makes changes, or every time a new individual notifies or applies to be a candidate, an email would also be sent out to all registered owners notifying them that a new individual has submitted themselves on the ballot. With a link as well to access the CondoVoter platform to see what that information would look like.

Rod: Right.

Adam: So we can probably jump ahead to that process now, Atif, and take a look at how we would actually complete a vote.

Rod: That's the part that I want to see.

Adam: Ha-ha. So if you recall from kind of myself painting the picture for you the next step was going to be the notice of meeting. Atif, if we could just share what that would look like now. Again, very similar. You have the options to include different attachments here. Change the verbiage, change the language, but most importantly, it gives you all of the information provided and allows you to access the CondoVoter platform very seamlessly.

Rod: So this is the 15 day before email? That's what it is?

Adam: That's correct. Yup.

Rod: Right

Adam: So by selecting that he's going to be brought back into the system. He's going to see something slightly different. This would be an owner now who's going to complete their vote. Now, again, there's a lot of things happening on this page so we'll go through them one by one. The first thing you're going to see at the top left, where Atif is highlighting, is he's currently voting on behalf of unit 4205. Now that means that Atif is a single unit owner. In some cases we know that individuals may own multiple units. If that was the case we would see all of the different unit numbers appearing along the top there to confirm that you are indeed voting on behalf of those units and, more importantly, in the background in the system we're going to weigh those votes accordingly as you place them in the platform.

Rod: Okay. So that's important. Someone that has two units they basically get two votes. This is automatically done in the background.

Adam: That's correct, yup.

Rod: Okay.

Adam: We can see the next step here is just simply explaining that Atif is required to vote for up to two candidates, in this case. So we can see that Atif has now nominated himself against David and Graeme in the upcoming election. Now if we want to find out more information about Atif, David or Graeme we can do so by looking at their candidate disclosure form and their bio or resume. We can do that by simply clicking those links.

Rod: Right.

Adam: They're going to open for us directly on our mobile device or on our laptop, on our computer, and we can view that information accordingly.

Rod: Oh, snazzy, David. You went all out.

Adam: Now at this point Atif may have enough information to complete his vote. If he chooses to do so, it's as simple as selecting those green check marks on the right hand side, and once he's done that it's going to be captured in the system. So Atif has selected himself. Obviously he's going to vote for himself in this case and he's going to scroll down to the voting bylaws. The second portion of this screen is enabling the option to vote on the upcoming bylaws. Again, in this case, it's the general operating, mediation and arbitration and the standard unit bylaw. If Atif wants more information on any of these upcoming bylaws he can simply click here, and in the same way as we saw the previous documents, they're going to be available for him to download and view at his own convenience.

Rod: Mmhmm.

Adam: So now that he's informed himself of that information he could go ahead and complete his vote. In this case it's a little different. We're not giving you a check mark. We are giving you the option to say yes or no to these individual items. Finally, once that's completed, Atif's going to go ahead and acknowledge that he's submitting his vote as a unit owner. Once he does that he's going to receive a confirmation that his vote was successfully recorded. There's a few pieces of information that are available on the screen. We can see the time and the date that Atif completed that vote. We can see what IP address it came from and we can also see the location in which it was cast. Beginning to end that's how you would place a vote on an upcoming election or bylaw.

Rod: Okay. Wonderful. If he wanted to change his vote could he do that? Or is it once you put it in, once you cast it in, you're done?

Adam: Yeah. Because we're entering an early voting, perhaps Atif actually attends the meeting, and he's presented with some sort of information that would change his mind. At that point, again by visiting the original email, he could access the platform, go back to the vote page and simply change his vote. You'll also notice that he did have an option there on that successful screen as well.

Rod: Right, right.

Adam: Thanks for going back, Atif. So if we go back to that screen again we're going to notice that when we return here all of his information that he already inputted has been scored. So we can see he voted for himself, and if we scroll down, we can also see his original bylaws that he selected. Perhaps David made a really good speech at the AGM, or during the AGM, and Atif wants to change his vote here he can do so. He's also decided now to vote for David as well. I think he also changed one of his options there on the bylaws. So he's going to follow the same procedure, make those edits and press the acknowledgement and submit again.

Rod: This is only going to be counted once, Adam? I mean there's no risk of Atif having voted twice today.

Adam: That's absolutely it. In the background of the system, and that's part of what we help in managing, are those changes and votes, multiple owners from multiple units, perhaps as well is another scenario that we account for. If Atif and I both owned a unit, he would receive an email, I would receive an email and we could go both in and place our vote. Now in that case the last vote placed is the one that's going to be registered. But again, both individuals are going to receive that confirmation email. So Atif voted in a way that I'm not comfortable with I would be notified of that in real time.

Rod: Okay. So you could have more than one attendee. Obviously the email that goes out for unit, I forgot which unit we were dealing with, but to unit 306. If you have two or three owners they all get that invite. They all get the preliminary notice. They all get the actual 15 day notice. They all get the ballot and then they'll just like fight it out, I guess.

Adam: That's correct, yup. So they all have the option to go in and make their votes and, at any time those votes are going to be sent out and confirmed via email, to all of the unit owners.

Rod: Okay. So what's the next step? Are we closing the votes and then we're going to see, I see that Graeme is not doing too well. See what's going to happen.

Adam: Yup.

Rod: We're at the stage now we're you're going to go and retrieve the vote?

Adam: Yes. So what we can do is actually take a look at what's happening in the back end of the system here. We have administration screens, and Atif is going to jump over to one right now, that's capturing all of this information in real time.

Rod: Okay, who has access to this?

Adam: That's a great question. That's something that we like to work with the building management, the condo boards and their legal teams to understand who they would like and who they advise have access to these screens. It could be scrutineers. It could be the condo Chair. Or in some cases it might just simply be the CondoVoter Moderator that reports this information back to the Chair when the vote is closed.

Rod: Okay. So owners don't have access to this?

Adam: That's correct. Owners would not have access to this.

Rod: Okay. Where now in dashboard. We're behind the curtain here. So what's going on here?

Adam: Yes, this in the background. So, we're seeing a lot of things on this screen here. Meeting date, June 5^th, 2020. In this individual building we have number of voting units, 539. We can see of those 539, 328 of them are owner occupied units. Now in order for us to meet quorum for this meeting we need 135. We currently have 75 and we can see that on the tab that Atif's hovering over now. On the right hand side we see that red box, quorum reached. It's red and it has an N in it to determine that no, quorum has not been reached. Once we hit that 135 threshold that will change over to green and be identified with a Y for yes.

Rod: Okay. You were talking about owner occupied a minute ago. I take it that your system would recognize that I'm an owner occupied and so I would get to vote on the owner occupied position as opposed to maybe David who doesn't occupy his unit. So your system recognizes that.

Adam: That's correct. That's typically imported based off of that owners list that we would receive from building management, or from the condo board, ahead of time. On that as well, perhaps it would also contain owners who were in arrears and are not able to vote. So when they access the system they would be notified of such and they would prevented from voting. We also have the option, we'll share this with you shortly as well, to change that at any time. So even if in the middle of an election an owner goes into arrears you can adjust that. Or once they pay you can flag that as well and they can proceed in voting at that time.

Rod: Okay.

Adam: If we scroll down to the middle here we're going to see again real time results as these votes are placed. We can see here that it actually looks like Graeme does have a bit of a lead in this case. We also notice the single vote that Atif has placed for himself because he just registered now. As well on the screen we do have the ability to see the candidate disclosure form and the bio resume again. Probably most importantly, from this screen, is actually the section right below. That's the ability to add a candidate. Now this would be typically used if there's a candidate who is nominated from the floor. Or if there's an individual who doesn't have access to a web enabled device in order to get into CondoVoter. They could provide their disclosure form and their bio to building management, or to the board, and that could be uploaded on their behalf using this section of the screen. So again, that covers individuals without access to CondoVoter or individuals who were nominated from the floor.

Rod: Wonderful. So somebody without Adobe can bring his or her candidacy form to Katherine at the management office, and she can input that, and that person will appear on the voting ballot.

Adam: Mmhmm. Absolutely.

Rod: Okay.

Adam: So this is also the screen that we would use to report those results back to the Chair in the meeting or report those results to whomever is determined. In this bottom here, we're also seeing the same thing for general operating bylaws, the mediation arbitration and the standard unit bylaws that we voted on. This looks slightly different. We can see, in this case for the first one, general operating bylaw, we have 25 votes for and 26 against for a total of 51 votes. And the votes required in order for this to pass would be 270 and we can see that in this case that threshold has not been reached on any of those items. Now at any given time if we want to end the vote, this could be ahead of the meeting, more likely during the meeting itself, the individual would scroll up to the top here and select that close vote option. Now by doing so they're going to suspend all voting and actually capture the results as is. So Atif can go ahead and do that for us now and he can close voting. So we also now have access to all of this information stored in the platform and we have the time and date in which voting was closed at. We can see that in the top left of the window there. If perhaps we wanted to provide this information to let's say, scrutineers in order to confirm it, Atif would be able to press this print preview option, which would allow him to print and export these results, and provide them to whoever may be necessary.

Rod: Okay. I'm going down the question list. Some of the questions you've answered already so folks if you see your question disappear it's because it's been covered already. So I'll just simply indicate that it's been answered, live, and the invoice is in the mail. Back to you, Adam.

Adam: Perfect. That really covers a lot of the backend of the reporting results. Now what I would like to do is just share with you, slightly, how we would import the owners list and where you would flag owners for as occupied or in arrears. Atif, if you can just navigate to that screen for us as well. You can see using a left hand sub-menu Atif is very easily able to move around the system. This is where we would upload the owner list. You can see we have two lists imported right there. We also may, sometimes, update the list during an election period if perhaps changes to emails have been made, changes to owner occupants have been made. We do have the ability to, during the early voting, make changes in real time by importing new lists. Atif, can you maybe share with us where we can flag these individuals as arrears? Atif's going to go ahead and look at all of the different unit owners searched in here. So you can see that we have the list of names. We have David and Graeme listed here. Typically it would be full names. You saw there we just have owner 1, owner 2. But Atif has gone ahead. He's found himself in unit 4205 by searching in the top right. He can select his unit and he now has all of his information on the screen. We can change whether this is an owner occupied unit and in real time change whether it is inactive, in arrears. Again, by doing so, that would control who is allowed to place their vote, submit their vote, or not.

Rod: Okay.

Adam: So that really gives kind of a look as to the beginning and end process, right from the moment of a preliminary notice, all the way to the virtual meeting itself and how the vote can be ended, and those results reported.

Rod: Okay. Wonderful. So we're going to have a look at the questions. See if there's any questions out there. There's quite a few actually but we'll see which ones we can cover. You brought us from the beginning to the end. I had a list of questions. How do we deal with proxies? I don't think we've talked about that or maybe I missed it.

Adam: That's a great question. We knew when we built the system that we would have to accommodate paper proxies. It's unreasonable to expect that everyone would be able to have access to a web enabled device or have the computer literacy to be able to fulfill everything that we just saw. Typically what we would do is accept paper proxies, up until 48 hours before the meeting, at which point those could be registered, in real time in the platform, using the backend administration section that we just saw. So those paper proxies are collected and we enter them into the system manually.

Rod: Okay. Any browser would work, Adam?

Adam: Any browser, any mobile device. Atif, maybe if we can just show what the mobile view would look like on say an iPhone or an iPad. If we have that option available here. We didn't rehearse this so let's see if Atif can do it for us.

Rod: Kids, don't try this at home.

Adam: He's just reopening voting there which we can do and that would be recorded and it would be in the audit log as well. So if perhaps you accidently close voting you do have the ability to reopen it. So now we're seeing what a mobile version of this screen would look like. So you can see it's slightly different but it would fit on, again, an iPhone, an iPad or mobile device.

Rod: Right, right, right. Okay, and we spoke about arrears. We spoke about nominations from the floor. We spoke about people that own more than one unit, they get more than one vote. We spoke about more than own owner for an individual unit. Wonderful. That's great. I guess before we run out of time, you also provide for the hosting of the meeting. What we've done is the actual voting but CondoVoter also would be able to host a meeting and, I wouldn't say Chair it, but certainly sort of be the master puppeteer, be the technician behind. Is that something that you guys do?

Adam: Yeah. Absolutely. So we like to bundle our services to include hosting of your virtual meeting itself. As part of that service we can do a few things. We can actually work with you to provide Chairs, to chair the meeting. We can work with you to provide minute takers. We have preferred Vendors that we like to work with, as minute takers. We also send out all of the registration information. All of the invites and what we do during registration is we ensure that we capture first name, last name and unit number, so we can tie those individuals back to the owner list that is provided to us, to ensure that the correct individuals are actually attending those virtual meetings. We have, at every time, a CondoVoter Moderator on those meetings with you, to open up the meeting, to conduct any motions by using hand raising features, which I think you showed in your last session, Rod.

Rod: Yes.

Adam: Also to do Q&A's. Perhaps if you want to do a live question and answer period you can have individuals raise their hand on the attendee sheet, and we can unmute their microphones and actually assist them in vocalizing their questions, or they could use the Q&A chat panel to submit them there. Which I think you're also doing in this session as well. So we take care of that beginning to end. We really want to be able to make sure that any of the headaches in setting these types of meetings up, and there are a lot of headaches in setting these meetings up, are taken care for you. That's something that we would worry about. That's something that we would handle and really, you get to show up at the time and date for your meeting and be prepared in that way, and we can actually operate them on your behalf.

Rod: Okay. Maybe, Atif, if you want to stop sharing your screen we're going to get back to my screen. I'm assuming your done with your screen. I'm going to go here. I'm going to go like this. So, how would you handle questions from the floor? You said what you'd do is you'd deal with people raising their hands. Right? Is that what you'd do?

Adam: Yeah. So questions from the floor you have two options. One, using the built in Q&A panel where it captures the messages and you can either type back to them or you can vocalize them over the microphone. The other way to do it is by showing a raise of hands. Maybe that's something, Rod, that we could do now and we can showcase that.

Rod: Okay. Let's see if somebody has a question from the floor. Raise your hands. Okay. Sean Doyle. Okay. So there's a way for people to be able to see that people are raising their hands and I think you see this at home on your screens. You should be able to see it. So we see whoever has their raised their hands. ... Edward and so on.

Adam: You can see there by highlighting them over them. It looks like Sean has a question there. You would allow him to talk. That's the option that's enabled there, and by doing so he would be able to unmute himself and vocalize his question, and then we could have a discussion in real time.

Rod: Right. So what's wonderful about this is that everybody gets to see that people are raising their hands so you can't really ignore that. If you leave that on the screen at all times people will see that. If I wanted to open the microphone for Sara St. Pierre, for instance, I don't know if she's prepared to do that but I'm allowing her to speak. Let's just test that. Sara, are you there?

Adam: It looks like she is unmuted. If you just scroll down a little bit there you'll see. There goes. So she just unmuted herself and she would be able to speak now.

Rod: Hello, Sara. Oh, I don't think she has a microphone. Well, sorry. You're out of luck, Sara. We had a door prize for you. Let's maybe try somebody else. Just randomly. We haven't tried this ahead of time. Sean, you're next. Let's see this. I'll unmute you. See if that works. Are you there?

Attendee

Sean: Okay. I think I'm unmuted.

Rod: Yes. Wonderful.

Adam: We can hear you. Hey, Sean.

Attendee

Sean: So my question is, can you explain what happens if somebody nominates themselves, or gets nominated from the floor, do they have to verbally disclose right then and there? Or how would that work from your experience?

Rod: Okay. Wonderful question. See how Sean is able to squeeze in a free question in there. That's great. That's a good question. I saw it on chat I think as well. So, what the Condo Act provides for is this. If you advise of your interest to run as a candidate before the cutoff time, then you have to disclose that in writing using one of the forms that Adam was showing, the disclosure form. Keeping in mind that the system we've seen today allows people, any time somebody puts their nominations forward they can do that, they can upload the disclosure form. So they can do that in writing. But to answer your specific question, if somebody nominates themselves from the floor the day of, then what the regulation provides is that that person has to disclose that information and they do that verbally. So we would probably go over the form together and we'd say, "Sean, do you occupy your unit?" "Yes." "Are you in arrears?" We check that. "No, you're not. Are you or your spouse or your kids or your spouse's kids or your spouse's parents suing the corporation?" So there's about, I don't know, 6, 7 questions and then you answer all of those verbally. Then that's it. You've made your disclosure. What I usually do is when somebody runs from the floor, I actually also bring them one of those blank nominations, disclosure form, and I ask them to complete it. I mean you might as well complete it and so we got it. Does that answer the question, Sean?

Attendee

Sean: I understood all that but I'm just wondering how would that work on an online platform where, obviously I guess just like I'm speaking, that person would have to answer. I guess that would be the only way, I would assume.

Rod: Right. That's how it would be done. We could also turn your camera on. l assume there's a way for me to do this. I'm not sure but. You do your disclosure that way. But your disclosure form, if you don't upload it, if you don't do it in writing, then it's not going to be uploaded to the platform. Okay.

Attendee

Sean: Thank you.

Rod: Folks, we also took this opportunity to demonstrate something and it's this, is that I think the proper etiquette when somebody asks a question at an AGM, is to leave their mic on for the duration of the question and the answer. As opposed to me just muting him right away, and then I can do just like a good politician and answer something that has nothing to do with the question, and then that person has lost the microphone. I think that's probably a good way of dealing with this. I can lower all the hands if I wanted to. Okay, so that's for a show of hands. What else would you be able to show? I guess the questions. Everybody that puts in a question sees the question. So it allows people to make sure that we're not ignoring questions as we've been doing for the last 50 minutes. We've ignored all the questions. What else? Anything else that you want to share with respect to how these are hosted?

Adam: Yes. So typically the other thing we would see is, if you're holding a motion, you use the same hand raising option to do so. So voting for, voting against. You essentially open that up through the microphone and individuals could raise their hand accordingly, and once they've raised their hand and you've tabulated the results, which happens there in real time, you're actually able to lower all individuals hands then move forward.

Rod: Let's practice one of those actually. So if I could get a motion from the floor to close the nomination process. So, Denise Stimson is moving. And, Matt Yetman is seconding. Well, I should have gone for the second person. Arzan is the seconder. So I'm going to remove these. I'm going to lower all the hands and I'm going to say, "Everybody in favour of closing the nomination process." So we see that the votes are coming in and then when I think it's levelled off then what we would do, we could see if anybody's opposed to it. So, it's probably around 128, 129 in favour of closing nomination process. I'm going to lower all your hands, folks, and I'm going to ask if anybody is opposed. "Anybody opposed to closing the nomination process?" And we get to see that there's about 25 or so owners that are opposed to it. So we see that the motion was carried. Another way of doing that motion, a simpler way, could be this. Let say I want to approve the minutes of last year. So if I could get a motion from the floor to approve last year's minutes as presented. Kim C, we would recognize her in the unit if we knew who she was of course, so she's moving and Arzan is again our seconder. I sort of skipped over the manager because nobody trust the manager. Sorry about that. We see who moved, who seconded it. That was a joke, manager YCC75. I'm going to lower the hands. So the simpler way of asking for the motion would be this. I would say, "Anyone opposed to approving the minutes?" Then I'd be able to very quickly see that we only have about 11 people that are opposed and we know we have 406 owners that are attending. So, there it is. Either you ask in favour/against. Either you ask who is opposed. Anything else, Adam, you wanted to add.

Adam: I just see one question that seems to be reoccurring. The ability to, if you don't have internet or if you don't have access to a mobile device, you can attend the meetings via phone? We would be able to provide that option as well. Now, what we're seeing here, the hand raising, the participants, the PowerPoint presentation, you would not be able to see that, obviously if you're on the phone, but you would be able to listen to the dialogue, the conversation that we're having as well.

Rod: Okay. Very good. I see that people keep asking it, the cost behind that. I take it if we go on your website we'll be able to either seek a quote or it's probably based on units or something to that effect.

Adam: Yeah, that's absolutely right. So that information can be found on condovoter.com and we offer three different types of bundles for just the virtual meeting hosting itself. For just the e-voting platform or bunding both together, which is kind of what we saw here today. That is based off of the range of units that you would have.

Rod: Okay. So, folks, we're sort of running out of time. But I'm going to say this. Your next project, Adam, a question from Ottawa. You'll have to see if you're able to do this bilingually.

Adam: Currently the system is not translated to be bilingual but we did accommodate for that ahead of time. We're constantly changing the platform right now. We're adapting to the new way of doing things. We're kind of at the point now where we think the system is going to remain static for the next few months before we do another major release. We're going to focus now on actually changing some of the language, making sure it is bilingual. We designed the platform in order for it to be so and we'll see that very shortly.

Rod: Okay. Wonderful. Let me see if I can go back. We've got a couple of minutes to finish here. I'm trying to find my PowerPoint presentation. We'll see if it works or not. I'm not too sure. Let me close stuff. Thank you so much, Adam and Atif. Thank you so very much for this. Good presentation and we'll see if we have time to answer a few more questions but we need to cover something before we go. Let me share my screen. Graeme, I'm going to turn to you about the extension of the emergency period. If I figure out how to share my screen. So turn your mic on, Graeme, and I'll share my screen. What can you tell us about the extension of the emergency period, Graeme?

Graeme: I can tell you that it has been extended and the period was supposed to have ended on June 2^nd but it has now been extended until June 30^th. Which means that if your original AGM due date was going to land anywhere between now and June 30^th, you now have 90 more days to hold that AGM, bringing the deadline to September 28^th. Ultimately, I hope I'm wrong on this but there's a chance that I'm in front of everybody on June 30^th, that there's a new deadline. This keeps getting extended and we keep seeing a lot of decisions being made to let's keep pushing the AGM and pushing the business. We'll wait until this blows over and we can do it in person. I mean, maybe we're starting to reconsider that because we just have no way of knowing as to when you're going to be able to hold them in person again.

Rod: Right. Right. I think the advisability to keep postponing it, that window is maybe getting a bit smaller. But you can. You can still postpone it up to 90 days after the end of the emergency. Right? Whether you folks have a bylaw at home, or not, you will be able to hold a virtual AGM if you want, up to 120 days after the end of that emergency period. Which would bring us, if it was June.

Graeme: June 30^th brings us to Wednesday, October 28^th.

Rod: Okay. So there it is, folks. Bylaw or not, if your AGM is before October 28^th you'd be able to hold a virtual AGM, if you decided to do that, then you'd be able to vote that way. Okay, and now very quickly because we're running out of time, you thought that landscaping was a hot topic. There's a new hot topic. Can we open our amenities? Specifically, is it time to open the fitness room? Is it time to open the pool? What can you tell us, Graeme?

Graeme: Yeah, so, one of the questions, I think probably the most common question that we continue to get is, is it legal to open our pool? Can we open our gym? What does the regulation tell us about that? The answer is this. I'm going to say the answer first, then I'm going to go into it, and before I get into it I'm also going to say what my follow up statement to the answer is.

Rod: Keeping in mind, Graeme, that one of the questions that was asked ahead of time is how can you sleep at night?

Graeme: So, like a baby. While the Provincial regulations don't expressly tell condominiums that they can't open their pool and they can't open their gym. For the reasons I'm going to get into it's still not a good idea. Starting at the top, when we look at the Provincial regulations, Regulation 51/20, the closure of establishments says that any facility that provides an indoor rec program, other than an essential business, is closed. Is a facility that provides an indoor rec program a condominium? I don't think so and, Rod, I'll take your input on that but I'm not sure that that applies.

Rod: I don't think so unless you're providing Zumba classes or something.

Graeme: Exactly. Then when we turn to the regulation with the essential businesses list, this regulation only applies to places of business. What it says is that if you are the person responsible for a place of business like a gym, if your business doesn't appear in the schedule, the list of what is essential, then you can't open it. Right now what we're seeing is that gyms are not open. The only businesses that have gyms in them that are open are those for professional sports leagues, and you can only open them if you are a professional sports league, and you're following the very strict regulations that they have in place.

Rod: Right. I think that you were here. Next slide.

Graeme: Yeah. Then that might leave people thinking, "Well, Graeme just said it's not technically against the Provincial regulations for us to open our gyms. Let's do it tomorrow." There's some things to keep in mind with this. Ottawa Public Health and Toronto Public Health, those are the ones we've cited here but I'm sure if you go to your municipalities public authorities, they're going to be recommending to you, I imagine like Ottawa and Toronto are, that in a multi-unit residential complex that you close your onsite rec amenities and gathering spaces. When we take this altogether, and we consider the following, I think you don't want to be the condominium holding the bag if you've opened your gym and there's been a COVID breakout. Because what the court, or the lawyers on the other end, are going to tell you is, "Well, you know. Every single business in Ontario that was providing these services was told by the government they had to shut down and they couldn't do it." At the same time, your municipal public health authorities are recommending you close them. Any business that does have a gym is closed to the public unless you're the NFL or the NHL. I think that if you're only defense to this is, "Well, we weren't specifically told by the Province that we couldn't do it." That's not going to be a very strong defense and I think it leaves condominiums open to risk.

Rod: Right. There it is and that's how Graeme sleeps well at night. He's the party pooper. Every party has a pooper.

Graeme: I'm that guy. That's why I wore the beige collared shirt. I'm trying to keep it as unpartylike as I can.

Rod: Okay, folks.

Graeme: Just kidding. I love beige.

Rod: Ha-ha. We're running out of time so I'm going to go around the table and I'm sorry for all of my usual panelists. You didn't really get to speak. The presentation was a bit longer than I thought it would be but I think it was important to go into details. So we're going to adjourn everything else to next week. Whatever we haven't covered but we for sure wanted to talk about pools. So I'm just going to go around the table and thank everybody. Thank you for having attended and you get 15 seconds to make your peace. So first I'm going to start by thanking you, Adam and Atif, from CondoVoters. Thank you so very much for a very good presentation. I think it's helped me understand how it works. Now it's up to owners at home to decide, and boards, to decide what they want to do with that. They have the tools now. And there's others. We spoke about this one but there's other providers. Thank you again.

Adam: Thanks so much for having us, Rod. Very much appreciated. Thank you to the attendees and participants. The feedback has been very welcomed.

Atif: Thank you everyone.

Rod: Thank you so much. Thanks, Sean, from Apollo Property Management. Any sort of parting words?

Sean: I'm just really glad I was able to contribute so much tonight. It's always a pleasure. But no, it was good to see another alternative on this front. It's going to be a number of months before we can say no to the virtual meetings. Let's get used to it and make use of it where we can.

Rod: Sure. Thank you so much. Katherine Gow, from Crossbridge, on behalf of ACMO. 15 seconds.

Katherine: Always strong communications, folks. So I know that people are safe at home but they're also getting a little bit bored. Do speak with them about the preparations you might be making for when we are able to open up the amenities and how they're use of booking of those spaces might change. It will also help them to understand your thinking and thought process and how you're keeping them safe. Keep up the good hype.

Rod: Yeah. I think communication is important as well if you're going to do a virtual AGM. If you're going to do electronic voting you need to help people understand and help people adapt to a change, if you're going to go that way. Thank you so much, Katherine. Denise Lash, of Lash Condo Law. Any parting words.

Denise: Yes. So, Rod, you now how I'm so happy that people are finally now embracing this technology and e-voting because it's been a little bit of a struggle since November 2017. But it's here. It's here to stay.

Rod: It was a lonely, lonely ride, eh? Yeah, for sure. Thank you, Denise, again for joining us tonight. David, any parting words?

David: For sure. I see a lot of questions in chat over all the weeks. We have a lot of seniors in our condo how is this technology going to work with them? I'd like to frame this another way. Our seniors are our most at risk demographic right now in the COVID-19 era. We need to think of ways to work together to protect these seniors, to allow them to be involved in the democracy of condos and this electronic voting and electronic meetings is the way to help seniors be involved. So that they're able to attend, be it by phone or be it through technology if they're able to, because the other alternative is having them attend in person and putting them at health risk. Or having them not participate in democracy at all by not attending to protect themselves as well.

Rod: Yeah. There it is and they can do it by phone so that should be easy. Graeme MacPherson, parting words?

Graeme: Well that was a tough act to follow. You know what? I'm just going, we're wearing the same shirt, we both have a beard, pretend it was me that said that.

Rod: And your ahead in the polls right now. So that's great. Finally, Jason, I know we didn't get to you and I know we have a piece, maybe for next week, about reopening amenities. So people should come back next week. Any parting words, Jason?

Jason: No. Again, keep up the good fight. I'm working with a lot of sectors and the condo board sector, again, the condo and the property management industry. You're not failing. You guys are a passionate group and you're doing more than a lot of other sectors. You should be proud.

Rod: Thank you so much, Jason. So next week, Wednesday, June 10^th at 5:00pm. Send us your questions, send us your suggestions, tell us what you want to hear about. You'll have to register again. Registration is done through the CondoAdvisor website. You click on webinar at the top right and that brings you to the forms. You'll be able to register. You'll be able to provide questions and suggestions going forward. Folks, that's it. This is episode 12 and I can't thank you enough for taking time to be with us. It's sort of easy because you can't go anywhere in any event so your sort of stuck at home. But we do appreciate you attending and participating on the chat, by questions and so on and so forth. So, that's it. I'm signing off. See you next week.