## Facts

- Islander Beach Club was a time-share condominium governed by a condominium association.
- Richard P. Johnston owned three condominium-unit weeks and ran for election to the association’s board of directors.
- The association received member voting proxies for the upcoming election.
- The association followed a procedure under which proxies were kept secure, sealed, and unopened until shortly before the election, when an independent accounting firm would open and verify them.
- Johnston demanded immediate access to open and inspect proxies as they were received, claiming they were official association records upon receipt.
- The association refused, asserting that sealed proxies were not subject to contemporaneous inspection before being opened and used.
- The trial court granted an injunction requiring the association to allow Johnston to open and inspect proxies as they arrived.
- The association appealed the injunction.

## Issues

1. Whether sealed voting proxies received by a condominium association are subject to immediate inspection by a unit owner before the proxies are opened and exercised at the election meeting.
2. Whether an injunction compelling real-time opening and inspection of proxies is consistent with statutory rules that proxies are revocable until exercised and effective only for the noticed meeting.

## Decision

- The appellate court reversed the injunction.
- The association was not required to permit a unit owner/candidate to open and inspect sealed proxies as they were received before the election.
- The court treated the association’s sealed-custody and independent-verification procedure as consistent with the statutory scheme and election integrity.

## Legal Principles

- Statutes requiring associations to maintain election materials (including proxies) as official records for a retention period do not necessarily create a right to contemporaneous, rolling inspection during an ongoing election.
- Because proxies are revocable until exercised and effective only for the specific meeting, compelled pre-exercise disclosure can conflict with owners’ revocation rights and the fairness of the election process.
- Associations may use neutral procedures (secure storage, sealed proxies, and independent verification shortly before the meeting) to protect voting integrity without violating post-election record-retention and inspection obligations.

## Conclusion

The court held that a condominium owner’s right to inspect official records did not include immediate access to sealed, revocable proxies before they were opened and exercised at the election meeting, and it reversed an injunction that required real-time opening and inspection of incoming proxies.


Islander Beach Club Condo. Ass’n of Volusia Cnty., Inc. v. Johnston, 623 So. 2d 628 (Fla. 5th DCA 1993)