Ah, the peaceful Poconos. As I recall, the old ads used to call it, “A place for lovers.” The ad executives could easily begin calling it, “A place for liars.” But who would guess the amount of rank corruption that gives a special kind of identity to that part of the country?
On the HOA front, two board members of the Wild Acres Community Association are currently charged with ballot tampering, forgery and a number of other crimes.
State Police were listening when the board members discussed mishandling 200 ballots to make sure the ‘correct’ board members were elected.
Yes, we can point to the Poconos and Monroe County, PA as hotbeds of corruption. Sadly, this kind of thing goes on everywhere. This coming October a roomful of prominent lawyers and businessmen will go on trial in Nevada for rigging board elections in a number of Homeowners Associations, and then stealing them blind. If you look closely, you’ll see this kind of corruption in every state that allows Homeowners Associations to exist. By my count that’s about 50, although a past Presidential candidate said there were 57.
In any event, when board members and board members’ wives are the only ones allowed to count the ballots in unaudited elections why wouldn’t you think the entire HOA system is profoundly corrupt?
In at least two states, federal and state police agencies are discovering that the homeowners really aren’t just crying “Wolf!”
(link to ballot tampering in Pocono Record)
Most of the charges in the Nevada case have been for mail and wire fraud, not vote rigging. Why?
And this was in one of the few states that actively regulated H.O.A. corporations!
There are all kinds of ways to rig elections in HOAs. In large HOAs, voting representatives hold all the proxies. In fact, voting representatives can just so happen to be sitting Board members who can vote all the proxies for themselves! How cozy!
And how are the voting representatives selected? Why, they are recruited by Board members. If there is a ballot election, well, it’s not that difficult to tamper with that process, especially if there is no oversight, no secure process, no counting of ballots at an open meeting.
An then of course, there is the right of the Board to gerrymander borders of voting districts, of course with absolutely no oversight or possibility of legal challenge.
Think Banana Republic.
You have to wonder why it’s so important to some people that they control an hoa board, and go to any length to stay in control. I would look very closely at that hoa if I lived there. (well, I actually would’ve before this occurred!)
Isn’t this amazing for one part of PA. I guess they did not have the tax collector and the local cop in their neighborhood. The local cop gets to have as boat in his driveway and although i do not see anything wrong with it or object it IS a Town ordinance and against the COVENANTS. Ward isn’t that called selective enforcement? FAT chance of getting the state police in this area to repsond because the local yocals block that. I tried to get the state because they were not attached at the hip (close enough) to all the corruption and special favors. Let’s rewrite the ballots seen it with my own 2 eyes. You can get relief when the relief is in the crooks hands