April 13, 2011 – A bill in the Illinois House of Representatives to ban voting by proxy in condo board elections will not be voted on this year. Committees are still reviewing the bill and it will be taken up again next January at the earliest.

The bill, HB3337, introduced on February 24 by Representative Elaine Nekritz (D-57th District), would amend the Illinois Condominium Property Act to no longer allow one unit owner to vote on behalf of another. An owner would, however, be allowed to vote by mail.

“This bill did not make it out of the Rules Committee by the deadline date,” said a legislative aide for Nekritz on Tuesday, “which basically means it is dead for this session.”

According to Emily Kluczynski, a constituent of Rep. Nekritz expressed concerns about proxy voting “and the dishonesty and trouble it can cause in board elections.”

“This particular constituent was running for the board, but with the proxy voting allowing others to vote on behalf of other residents, condo owners are able to keep the same friends in office.”

The constituent, says Kluczynski, was also concerned with how proxy ballots were received and counted.

This will sound familiar to condo owners at Marina City, where it is believed that as much as one-third of the votes in any recent board election are made by proxy – with no more than a few people controlling most of the proxies.

In 2009, Jordan Shifrin, the chairman of a committee organized by state lawmakers to recommend changes to the law, said proxy voting is “the single most abused concept” in the Condominium Property Act.

The bill was initially referred to the Rules Committee, then on February 28 assigned to the Judiciary I - Civil Law Committee. On March 17, it was referred back to the Rules Committee.

The House adjourns for the year on May 31 and will meet again next January. Nekritz (left) is a real estate attorney from Northbrook, Illinois, and a partner in a Chicago-based law firm, Altheimer and Gray.  Read full text of bill