The Sun City West Governing Board on Nov. 7 gave consensus to send proposed bylaw redlines concerning owner-member elections to legal counsel for review.

President Christine Novello said the changes focus on updating sections that govern absentee voting and vendor responsibilities to reflect the association’s current electronic voting processes. "I added in a new section 3.09 that describes an overall voting process that is specifying that independence," Novello said, introducing the draft redlines.

The proposed edits remove references to a written paper ballot and make clear that non–in-person ballots (what the bylaws describe as "absentee") are processed by an independent vendor; the draft also preserves telephone voting for owners who cannot access online methods. Director Pius Kosti asked whether the governing board will select a vendor in future; Kathy Estes, chair of the elections committee, said staff typically researches vendors and the committee reviews and recommends a choice for the board.

Directors debated language such as whether to use "absentee ballot" or "absentee vote" to avoid implying physical paper ballots. Novello and several directors agreed to move one clarifying sentence higher in the draft so it is more prominent and to keep statutory language unchanged where required by Arizona law.

The board did not vote to adopt the changes; Novello said the board’s consensus authorizes sending the redlines to legal counsel and that any formal adoption will return for a recorded vote at a regular meeting after counsel’s review.

The elections committee provided a related update during the meeting, outlining petition and election timelines: petitioning runs November–December, candidates submit a 500-word biographical sketch and a minimum of 200 owner-member signatures by the first business day in January, online voting is scheduled March 19–26, and in-person voting is Monday, March 30. Committee chair Kathy Estes said the committee is also reviewing whether the five-month election cycle can be shortened.

What happens next: staff will file the drafted bylaw redlines with the association’s attorney for statutory alignment and return the proposed language to the board for a formal vote.

Why it matters: the redlines aim to match the bylaws with current practice and to ensure the independence of vote tabulation as the association uses a third-party voting vendor.