Elections & Governance · Texas · Evergreen

The Election Clock: Notice and Candidacy Timelines Texas Boards Must Hit

Every Texas association election is a chain of statutory deadlines that runs backwards from election night. Miss a link and the election is exposed to challenge before a single ballot is cast. Here is the clock, read in the direction boards should plan it.

The Bottom Line

For an election or vote taken at a meeting, Texas Property Code § 209.0056(a) requires written notice not later than the 10th day and not earlier than the 60th day before the date of the election or vote. For a vote not taken at a meeting, § 209.0056(a-1) requires notice not later than the 20th day before the latest date a ballot may be submitted to be counted. For associations of more than 100 lots, § 209.00593(a-1) adds a candidacy sequence in front of the ballots: a candidate-solicitation notice at least 10 days before ballots are disseminated, with a candidate-request deadline that may be no earlier than the 10th day after the notice — and under (a-3), every eligible candidate who timely asks must appear on every ballot. These rules override the governing documents: § 209.0056(b) and § 209.00592(f) each supersede any contrary dedicatory-instrument provision, and § 209.0059(a) voids any dedicatory-instrument provision that would disqualify an owner from voting. The clock is statutory, backwards-chained, and unforgiving — so it should be calendared before the meeting date is even announced.

The Clock, Backwards

Boards plan elections forward — pick a date, then scramble. The statute is built backwards: each deadline is measured from the one after it. Planning in the statute’s own direction exposes the real lead time. For an association over 100 lots holding a director election at an annual meeting, the chain looks like this:

Chain the minimums for an over-100-lot association and the arithmetic is sobering: 10 days from solicitation notice to candidate deadline, then ballot preparation and dissemination, then the balloting window itself — all fitted inside a notice window that cannot open earlier than day −60. An election calendar built less than two months out is already borrowing against deadlines it may not be able to repay.

Notice of the Election: § 209.0056

Votes at a meeting — the 10/60 window

Under § 209.0056(a), for an election or vote taken at a meeting of the owners, the association must give written notice of the election or vote not later than the 10th day or earlier than the 60th day before the date of the election or vote. The notice goes to each owner for an association-wide election or vote; for a representative election — where the dedicatory instruments vest certain elected representatives with authority to elect or appoint board members — it goes to each owner entitled under the dedicatory instruments to vote in that particular representative election — § 209.0056(a)(1)–(2).

Note what the window does in both directions. The 10-day floor protects owners from ambush elections. The 60-day ceiling protects them from stale notice — an announcement so early that owners have forgotten it by the time the meeting arrives does not count as notice at all.

Votes outside a meeting — the 20-day rule

Under § 209.0056(a-1), for an election or vote of owners not taken at a meeting, the association must give notice to all owners entitled to vote on any matter under consideration, not later than the 20th day before the latest date on which a ballot may be submitted to be counted. The reference point shifts: not a meeting date, but the close of balloting. A board running a mail or electronic vote with no meeting must anchor its notice math to the last day ballots can come in.

Two further points from the section. Under § 209.0056(d), a meeting of the owners held under this section may be held by any method of communication, including electronic and telephonic means as provided by Section 6.002, Business Organizations Code. And under § 209.0056(c), the section does not apply to an association subject to Chapter 552, Government Code, by application of § 552.0036 — the same narrow carve-out that runs through this part of Chapter 209.

The Candidacy Sequence: § 209.00593

The baseline: expired terms are filled by election, not appointment

Section 209.00593(a) sets the ground rule, and it applies notwithstanding any provision in a dedicatory instrument: any board member whose term has expired must be elected by owners who are members of the association. The board’s appointment power is confined to vacancies — a board member may be appointed by the board to fill a vacancy, and the appointee serves only the remainder of the unexpired term. A board that rolls expired-term incumbents forward by appointment is not filling vacancies; it is skipping elections.

The solicitation notice — (a-1)

For associations of more than 100 lots, at least 10 days before the association disseminates absentee ballots or other ballots to members for a board member election, the association must provide notice to the members soliciting candidates interested in running for a position on the board. The notice must contain instructions for an eligible candidate to notify the association of the candidate’s request to be placed on the ballot, and the deadline to submit that request. The deadline may not be earlier than the 10th day after the date the association provides the notice.

The two 10-day periods do different work. The first — notice at least 10 days before ballots go out — keeps the association from printing ballots before the membership knew candidacy was open. The second — a request deadline no earlier than 10 days after the notice — guarantees every prospective candidate a real window to act. An association cannot post the solicitation on Monday with a Wednesday deadline.

Delivery channels — (a-2)

The solicitation notice must be delivered one of two ways under § 209.00593(a-2): either mailed to each owner; or provided by both (i) posting the notice in a conspicuous manner reasonably designed to provide notice — on the association’s common property or, with the property owner’s consent, on other conspicuously located privately owned property within the subdivision, or on any Internet website maintained by the association or other Internet media — and (ii) sending the notice by e-mail to each owner who has registered an e-mail address with the association. The posting-plus-email path is a conjunctive requirement: posting alone does not satisfy it, and neither does email alone.

The duty to list — (a-3)

Under § 209.00593(a-3), the association shall include on each absentee ballot or other ballot for a board member election the name of each eligible candidate from whom the association received a request to be placed on the ballot in accordance with the section. The board has no discretion to curate the field. Eligibility is judged against published criteria from the governing documents; timeliness is judged against the noticed deadline; and every candidate who clears both hurdles appears on every ballot. The practical corollary: ballots cannot be finalized until the candidate-request deadline passes.

The Documents Cannot Shorten the Clock

Two supersession clauses stand behind these timelines. Section 209.0056(b) provides that the notice section “supersedes any contrary requirement in a dedicatory instrument.” Section 209.00592(f) does the same for the voting-methods section: it “supersedes any contrary provision in a dedicatory instrument.” A bylaw calling for 5 days’ election notice, or purporting to let the board mail ballots before soliciting candidates, yields to the statute. Where the documents are stricter in the owner’s favor — a longer notice period, an earlier solicitation — the association should honor them, but only within the statutory window: § 209.0056(a) also forbids notice earlier than the 60th day before the vote, so a document provision purporting to require notice outside that window is itself a contrary requirement that yields under § 209.0056(b). Where document provisions cut against the statutory floor, the statute wins.

One caution runs the other way, and it is the discipline point boards most often miss: supersession is not a license to ignore the documents on matters the statute leaves alone. If the bylaws fix the annual meeting for a specific day and time, holding it on a different day without following the documents’ own procedures hands any critic a second “the board doesn’t follow its own documents” argument — on top of whatever timeline defect started the dispute. Conformance to the governing documents and conformance to the statute are two separate audits, and an election calendar has to pass both.

The Right-to-Vote Guarantee: § 209.0059

Underneath the whole clock sits § 209.0059(a): “A provision in a dedicatory instrument that would disqualify a property owner from voting in a property owners’ association election of board members or on any matter concerning the rights or responsibilities of the owner is void.” The timeline rules govern when the election happens; this section protects who gets to participate. A document provision stripping the franchise from a class of owners does not survive.

The section carries one narrow exception: under § 209.0059(c), in a residential development with 10 or fewer lots whose declaration was recorded before January 1, 2015, a person may not vote unless the person is subject to a dedicatory instrument through which the association exercises its authority. For the ordinary association, though, the rule is the rule: the vote belongs to the owner, and the documents cannot take it away.

Why This Matters

Timeline defects are structural, not cosmetic. A late candidate solicitation or a notice outside the 10/60 window is not cured by good intentions on election night. The defect is baked into every ballot that follows it, and it is exactly the kind of objection a contested election produces.

The candidacy sequence is where challengers look first. An owner-candidate who was squeezed by a short request window — or left off a ballot after a timely request — holds the cleanest possible challenge under (a-1) and (a-3), because the statutory text is concrete and the dates are documentary.

Backwards planning is the only reliable planning. Every deadline in the chain is measured from a later event. Building the calendar forward from “when can we book the clubhouse” is how associations discover, three weeks out, that the statutory arithmetic no longer fits.

Best-Practice Guidance

1. Calendar the election backwards, in writing, before announcing a date.

Start from election night. Place the 10/60 notice window, the ballot-dissemination date, the candidate-request deadline, and the solicitation notice — in that order, each driven by the next. Then check the result against the bylaws’ own meeting-date and notice provisions.

2. Build slack into both 10-day periods.

The statute states minimums. A solicitation notice 20 or 30 days before ballots, with a request window comfortably longer than 10 days, costs nothing and removes the close-call arguments.

3. Document delivery for every notice.

Keep the mailing list and date, the posting photo and location, and the email transmission record. Under § 209.00593(a-2), the posting route requires the email component too — record both.

4. Freeze the ballot only after the candidate deadline.

Sequence ballot production so that the (a-3) duty to list every timely candidate is physically possible. A ballot printed early is a ballot printed wrong.

5. Run the two audits separately.

One pass against the statute, one pass against the governing documents — meeting date, notice method, quorum, proxy clauses. Passing one audit does not excuse failing the other.

6. Be recount-ready.

The election file — notices, ballots, sign-in sheets, tally sheets — should be organized on election night as though a § 209.0057(b) recount demand will arrive within 15 days, because it can.

Common Mistakes & Pitfalls

Actionable Takeaways

1. Build a written, backwards-chained election calendar before announcing the meeting date; recheck it against the bylaws.
2. Give written election notice inside the 10-to-60-day window for meeting votes; use the 20-day rule for votes outside a meeting.
3. For associations over 100 lots, issue the candidate-solicitation notice at least 10 days before ballots go out, with a request deadline no earlier than 10 days after the notice.
4. Deliver the solicitation by mail to every owner, or by conspicuous posting plus e-mail to every registered address — and keep proof of both.
5. Hold ballot production until the candidate deadline passes; list every timely, eligible candidate on every ballot.
6. Audit the governing documents for notice or candidacy provisions contrary to §§ 209.0056 and 209.00592 — they are superseded and should not be applied.
7. Confirm no document provision is being used to disqualify an owner from voting — such provisions are void under § 209.0059(a).
8. Assemble the election file on election night; the 15-day recount window under § 209.0057(b) starts immediately.

Related CIC-SC Resources

• Proxies, Absentee Ballots, and the Vote That Always Wins
• Candidate Eligibility for the HOA Board in Texas: Who Can Run?
• Texas HOA Annual Meeting Timeline — Template
• Annual Meeting & Election Ballot Toolkit — Templates and Educational Guide
• Texas Meeting Compliance Library — Notices, Agendas, and Minutes

References & Sources

1. Texas Property Code § 209.0056 — Notice of Election or Association Vote (10/60-day window; 20-day rule for votes outside a meeting; supersession of dedicatory instruments; electronic meeting methods).
2. Texas Property Code § 209.00593 — Election of Board Members (election of expired terms; candidate-solicitation notice, deadlines, delivery channels, and duty to list for associations over 100 lots).
3. Texas Property Code § 209.00592 — Voting; Quorum (in-person supersession; supersession of dedicatory instruments).
4. Texas Property Code § 209.0059 — Right to Vote (void disqualification provisions; small-development exception).
5. Texas Property Code § 209.0057 — Recount of Votes (15-day written demand window).
6. Texas Property Code Chapter 209 — Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act.

Tags: election notice · § 209.0056 · § 209.00593 · candidate solicitation · election timeline · ballot dissemination · supersession · right to vote · recount · Texas HOA

CICSC publishes this article for educational and informational purposes only. It is not legal, tax, accounting, engineering, insurance, or financial advice and does not establish an attorney-client relationship. Statutory references and operational frameworks are intended to support informed governance, not to substitute for advice from qualified legal counsel and other professional advisors familiar with your jurisdiction and your association's facts. CICSC, its authors, and its members assume no liability for actions taken in reliance on this content.