Step 1: Select Election Type
Choose the type of election to calculate the appropriate timeline.
Step 2: Build Your Timeline
Calculate your election timeline by entering either the Election Date (calculates backward) or the date the first Notice will be distributed (calculates forward).
Dates are automatically adjusted to accommodate required mailing timelines and observed holidays.
Enter Election Date
Calculate timeline backward
Election Start Date
Date first Notice will be distributed
No Timeline Generated
Select a date above to generate your free HOA election timeline. All dates will automatically adjust to avoid weekends and federal holidays. DIY Elections provides HOA election services in California in compliance with the Davis Stirling Act., leveraging online tools to be accurate, affordable and hassle-free.
How to build your election timeline in three steps
1. Enter your annual meeting date
Start with the date of the meeting where ballots will be opened and counted by the inspector of elections. Add the number of board seats up for election and indicate whether your association votes electronically, since electronic voting adds a 30-day member opt-out window before ballots can be distributed.
2. Review every milestone the calculator counts backward
The calculator works backward from the meeting date to the electronic voting opt-out notice, the Call for Candidates, the nomination deadline, the acclamation determination, the pre-ballot general notice, ballot distribution, the optional reminder notice, the ballot return deadline and meeting, and the results report. Any milestone that lands on a weekend or observed California holiday is shifted to a business day in the compliant direction, so no statutory window is shortened.
3. Generate the notice for each deadline
Each date maps to a document your association must actually deliver. Generate the Call for Candidates, pre-ballot general notice, ballot package, reminder notice, and results report directly from the finished timeline so the dates in your notices match the schedule you just built.
Every deadline the calculator builds for you
A California HOA board election is a sequence of statutory deadlines, not a single meeting date. Civil Code §5115 sets the notice windows for candidate nominations and ballots, §5105 requires your election rules to govern nominations and acclamation, §5100 requires a secret ballot for board elections, and §5120 governs the ballot count at the meeting. Enter your meeting date and the calculator counts backward, adjusting each milestone off weekends and California holidays so no notice lands on a day you cannot deliver it.
| Milestone | Timing | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Electronic voting notice / opt-out | At least 30 days before ballots are distributed, if the association votes electronically | Civil Code §5105(a)(8), §5110 |
| Call for Candidates (nomination notice) | At least 30 days before the nomination deadline | Civil Code §5115(a) |
| Nomination deadline | Set by your election rules; must precede the pre-ballot notice | Civil Code §5105(a)(3) |
| Acclamation determination | After the nomination deadline, when candidates do not exceed open seats | Civil Code §5103 |
| Pre-Ballot general notice | At least 30 days before ballots are distributed | Civil Code §5115(b) |
| Ballot Package distributed | At least 30 days before the ballots are due / meeting date | Civil Code §5115(c) |
| Reminder notice | Optional, typically 7–14 days before the meeting | Association election rules |
| Mailed ballots must be received by & meeting | Ballots counted in public at the meeting by the inspector of elections | Civil Code §5120 |
| Results report | Within 15 days after the election | Civil Code §5120(b) |
A worked example: annual meeting on November 12
An association with 240 separate interests has three of five board seats up for election, votes by paper ballot, and wants to count ballots at its annual meeting on Thursday, November 12. Working backward, the calculator produces a schedule like this.
| Date | Milestone | Why that date |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 15 | Board reviews and, if needed, adopts election rules | Rules cannot be amended within 90 days of the election, and adoption needs a 28-day notice first |
| Jul 13 | Individual notice of the nomination procedure and deadline | 90 days before the nomination deadline, which preserves the acclamation option |
| Sep 21 | Reminder notice listing nominees received so far | Falls in the 7-to-30-day window before nominations close |
| Oct 12 | Nomination deadline; acclamation determination | Columbus Day observance and the weekend are checked, and the date is shifted to a business day if needed |
| Oct 13 | Pre-ballot general notice with candidate list and counting-meeting details | At least 30 days before ballots are distributed |
| Oct 13 | Date of record for voter eligibility | Derived from the ballot distribution date so the voter list matches the mailing |
| Oct 13 | Ballot package mailed to every eligible member | 30 days before the return deadline, with mailing days built in |
| Nov 2 | Optional reminder to members who have not returned a ballot | Typically 7 to 14 days out; useful when quorum is tight |
| Nov 12 | Ballot deadline, annual meeting, public count by the inspector | Polls close at the meeting; ballots are opened and tabulated in view of any member |
| Nov 27 | General notice of the tabulated results | Within 15 days after the election |
| Nov 12 + 1 year | Ballots, envelopes, and voter list retained as records | Minimum one-year retention, and the window for a member challenge |
Two things stand out in that schedule. The board's real start date is June, not October — five months before the meeting — because the election rules deadline sits furthest back. And if this association voted electronically, the opt-out notice would have to go out 30 days before the ballot package, moving the front of the timeline earlier again. Change the meeting date in the calculator above and every one of these dates recalculates.
Acclamation: when you can skip the ballot
Under Civil Code §5103, an association with 6,000 or fewer separate interests may seat candidates by acclamation when, after the nomination deadline, the number of qualified candidates is not more than the number of open seats. The statute still requires the full nomination process: an initial Call for Candidates at least 30 days before the nomination deadline, individual notice to every member of the candidate list and the acclamation process at least 30 days before the nomination deadline, and a reminder notice between 7 and 30 days before that deadline. Miss one of those notices and acclamation is unavailable — the calculator schedules them for you.
Weekends, holidays, and the date of record
Statutory windows are counted in calendar days, but notices must be deliverable. This calculator shifts any milestone that falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or observed California holiday to the nearest business day in the compliant direction, so a 30-day window is never shortened. It also derives the date of record — the cutoff that determines who is eligible to vote and receives a ballot — from the ballot distribution date, since eligibility disputes are the most common reason an election is challenged.
The adjustment rule is directional, which matters more than it sounds. A notice deadline that must occur at least a set number of days before a later event is moved earlier when it lands on a non-business day, never later — moving it forward would shorten a statutory window by a day or two and hand a challenger an easy argument. A deadline that members must act by, such as the nomination deadline or the ballot return date, is moved to the next business day so no member loses a day of the period they were promised.
The holidays checked are the days California associations and the postal service actually observe: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day (postal), Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and the day after, and Christmas Day, with the standard weekend observance shift when a fixed-date holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday. Because your association may also close for local holidays or a management company shutdown week, treat the generated dates as the compliant outer edge and give yourself a buffer where the calendar is tight — especially for a December or early-January meeting, where the ballot window runs straight through the holidays and mail delivery slows down.
What the calculator does not decide for you
The timeline is the statutory skeleton, not the whole election. Four decisions still belong to the board and its counsel: whether the association's bylaws set a quorum higher than the statutory default and whether the reduced-quorum adjournment procedure is available; who serves as the independent inspector of elections and when they are formally appointed; whether the association's election rules permit electronic voting and cumulative voting for director seats; and whether any measure other than the board election — an IRS revenue ruling resolution, approval of annual minutes, an assessment increase, or a governing document amendment — is going on the same ballot. Each of those changes the notices you send, not the dates on which you send them, which is why the calculator hands off to the notice library once your dates are set.
From timeline to notices
Each milestone maps to a document your association must actually mail: the Call for Candidates, the Pre-Ballot general notice with voting instructions, the Ballot Package, the reminder notice, and the results report. You can generate any of them from the election notice library using the exact dates this calculator produced, or read the underlying statutes on the Civil Code reference page.