Our neutrality policy

That sentence is why your management company cannot count your ballots, and it is the standard we hold ourselves to. Six commitments follow from it. They go in our engagement letter, not only on this page.

1. 01 We hold no other contract with your association

   Civil Code § 5110(b) bars an inspector from being anyone employed or under contract to the association for any compensable service other than serving as inspector. We do not manage properties, prepare reserve studies, practise law, do your accounting, or sell you anything else. Serving as your inspector is the only commercial relationship we will have with your association, and we will not take on another one while we hold your ballots.

2. 02 We have no relationship with any candidate

   We are not directors, not candidates, and not related to a director or a candidate. If we discover a connection to anyone on your ballot after we are engaged (including one we did not know about), we will disclose it to the full board in writing immediately, and withdraw if either side asks us to.

3. 03 We do not advise either side on the outcome

   We will tell your board what the statute requires and what the deadlines are. We will not tell anyone how to vote, help draft campaign material, advise a slate, or offer an opinion on whether a candidate or a measure should win. If a board member asks us which way the count is going before the count meeting, the answer is no.

4. 04 Nobody sees the ballots before the public count

   Ballots go to an address we control and stay sealed. No director, no manager, no candidate and nobody on our own team opens an inner envelope before the count meeting. Under Civil Code § 5120 the count happens in public at a properly noticed open meeting, and any member of your association is entitled to stand there and watch us do it.

5. 05 Our fee does not depend on the result

   We quote a fixed price in writing before we start. It is the same price whether the incumbent slate is returned, the challengers win, the measure fails, or the election is challenged afterward. We will not accept a fee that varies with the outcome.

6. 06 We keep the record, and we will stand behind it

   Under § 5125 the sealed ballots, signed voter envelopes, voter lists and candidate registration lists stay in our custody until the one-year challenge window in § 5145 closes, then transfer to your association. If your election is challenged inside that year, the record is intact and we will produce it and testify to how it was handled.

What we do not claim

California has no licence, registration, bond, exam or certification for inspectors of elections, and no body certifies them. Anyone advertising themselves as a “certified inspector of elections” is describing a credential that does not exist. Civil Code § 5110(b) sets a test of independence, not of certification, so independence is what we document, and it is what you should ask every firm you talk to to put in writing.

Last reviewed September 23, 2026. We are not attorneys and this page is not legal advice.