How can elderly owners without email return voting papers for electronic meetings?

Submitting hard copy voting papers requires that a voter cast a written vote by giving the voting paper to the secretary (by hand, by post or by facsimile) before the start of the meeting. You can read the specific legislative reference here: 95 Casting a hard copy vote—open motion.

This means that you cannot provide the voting paper to someone else to give to the secretary, even the chairperson, as they are considered an intermediary. That said, placing a voting paper in the body corporate mailbox complies with the requirement to deliver it to the secretary. The next issue is the chairperson retrieving the voting papers from the mailbox, then scanning and sending them to the body corporate manager for processing before the meeting.

This potential break in the chain of voting paper delivery directly to the secretary or the body corporate manager, who is typically authorised by agreement to perform the functions of the secretary, could become a dispute if another lot owner was concerned that the chairperson is acting as an intermediary. I suggest this concern could be overcome by the body corporate granting a specific authorisation for the chairperson to collect voting papers from the body corporate's mailbox on behalf of the secretary, just like the authorisation given to a body corporate manager to perform this function of the secretary.

A simpler way to overcome the issue of submitting voting papers is with the use of a smartphone, if available, to take a picture and send the voting paper via email. No post or hand delivery to a mailbox is required, and there is no potential for disputes.