New Jersey Radburn Act Board Election Calculator

How this calculator works

This is a deadline calculator for New Jersey condominium board elections under the Radburn Act (N.J.S.A. 46:8B-12.1). Given the scheduled election date and an optional as-of date, it computes the four mandatory milestone dates and reports the days remaining to each:

1. NOTICE OF ELECTION — issued at least 60 calendar days before the election. The notice must reach every unit owner and must include the election date, time, and place; the nomination procedure and deadline; the ballot-casting procedure; and the open-count procedure.
2. NOMINATION DEADLINE — typically 30 calendar days before the election. Candidates must submit nominations by this deadline to appear on the ballot. The association may not refuse a timely nomination from an eligible unit owner.
3. CANDIDATE STATEMENT DISTRIBUTION — typically 14 calendar days before the election. The association must distribute candidate statements to all unit owners. The statements must be reproduced exactly as the candidate submitted them, subject only to reasonable length limits specified in advance.
4. ELECTION DATE — the date of the election itself. The election may be held at a noticed in-person meeting, by mail-in ballot return deadline, by electronic ballot return deadline, or by a combination if the bylaws authorize.

The calculator flags whether the 60-day notice window has expired as of the as-of date. Use the calculator before noticing an election to confirm the schedule is realistic; use it during the election to cross-check procedural compliance; use it after the election to memorialize the timeline in the election minutes.

The Radburn Act and what changed in 2017

The Radburn Act is the informal name for the 2017 NJ legislation that imposed mandatory procedural protections on the election of governing-board members in NJ planned real estate communities. The Act takes its name from the Radburn section of Fair Lawn, NJ — an early planned community whose disputed board elections (developer-stacked boards continuing in office for years past developer-control termination) provided the original political impetus for the legislation.

Before 2017: NJ condominium board elections were governed by the association bylaws with no mandatory floor of procedural protection. Some associations ran exemplary elections; others ran developer-stacked or board-stacked elections that produced unrepresentative results. The NJ courts had no consistent statutory framework to evaluate election challenges, and election contests turned on bylaws interpretation and equity arguments rather than on a clear statutory standard.

After 2017: The Radburn Act establishes a mandatory floor of procedural protection that every NJ condominium, cooperative, and planned community must meet. The bylaws may add additional protection but may not subtract from the statutory minimums. Election challenges now turn on whether the association satisfied the Radburn Act floor, not on bylaws interpretation alone. The statutory framework gives NJ courts a clean basis to void elections that fail the Radburn Act and to order corrective elections under the statutory procedures.

The 2017 legislation amended the NJ Condominium Act (N.J.S.A. 46:8B-12.1), the Cooperative Recording Act (N.J.S.A. 46:8D-12.1), and the Planned Real Estate Development Full Disclosure Act (N.J.S.A. 45:22A). The three parallel provisions are substantively identical; the calculator implements the framework as it applies to NJ condominiums, but the same procedural milestones apply to cooperatives and planned communities.

Required notice + ballot procedures under N.J.S.A. 46:8B-12.1

The Radburn Act imposes six categories of mandatory procedural protection:

1. Notice of election. At least 60 calendar days before the election, the board (or election committee) must issue notice of the election to all unit owners. The notice must include the date, time, and place of the election; the procedure for nominating candidates and the nomination deadline; the procedure for casting ballots (in person, by mail-in, or by electronic ballot if the bylaws authorize); and the procedure for observing the open ballot count. The notice must be delivered by a method reasonably calculated to reach every unit owner.

2. Nomination procedure. Any unit owner in good standing may submit a nomination during the nomination window. The window closes a reasonable period before the election — typically 30 calendar days. The association may not refuse a timely, properly submitted nomination from an eligible unit owner.

3. Candidate statements. The association must distribute candidate statements to all unit owners before the election. The typical practice is to distribute 14 calendar days before the election. The statements must be reproduced exactly as the candidate submitted them, subject only to reasonable length limits specified in advance.

4. Secret ballot. The election must use a secret ballot procedure that protects the unit-owner identity from the board members and the election counters. The typical NJ practice uses an inner-and-outer envelope arrangement: the inner envelope contains the unsigned ballot; the outer envelope is signed by the unit owner and identifies the unit. At the count, the tellers verify eligibility from the outer envelope, separate the inner envelope, shuffle the inner envelopes, and then open them — so the ballot cannot be traced back to the unit owner.

5. Restricted proxy use. A unit owner may NOT use a proxy to cast a ballot in a board election. The unit owner must cast the ballot directly — in person at the election, by mail-in ballot, or by electronic ballot under the secrecy procedure. This is a sharp departure from general member voting, where proxies are typically permitted.

6. Open count. The ballot count must be conducted in the open — observable by any unit owner who wishes to attend. The count results must be announced immediately after the count is complete. The board may not retreat to a closed session to deliberate before announcing the result.

Key thresholds and NJ-specific gotchas

The 60-day notice is a calendar-day count, not a business-day count. Weekends and NJ legal holidays do not extend the 60-day window. If the 60th day falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday, the safe practice is to issue notice on the preceding business day — never the following.

Late notice voids the election. A notice issued fewer than 60 days before the scheduled election fails the Radburn Act and the resulting election is voidable by any unit owner. The calculator NOTICE WINDOW EXPIRED verdict flags this scenario. The only safe remedy is to reschedule the election to a date at least 60 days after a corrective notice is issued.

Proxies are prohibited in board elections, even though they are permitted for general member voting. This is the single most common procedural error in NJ condominium board elections. A unit owner who cannot attend the election in person must submit a mail-in or electronic ballot under the secret-ballot procedure. A board that accepts proxies for a board election has voided the election.

Slate-only ballots are non-compliant. A ballot that forces a slate-only choice (you must vote for the entire slate or none) violates the Radburn Act. The ballot must list every nominated candidate individually and permit the unit owner to vote for any combination of candidates from any slate or no slate.

Virtual board elections are permitted if the bylaws authorize and the procedure satisfies the Radburn Act. Many NJ associations adopted virtual-meeting and electronic-balloting provisions during the 2020-2022 period. A virtual meeting combined with mail-in or electronic balloting can satisfy the Radburn Act. A pure in-meeting voice vote does NOT satisfy the secret-ballot requirement and is non-compliant regardless of whether the meeting is in person or virtual.

Open count means observable in real time. The board may not count ballots in a closed session and then announce results. The count must be conducted in plain view of any observing unit owner, with ballots read aloud and tallies recorded in real time. Closed-session counts are a common Radburn Act violation that voids the election.

The Radburn Act applies to elections only, not to general member votes. For non-election member votes (declaration amendments, bylaws amendments, special assessments above the declaration cap), use the separate NJ Condo Quorum and Supermajority calculator. The Radburn Act framework and the quorum-and-supermajority framework do not overlap.

What this calculator does NOT model

The calculator implements the MILESTONE DATE math for the Radburn Act board-election framework. It does NOT:

• Apply to non-election member votes — use the separate NJ Condo Quorum and Supermajority calculator for declaration amendments, bylaws amendments, special assessments above the declaration cap, and general business.
• Validate the form of the notice of election (content, delivery method, mailing list completeness).
• Validate the form of the secret-ballot procedure (inner-and-outer envelope arrangement, ballot reproduction, signature verification process).
• Model electronic-balloting authentication or audit-trail requirements.
• Validate the form of the candidate statements (length limits, content restrictions, distribution method).
• Resolve eligibility disputes about specific candidates or unit owners.
• Model cumulative voting if the declaration authorizes it.
• Account for board-vacancy procedures (mid-term vacancies, recall elections, developer-period transition elections — those carry distinct procedural rules under the NJ Condominium Act and PREDFDA).
• Address Radburn Act amendments adopted after the last reviewed date below — the calculator reflects the statute as of the last review.

For any contested election, retain NJ counsel with condominium-election experience before relying on the calculator output.

Sources

Last reviewed: 2026-05-16 against:

• N.J.S.A. 46:8B-12.1 (Radburn Act provisions in the NJ Condominium Act mandating 60-day notice of election, secret ballot, restricted proxy use, and open count).
• N.J.S.A. 46:8D-12.1 (parallel Radburn Act provisions in the NJ Cooperative Recording Act).
• N.J.S.A. 45:22A (parallel Radburn Act provisions in the NJ Planned Real Estate Development Full Disclosure Act, PREDFDA).
• N.J.A.C. 5:20 (administrative regulations governing planned real estate developments, including procedural rules implementing the Radburn Act).
• N.J.S.A. 46:8B-1 et seq. (NJ Condominium Act framework).
• Community Associations Institute (CAI) New Jersey Chapter practitioner guidance on Radburn Act compliance.
• NJ Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Bureau of Homeowner Protection guidance on planned real estate development governance.