(1) (a) Members of a cooperative may vote either in person or, if provided in the articles or the bylaws of the cooperative or a resolution of the board with respect to a particular issue, by any of the following methods:
Mail or electronic transmission if a means is provided to verify that a member sovoting has received the exact wording of the matter upon which the vote is to be taken;
Telecommunication; or
Any other means by which all persons in the meeting may communicate with eachother during the meeting.
Whenever in this article reference is made to voting by membership, the vote may betaken in any manner established pursuant to this section unless specifically provided otherwise in this article or by the board with respect to a particular matter upon which the vote is to be taken.
With respect to a matter where a vote has been cast by an authorized means otherthan the person being present and voting in person, the person casting the vote shall be counted as present and voting for purposes of those provisions in this article that refer to persons "present and voting".
Proxy or cumulative voting shall be prohibited except as permitted by the articles orbylaws of organizations incorporated prior to July 6, 1973; except that, where a member is other than an individual, its vote may be cast by a representative authorized pursuant to this article.
Except as otherwise provided in subsection (3) of this section, each member of acooperative formed under this article shall be entitled to one vote only.
Any cooperative formed under this article may provide in its articles for proportionalvoting rights allowing members more than one vote based upon the patronage of a member with the cooperative, the amount of patronage equity held in the cooperative, or any combination of these methods. However, no member may be entitled to more than one vote in any case where a law of this state specifically requires otherwise. In no event shall any member have less than one vote and no member may have more than two and one-half percent of the total votes of members of the cooperative. If the number of members in the cooperative is such that, solely by virtue of the number of members, one member may have more than two and one-half percent based on proportional voting, then each member of the cooperative shall be entitled to one vote only.
Unless otherwise provided in this article or in the cooperative's articles, when a cooperative has provided for proportional voting, it shall be deemed to have intended that the references in this article to a vote of a specified proportion of members or similar terminology as necessary for approval of a matter submitted to a membership vote shall mean a determination based on a proportion of the total votes entitled to be cast or actually cast by members as applicable in the particular reference.
Source: L. 96: Entire article R&RE, p. 497, § 1, effective July 1. L. 2003: (2) and (3) amended, p. 2225, § 80, effective July 1, 2004. L. 2004: (1)(d) amended, p. 1413, § 45, effective July 1.