Candidate Bio. As part of the election package to the membership, associations may (but are not required to) include candidate bios and pictures. There should be a limit on the number of words submitted otherwise some candidates will submit 10 pages of information. Associations should also limit submissions to information about the candidates only, i.e., are they married?, how long have they lived in the community?, what kind of work they do, etc.

Campaigning. Campaigning may be done by all candidates (including directors) separately from the election package mailed to the membership. If candidates are allowed to advocate campaign positions in their candidate bios, it creates the following potential problems:

• defamatory statements by candidates may open the association to litigation (even though the association should be able to defeat the claim, it must still endure the litigation);

• the association is prohibited from editing or redacting campaign material (Civil Code §1363.03(a)(1));

• other candidates may demand rebuttal statements in the same mailing; and

• campaign material mailed at the association's expense opens the door to equal access by all other members who want to mail out materials at the association's expense.