BCAT News

For the first time, a committee of Town Meeting members met to consider the pros and cons of electronic voting systems for their legislative body, in accordance with a warrant article approving the exploration earlier this year. 

Right now, Town Meeting’s 126 members vote by raising their hands. The moderator “eyeballs” whether or not there has been a majority – or, in some cases, two-thirds – vote, and, if necessary, members can request a manual count or a roll-call vote. The five-member committee is tasked with recommending whether or not Town Meeting change town bylaws to permit electronic voting, in which members would vote by pressing YES, NO, or ABSTAIN buttons on hand-held clicker devices. 

Monday night’s initial meeting was a wide-ranging discussion on the pros and cons of the idea, as well as the logistics, the cost, and the timing. 

“The thing you’re going to have to look at is, what is the support for the system?” said Town Clerk Amy Warfield, who is not a member of the committee but who participated to share her expertise and swear in the members on their first meeting. “The clerk cannot be running this voting system as well as all the other things the clerk is supposed to be doing. In talking to most town clerks, they have an IT person that supports them, or they hire the company to run it for them.” 

The members – Roger Riggs, David Woodilla, David Van Camp, and Christine Kim (a fifth member, Dan Collins, was absent) – also discussed the possibility of remote voting and ADA compliance. In the past few Town Meetings, members have voted down items that would have permitted hybrid meetings, but  the possibility is still on the horizon. And some members attend remotely due to disability. Warfield said any voting device would need to be secure so that a person voting remotely could be guaranteed to be the elected Town Meeting Member and not, say, their unelected spouse holding the clicker. 

Committee member David Woodilla said the committee would need to articulate why electronic voting is a need, not a want. “There’s the physical aspect of what would happen, but in reality it’s more of setting the vision for the folks in Town Meeting as to why this is important, and how it’s going to work, and here’s a gizmo that’s going to make it work,” he said. “The gizmo is secondary. If we don’t do a good job, there will be people who say my hand works just fine.” 

Burlington would not be the first town to implement electronic voting, so the committee resolved to dig into the experiences of other towns before their next meeting. By their charter, the committee must present its findings at Town Meeting in January, 2025, but they may not have the language for a bylaw change ready at that time.