Moderator Ford Supports Use Of Electronic Voting

HARWICH – The idea of using electronic voting machines to register votes at town meeting has won the backing of longtime Moderator Michael Ford. There is a movement afoot by some residents to use hand-held voting machines like the ones used in Orleans and Chatham to expedite town meetings.

Resident Patrick Otton stood before the select board last week with a string of petitions, more than 200 signatures, calling for the town to employ electronic tabulator technology. The systems are fast, accurate, efficient and private, Otton said, adding the Massachusetts Legislature uses them.

Ford, who was elected moderator in Harwich in 1976, also serves as town counsel for the town of Orleans. He told the Harwich select board last week that Orleans has used the electronic tabulators for the past four years. Orleans’ inaugural use was during the COVID pandemic, when its town meeting was scheduled outside at Nauset Beach parking lot. Participants came in their vehicles and microphones were brought to attendees who wanted to speak. The meeting was broadcast on an FM station so attendees could listen on their car radios, Ford said.

“It was a success and has been a success at every meeting since then,” Ford said of use of the tabulators.

In Orleans, Ford said, the moderator uses the clickers not on every motion, but on those motions where a standing vote count would otherwise be needed. Voice votes are still more efficient for many procedural motions, and finding a medium between using the tabulators and relying on a voice vote makes for a very efficient meeting, the Harwich moderator said.

There are four towns on the Cape that use the tabulators to register votes, and more than 70 municipalities across the state that use them in town meetings, said Ford. Eastham, Orleans, Chatham and Falmouth have them, and some communities such as Orleans rent them, while others, such as Chatham have bought the tabulators.

“Things have changed and it is one of the advances of civilization. It provides convenience and some people enjoy the privacy of it to a standing count. I think the voters are entitled to make the decision,” said Ford.

The town moderator said he has discussed tabulator use with Town Clerk Emily Mitchell; their joint recommendation is to insert an article in the warrant to get voter feedback and provide a provision to form a committee to look at costs, and means of acquisition. Let’s see if it works in 2025, said Ford.

“We have an obligation as public officials to put this forward. My recommendation is we consider it. It requires money, it’s expensive,” Ford added.

Ford’s recollection was Orleans rented 700 tabulators for the town meeting at the beach, and it cost in the $25,000 range. Chatham did a study and purchased 1,200 of them, but it was not a large enough number to cover their recent town meeting seeking funds for a new council on aging facility, he said. They rented an additional 300 tabulators for that meeting, but 1,700 people attended, and they still had to hand count people in a separate room. Ford said he thought Chatham used federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to acquire the tabulators.

Select Board member Michael MacAskill thanked Ford for his recommendation. MacAskill said his belief is “you should stand and be proud of your vote.”

Ford said when he first started as moderator there was a bylaw that required a secret ballot vote every time an article sought to borrow money. He said in those days town meeting could go five or six nights, and most of it was driven by secret ballots. It took about 10 years to get rid of that bylaw, Ford said. Today, he added, it is very rare to have a secret ballot vote.

“If we still had that bylaw, I would have been pushing for electronic voting a long time ago,” the moderator said.

“If you go back to the deep, darkest recesses of the beginning of the process, they used to vote publicly on the dole. I don’t know how uncomfortable that could have been to vote with a card when you were talking about one of your fellow neighbors,” Select Board member Donald Howell said. “I definitely like the idea, the whole Mayflower Compact thing, where you stand up, and you stand for your vote.

“But I also recognize why people like to be able to have some confidentiality. Things have changed, it’s the process, it’s bigger than us. Put it to town meeting in an article, if they turn it down, we’re not going to do it. If they accept it, we’ll see how it works.”

Select Board Chair Julie Kavanagh said the article recommendation is a good one, including forming a subcommittee to study it. She inquired about the number of tabulators Harwich would need.

Most towns buy 800 to 1,000 tabulators, Ford said. He recommended the town clerk examine town meeting attendance records when making a decision on the procurement number. The moderator estimated the payback to the town would take four to five years.

Kavanagh said the board would be looking to put an article in the May 2024 annual town meeting.