Option Technologies staff testing Bourne’s new electronic voting technology for town meetings.
BOURNE – New technology will be on display in Bourne later this month at Special Town Meeting.
The town will use electronic devices to tabulate warrant article votes.
About 20 people attended a demonstration of the new system last month at the high school.
Bourne Town Clerk Barry Johnson said the experience of Special Town Meeting last fall led to the town seeking the new voting system.
There were two articles last year related to marijuana. Johnson said the secret ballot votes took far too long to tabulate.
“I estimated that it took anywhere from an hour to and hour and a half to do two secret ballots,” Johnson said.
“That did it for me and I said ‘there’s got to be a better way.’”
The town began researching other local communities that are using electronic voting for town meetings. Eastham uses new technology and also have open town meetings.
Eastham officials were invited to Bourne to explain the process.
“It worked well for them on a very, very contentious problem of trying to put in a water system for the town,” Johnson said.
Voters in Bourne approved funding more than $17,700 for the new system at the last town meeting.
Johnson said the new system will tabulate votes much more quickly.
“We’re hoping that there will be much more discussion of the articles as opposed to ‘hurry up let’s vote,’” he said. “Knowing that a vote could take – how long? Who knows?”
Johnson said the system will also reduce intimidation because all of the votes are counted confidentially.
“Nobody wants to talk about it but I will,” he said.
Johnson himself has felt pressure to vote the same as friends and acquaintances to not cause any issues.
Johnson said residents will find the technology to be cost effective.
Option Technologies conducted the test presentation last month. The company is supplying the system that will be used by the town.
Special Town Meeting attendees will be checked in and issued devices. The voting devices are similar to a remote control for a television.
“When we implement the electronic technology what we learned is that it speeds up the check-in process by two to five times,” said Mark Fite, the president and CEO of Option Technologies.
The check-in process only takes about 10-15 seconds.
“They don’t have to find you in a book. They type your name in and find you and confirm your identity,” Fite said. “Then they activate your hand set and hand it to you and you are ready to go into the town meeting.”
The devices include three buttons that will be used by town meeting voters: 1 for a “yes” vote; 2 for a “no” vote and a third to clear your previous vote or to abstain.
“You can’t stuff the ballot box,” Fite said. “You can vote as many times as you would like while the light is still on. Whatever your last choice is that’s what will be recorded and tabulated.”
During the presentation, a few test questions were asked.
Attendees were asked whether or not the Patriots would win the next Super Bowl. Guests were given about 20-30 seconds to cast their vote and test out the new devices. Twelve attendees voted yes. Six voted no and there was one abstention.
The total votes are counted within seconds and a graph on a computer displays the results. The system also calculates percentages to quickly figure out if articles that require a two-thirds majority have passed.
The devices will be linked to voters who can be easily identified if individual forgets to return it.
Fite said in the town of Wayland only one handset has been lost in nine years.
“Their meetings are about twice as big on average or a little bit larger than that,” Fite said.
Voters are not required to check out and only need to place their device in a bin when leaving. Guests who leave early and come back will be issued a new device.
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