As fall town meeting season draws near, we’ve been hard at work providing on-site technical support for voting sessions of all sizes. We had incredible success working with two high profile organizations – the NAACP and Moravian Church Synod, and aim to continue the trend as New England towns get ready to utilize electronic voting in their town meetings to vote on important issues that affect their communities. With over 50 New England towns currently utilizing TownVOTE – along with several newcomers like Grafton and Mashpee, we’ll certainly have our hands full in the upcoming weeks as town meeting season gets into full swing.
While light on town meetings, the summer months were hardly uneventful with the NAACP returning to use the system during their annual convention and the Moravian Church Synod upgrading to TownVOTE for the first time. The NAACP utilized TownVOTE again this year to handle all of the voting for over 30 articles and motions. Despite the large audience, the voting process was smooth and efficient, making the event a resounding success. Moravian Church Synod upgraded to TownVOTE for the first time during their summer meeting, where the system was used for all but two votes. Making the switch helped the church to foster inclusivity among the voting body, as blind participants could vote effectively thanks to our custom Braille overlay that can be fitted directly to the keypads. The rest of the meeting went off without a hitch, and the church was able to create a custom report detailing the results of each motion for future recordkeeping.
Saint Paul Church of Sacramento met on September 6th and 7th for a vote that could potentially restructure their entire organization, as they asked their 1,500 parishioners if they’d like to transition from a Pastor and Congregation-led church to an Elder Board-led church. The voting session posed a unique challenge, as the church needed to accommodate people who were voting from home via email, and in-person. To make the entire event seamless, they opted for ourCloudVOTE web-based, self-paced voting session which remained open for a 24-hour period. Meridia supported the session by creating a secure, yet simple login process for each participant, sending invitation emails and letting the walk-in voters use the same platform to simplify the process. Over the course of the voting period, Meridia support continued to monitor the voting process by responding to support questions and providing an up-to-date vote count for the Church members. The entire process allowed voters in multiple locations to vote as if they were in the same room – without the added pressure of tight time constraints and a difficult login process.
In the upcoming weeks of the fall town meeting season, we’ll be providing on-site support for electronic voting for towns across Massachusetts and New England, while dozens are happily and easily doing it on their own after the first-time on-site training. We are happy to welcome the towns of Mashpee and Grafton, who will be utilizing TownVOTE for the first time in their upcoming meetings.
