Public Voting at a Town Meeting During COVID-19
Town of Wenham, MA decided that an electronic voting system can solve their dilemma with a contentious town meeting that needed to have a public voting option while taking place outdoors.
electronic voting system
Town Meeting Voting in the Time of COVID-19
New England Town Meeting Voting is not known for social distancing. Usually several hundred citizens squeeze into a meeting room or gymnasium and vote on local matters dear to their hearts. So how do you do ‘contactless voting’ and accommodate COVID-19 restrictions into your voting sessions?
Electronic Voting and the 91 Million-Dollar Question
The residents of Leicester, MA got together on September 26th in record-breaking numbers to vote on a proposition to borrow $91 million to relocate one of their schools.
Attending to the Business of the Church
An audience response system enables the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania to vote on annual meeting measures in a fraction of the time the scantron systems used to take. “We’ve taken what had been a 45-minute process and reduced it to 10 minutes,” says Jeremiah Mustered, Executive Assistant to the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania.
Bringing the Benefit of Privacy to the Public Square
Town Meeting in any New England town ought to be a simple thing. A motion is brought to a vote and people hold colored cards in the air to indicate whether or not they support the motion. If the color associated with the Ayes dominates the color associated with the Nays, they Ayes have it. That’s pretty straightforward. Shouldn’t take a lot of time.
Taming the Vote at Town Meeting
Town of Uxbridge, MA replaced its tradition of colored cards with an electronic voting system that enabled residents to vote immediately and anonymously.
The Town Meeting Vote in the 21st Century
Since the earliest days, the annual Town Meeting in Uxbridge, Massachusetts has been rife with passion when questions are put on the table relating to the public funding of schools. In 1732, the town had to hold two votes before it could set aside the funds for a school.
Voting for a More Vital Church
Church membership is in decline, and the parish church is feeling it most acutely. Strengthening the community may involve changing the community, and that’s rarely easy.
Faithfully Capturing the Voice of the Faithful
Like many religious institutions in the United States, the Catholic Church has struggled over the last decades. Fewer families are joining established churches and parishes are shrinking. What changes needed to be made to ensure the vitality of the Pittsburgh Diocese?
What is Ranked Choice Voting?
Maine has implemented ranked choice voting for both its federal and state elections. Localities in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, and half a dozen other states have adopted it for municipal elections. But what is ranked choice voting?
