Harwich Town Meeting Voters Will Vote Electronically.

 HARWICH - There will be a couple of changes in the town meeting process when voters come together on Monday, May 4, to address financial and policy issues in the annual warrant. For the first time in the town’s history, electronic clickers will be used to count votes on some of the articles.

 Town Moderator Michael Ford wants to remind voters the starting time for the meeting will be 6 p.m. a change from the traditional 7 p.m. start in past years.

 Ford and Town Clerk Emily Mitchell were before the select board on April 13 making a presentation on the use of the electronic clickers. They were joined online by Sean McPeak of Meridia Interactive Solutions, the Pennsylvania firm winning the town bid to provide the devices. Voters approved $35,000 in last May’s annual town meeting to rent the clickers. The company will be providing the town with 700 clickers for this town meeting.

The operation of the clickers is pretty quick to learn, according to Mitchell. Instructions will be provided and there will be two test questions presented to voters before the start of the meeting to get attendees comfortable voting electronically. 

McPeak said his company provides clickers for 95 towns throughout New England and the operation is easy to learn. He said his company will have staff arrive four hours before the start of town meeting, providing boxes of clickers to the registrars, who will distribute them as residents obtain voting cards from the registrars. 

"We'll go over the instructions, green is a ‘yes’ and red is a ‘no’ vote,” McPeak said of the buttons on the clicker.

Ford said the use of the clickers will replace standing counts, which slow down the town meeting, allowing for the meeting to move more quickly and get voters home a bit earlier. The moderator also said some people are looking for anonymity when they cast their vote.

Ford, who serves as town counsel in Orleans, said his experience with clickers there goes back six years. In the first year they used clickers in Orleans, voters had questions about how to change their vote. A timeframe is set to cast a vote. In Orleans, initially they set 45 seconds, but it was later reduced to 20 seconds. Ford said he is looking at a 30 second timeframe in Harwich, but it can be adjusted if necessary.

As for changing a vote, McPeak said you can change your vote by clicking on the other button. He explained the vote recorded will be the last button you clicked on before the voting timeframe expires, and you will get an “okay” when the system has received that vote.

While the clickers are usually used to expedite standing vote counts, Ford said in the first session of use he may use the clickers on more votes so that people get comfortable using them. He said they will certainly be used instead of standing counts, but Ford said he will also use the clickers when he can tell that people want to keep their votes to themselves.

Select Board member Jeffrey Handler asked Ford if he would allow a voter to request a clicker vote.

 “I’d put it out to the voters to decide,” responded Ford.

Ford said the use of the clickers will provide a quicker and more organized meeting.

Ford emphasized the change in starting time for town meeting from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m. He also said they would be doing a “dry run” for use of the clickers at 5:30 p.m. for voters.

As for changes in town meeting time, Ford said he traditionally would not take up any business after 10:30 p.m., but given the earlier starting time, he will probably move that deadline up to 10 p.m., unless they are very close to finishing the warrant.

Mitchell said she has had inquiries about the security features associated with this system.

McPeak said no Internet, WiFi or Bluetooth is used with the clicker system, which is placed in airplane mode, and is contained only within the hearing room. No outside interference can access the computer. It’s a short ranger system, contained by the walls of the meeting room. Only people in the room can vote, he said.

A question was raised about a spillover crowd that would have to be located in another hearing room. Mitchell and Ford have agreed voting in that secondary room would have to be done by a paper vote and added to the electronic count.

Periodically, throughout the town meeting session, Ford said, voters will be reminded to return the clickers when leaving. He said you can carry them out to grab a coffee in the lobby, but when exiting the building they must be returned. They can be returned to the registrars and there will be cardboard boxes in place at the doors to collect the clickers.