When Old Littleton Road resident Paul Green noticed that he sometimes had to click twice to vote on articles for his vote to be confirmed at the 2025 Annual Town Meeting, he began to look for a possible reason. He came up with the theory that there was a small lag between the time the moderator announced the vote was open and the time the vote actually opened. Green brought his concern to Moderator Bill Barton, who told the Press he is addressing Green’s concern by changing the vote-opening procedure for the upcoming Sept. 27 Town Meeting.
The Meridia electronic voting system has been used in three Harvard Town Meetings since it was introduced in 2024. At the time of its introduction, Barton said over 65 Massachusetts towns as well as the U.S. House of Representatives were already using the system. He said the switch to the electronic system was made primarily to eliminate the need to recount hands when votes are close.
The system includes clickers with “yes” and “no” buttons as well as a small screen in the upper left corner that displays “A” when “yes” is pressed, and “B” when “no” is pressed. The system’s software, controlled from a laptop a few feet away from the moderator, opens voting, records the votes, and closes voting. But the opening and closing require a human to physically interact with the software on the laptop.
Barton was using his announcement to open the vote as the signal to the support person running the laptop. He agreed that the procedure might have introduced a small lag between his announcement and the readiness of the system to record votes. As a result, Barton said he will signal the laptop support person to open the vote before announcing that voting is open. That way, any quick-on-the-draw voters can be sure their votes will be counted. He added he will also train voters on how to use the clickers not just at the start of the meeting, but also during the meeting for latecomers.
Voter training needed
Green told the Press he would like the moderator to provide more training than he has in the past, including pointing out the location on the video screen in the front of the room that displays whether or not the vote is open. There is also a small “OK” message displayed in the top right corner of each clicker when a vote has been successfully recorded. Barton did mention the vote confirmation message during the first training session in 2024, but he added that it was hard to see. He didn’t bring it up in the 2025 meeting.
Green said if the training happens too early in the meeting before everyone in the lobby is checked in, he will object. He also said that if a vote is close, he may call for a manual count or a “divide the house” vote, where voters walk to one side of the room or the other to signify “yes” or “no” votes.
As for testing the system itself, Town Clerk Rose Miranda told the Press that since the electronic voting system was introduced, it has always been tested about a week before Town Meetings. Votes are cast on random clickers in various parts of Cronin Auditorium to make sure they are functioning from all locations in the room. In addition, she said, poll workers turn on the clickers when voters check in at Town Meetings to make sure they are functioning.
