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A new bill, Massachusetts House Bill 2274, aims to allow, but not require, hybrid or remote access and participation in open town meetings across Massachusetts. This legislation seeks to address the challenges many residents face in attending in-person-only town meetings, such as caring for young children, a lack of suitable transportation options, disabilities, and incompatible work schedules.
During a recent webinar hosted by the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, attendees were provided an update on the legislation, and specific efforts in Wayland, Massachusetts to develop a concept to allow secure remote participation in open town meeting.
Currently, about 250 towns in Massachusetts operate under the open town meeting format, where all registered voters can attend and vote on warrant articles. Unlike representative town meetings made up of elected delegates, which have been able to hold hybrid or remote meetings since the pandemic, open town meetings are legally restricted to in-person attendance.
Nancy Brumback, the League of Women Voters’ legislative specialist for good governance bills, highlighted the difficulty of attending lengthy in-person meetings, citing examples like Sudbury’s three-night session and Carlisle’s six-hour Saturday meeting.
The Town of Wayland has been at the forefront of this initiative, with its Electronic Voting Subcommittee (Elvis) developing a concept for secure remote participation. Miranda Jones, Wayland’s town moderator, and Dave Bernstein of the Elvis committee, presented their findings during the webinar.
Wayland’s proposed system features:
- User-Friendly Access: Participants would use their own smartphones or tablets with a web browser, requiring no software installation. Registration would involve obtaining a unique voter code, password, and audit code from the town clerk.
- Full Participation: The system aims to provide a complete town meeting experience for remote participants, including listening, speaking at virtual microphones, asking questions, making motions, and voting.
- Security Measures:
- Internet Outage Detection: The system would monitor “I’m here” messages from connected participants to detect widespread disconnections, allowing the moderator to enact a pre-determined continuation policy.
- Vote Tampering Detection: All voting messages would be encrypted. Every voter could audit their last vote in real-time using a secret audit code, and designated auditors would ensure comprehensive coverage.
- Impersonation Deterrence (Proxy Voting): Random audio-video re-check-ins would be conducted throughout the meeting, comparing the live image to the initial check-in photo. This process acts as a deterrent due to severe fraud penalties.
- Efficiency: Electronic voting using clickers, already implemented in Wayland since 2011 and now used by over 70 Massachusetts towns, including Sudbury, has significantly shortened town meetings by improving accuracy and privacy of votes.
Representative Carmine Gentile, sponsor of H2274, emphasized the bill’s importance in legalizing remote participation statewide, noting that no company would develop the necessary software without this legal framework. Wayland’s previous home rule petition on this matter was sent to study, but the Attorney General’s office found no issues with Wayland’s plan. Nearby Concord has also voted for remote town meetings, and more towns are encouraged to pass similar home rule petitions to increase the likelihood of a pilot program or statewide legislation.
While the statewide bill (H2274) is a new filing, a similar home rule bill from Wayland was filed in the previous session and sent to study. Both H2274 and Wayland’s home rule petition (House 2272) have been sent to the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government.
Legislators have been invited to a similar presentation on Monday, July 21, at 2 p.m. on Zoom, and public support for the bill is encouraged.
The Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government has scheduled a hearing for H2247 and H2272 on July 22.
