Finance Committee Transfers Funds for Spring E-Voting

Wayland’s Special Town Meeting scheduled for Nov. 17 threw a wrench into plans to fund electronic voting for the annual town meeting in spring 2012.

But the Finance Committee took steps at its Monday night meeting to, the members hope, remove that wrench.

Since the trial run with electronic voting was so popular at the April 2011 Town Meeting, members of the Electronic Voting Implementation Subcommittee (now re-tasked and re-named to the Electronic Voting 2.0 Subcommittee) had worked with the Board of Selectmen to secure funding for electronic voting at the spring 2012 meeting, during which the subcommittee planned to submit an article seeking more permanent funding for the project.

Finance Committee Chair Cherry Karlson explained that there was no intention to hold a 2011 fall town meeting until a couple of weeks ago, so selectmen believed they would have money left over in the town meeting fund – money available for a fall meeting, if needed – to fund electronic voting at a spring 2012 town meeting.

But two weeks ago, a fall special town meeting became necessary, and the town meeting funds were suddenly called into use.

“We weren’t planning to put forth an article until April,” Dave Bernstein, with the 2.0 subcommittee, told the FinCom members Monday night. “It was only very recently we learned that that opportunity was going to have to change.”

With funds suddenly gone, Bernstein and his committee designed an article to submit for the warrant for November’s Special Town Meeting, but the FinCom wanted to avoid including that article in the Warrant if at all possible as it would re-open the entire FY12 budget to consideration.

“In lieu of opening the budget, we could allocate $30,000, plus or minus, from our [the Finance Committee’s] discretionary funds to bring electronic voting to town meeting, and these folks could then bring their article as planned,” recommended FinCom member Bill Steinberg.

Bernstein said rough estimates for electronic voting place the cost at about $15,000 for a one-day special town meeting and about $30,000-$35,000 for a three-day regular town meeting.

Alan Reiss, a member of the 2.0 committee, told the FinCom via email that his committee would withhold its article if the FinCom agreed to four points: Providing $25,000 to fund e-voting in the spring, which would be enough to fund the system for up to 800 voters for two consecutive days of town meeting; support and recommend funding a leased e-voting service; vote to support an e-voting article at the spring 2012  town meeting; and agree to have town meeting held over two consecutive nights.

FinCom members explained to Bernstein (Reiss was not in attendance) that they could not recommend or support an article that was not yet written, and that they did not have the jurisdiction to set the dates of the spring town meeting.

The funding, however, could be addressed.

“Besides 3-year-olds, I can’t think of anything in this town that people like more than electronic voting,” joked FinCom member Tom Greenaway before moving to transfer $30,000 from the Finance Committee reserve account to the unclassified Town Meeting account.

His motion was amended to note the FinCom’s support of the concept of e-voting. Both the amendment and motion passed unanimously.