By Dakota Antelman — [email protected]
How often will Concord use voting clickers this June?
In a meeting with flashes of heated debate that ended in a split decision, the Town Meeting Study Committee recommended residents vote with the devices on every warrant article.
“If we’re paying for clickers, we should use the clickers,” said study committee member Katie Bresnick, one of the “yes” voters.
The 5-3 decision came roughly two months after officials agreed to make clickers available for a tryout.
The recommendation would have clickers replace the current practice of raising colorful placards. Some supporters have said clickers are a more discreet option for people who don’t want their neighbors to know how they voted.
Kristen Hagerty, Phil Swain, and Alice Kaufman voted “no” on the January 28 recommendation, all saying they preferred giving the town moderator discretion rather than a blanket directive. (Kaufman sits on the board of The Concord Bridge but is not involved in news coverage decisions.)
Hagerty told The Bridge she also voted against the recommendation because she doesn’t believe the town needs clickers in general.
In an email, she said she doesn’t think the benefits outweigh their costs, not only financially, but “to our ability and willingness to openly discuss our different viewpoints.”
Cost estimates
The committee has spent months weighing reforms since voters discussed possible Town Meeting changes last year.
One night before the study committee reconvened, Town Manager Kerry Lafleur told the Select Board that officials had gathered estimates of what it would cost to rent 1,300 clickers for three days. Lafleur said the lowest was $18,495 from Meridia Interactive Solutions.
Lafleur presented options to cut costs, and Select Board members and Town Moderator Carmin Reiss questioned whether Concord could rent fewer clickers.
In December, the study committee’s initial clicker recommendation said the devices represent a faster and more accurate option “when accurate counts are needed.” The committee also said clickers “are the best way to implement secret ballots.”
The committee recommended using clickers “when [they] are needed or desired” but didn’t give specific guidance.
Lafleur said she was waiting for more input before moving forward with a rental.
‘Bigger than expected’
Without funds for clickers in the Town Meeting budget, staff turned to the American Rescue Plan Act. The town had $10,000 in ARPA dollars available and reallocated $23,250 originally marked for municipal strategic planning.
On January 28, Reiss acknowledged the estimated cost is “bigger than expected” and referenced emails between herself, Lafleur, study committee chair Eric Moore, and others in town government.
Lafleur provided those emails to The Bridge. In them, she said “given that any expense over [$10,000] this year requires us to ‘cut’ another planned expense, perhaps the best approach [is] to see if we can all generally agree to use the clickers on one night only.”
But the study committee stuck with a three-day plan.
Lafleur said she suggested one night instead of three “to see if we could gain consensus.” She said she brought up the budgetary concerns given the chance that the town could spend unbudgeted money on clickers “and then perhaps not even use them at all.”
Privacy concerns
Making the case for widespread use, study committee member Parashar Patel said Town Meeting is a legislative body. “But we are not legislators. My vote does not need to be public.”
He also said leaving decisions about clickers up to the moderator invites possible controversy. Patel’s motion, which passed 5-3, calls for using clickers “routinely” to approve articles from the warrant.
Procurement process
The study committee’s vote is nonbinding. Reiss said it’s the moderator who “has the authority to direct the means of voting,” but Town Meeting participants could override a decision they don’t like.
With some questions unanswered, Lafleur said that as of January 29, staff were still figuring out how many clickers the town needs but expect it to be between 800 and 1,300.
