It's Time to Legalize Remote Participation in Open Town Meetings!

The requirement that voters be physically present at Open Town Meeting prevents many registered voters from participating in their town's governance. Why?

Remote Participation would enable registered voters to fully engage in Open Town Meeting - listening, speaking, and voting - from anywhere using a smartphone or tablet with internet access.

A Town Meeting System that enables secure, easy-to-use Remote Participation is technically feasible and practical.

Three companies provide on-premises wireless electronic voting to more than 70 Massachusetts towns, but no company will develop a Town Meeting System that supports remote participation in Open Town Meetings until the Massachusetts Legislature makes it legal.

You can help encourage the Legislature to legalize remote participation in Open Town Meetings. How?

A Town Meeting System that supports Both Remote and On-Premises Participation

The legal requirement for physical presence at Open Town Meeting prevents many registered voters from participating in their town's governance

Physical presence may not be possible

  • Some voters have young children at home
  • Some voters must travel for work
  • Some voters cannot drive at night
  • Some voters have disabilities
  • Some voters are caregivers

In six towns studied,

  • Open Town Meeting attendance rates average 2% to 6% of registered voters
  • Attendance remains below 20% even for significant Warrant Articles, like operating overrides or debt exclusions
  • Typically, more than 3 times as many voters participate in state and local elections as attend Open Town Meeting

Town Meeting System Ease of Use

Little to no training is required

Remote Participants

  • receive credentials from the Town Clerk's office before the first Town Meeting session
  • log in to a web page, without having to install any software on their smartphone or tablet

One button is provided for each "Town Meeting action"

  • check-in
  • request to speak
    • in favor or in opposition
    • ask a question
    • offer an amendment
    • terminate debate
    • raise a point of order
  • review the queue of local and remote participants that have requested to speak
  • vote
  • audit the most recent vote

For more information,

Security and Integrity

Securely conveying votes over the internet

  • All messages are encrypted
  • Each voter can audit their vote and report discrepancies before the Moderator declares the vote to be final; see how it works.
  • Moderator-recruited “Designated Auditors” agree to audit each of their votes, and report discrepancies via text message

Detecting and Deterring Proxy Voting (Impersonation)

  • A picture of each remote participant's face is captured at initial session check-in, and discarded at end of each session
  • Continuous randomly-chosen re-checkins of remote participants by the Town Clerk's staff throughout a session confirm expected name and address with no change in face
  • Proxy voting is a criminal offense - voting fraud - with serious penalties

Detecting an internet outage

  • The Town Meeting System continuously tracks unintentional disconnections
  • The Moderator is informed if a pre-publicized number of unintentional disconnections is exceeded within a short time interval; the Town's pre-publicized Town Meeting Disconnection Policy would then be invoked

Take Action

Contact your legislators

  • Bills H.2274 and SD3114 would authorize remote participation in Open Town Meetings state-wide
  • State Legislators listen to their constituents, particularly in matters of local government
  • Contact your state legislators and encourage them to support these bills!

Inform your Massachusetts friends about this web page and ask them to help!

If you have questions or concerns,