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Select Board hears Wayland presentation on pilot for remote participation at Town Meeting
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Summary
At its April 15 meeting the Nantucket Select Board heard a detailed presentation from a Wayland consultant on a web-based system to allow remote participation at open Town Meeting, including authentication, vote audits, and a legislative plan for pilot towns.
The Nantucket Select Board on April 15 received an extended briefing on a proposal to allow voters to participate remotely in open Town Meeting, including to speak and cast secret ballots, under a staged pilot program. Sarah Alger, Nantucket’s town moderator, introduced Dave Bernstein of Wayland, who described a web application that uses pre-issued secret voter codes, on‑demand video check-ins, and an audit page showing each remote vote to allow verification before the moderator declares results.
Bernstein said the system would permit remote attendees to check in with the town clerk, take a photograph retained only for the session to deter proxy voting, see a real‑time speaker queue and transcript, and press a single button to vote yes, no or abstain. To protect integrity he described randomly assigned staff spot checks of remote participants, a designated-auditor mechanism to monitor vote totals, and a continuity policy if a portion of remote participants are disconnected.
The presentation stressed technical and legal challenges: the technical design includes an audit trail that displays secret voter codes and their votes immediately prior to the moderator’s announcement so discrepancies can be reported; the legal issue is that remote participation for open town meeting is currently not authorized outside of temporary COVID rules. Bernstein said two bills (identified in the presentation as 2197 and 2129) are working their way through the legislature, and his preferred legislative path would authorize a small set of pilot towns to test the system before any wider roll-out.
Responding to Select Board questions, town counsel Lauren Goldberg said a town meeting vote would likely be required to authorize a home-rule or special-legislation request. Board members raised concerns about moderator workload, how moderators would throttle speaker requests, whether the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office supports the approach, equity for towns that could not implement the system, and risks if remote participants were disconnected during a close vote. Bernstein and other presenters said the model relies on staged pilots, robust audit procedures, and moderator tools to manage large queues.
The board did not take action on the matter but asked staff to consider next steps and whether the town should pursue participation in early pilots or further study. The moderator and staff said they would return with options for potential local engagement and public input.
