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Town Clerk: new rule requires immediate school-ballot counts; towns must budget for All 4 One tablet programming
Summary
Town Clerk Charity Baker said a Secretary of State rule change requires school ballots to be counted immediately after polls close and that a law now requires All 4 One voting tablets at town elections; the state will allow towns to use state tablets this year but programming costs fall to the town or school and future local elections will likely require towns to buy their own devices.
Town Clerk Charity Baker told the Select Board on Jan. 21 that state changes will affect how Lancaster counts school ballots and how local elections are run.
Baker said the Secretary of State's office informed towns that school ballots must be counted immediately following polls' closing in the precinct where they were cast. Lancaster historically delayed school-ballot counting until after town meeting; Baker said she discussed the change with the moderator, who asked to maintain the current process for this year.
Baker also explained that a change in law requires towns to provide the All 4 One voting tablet for local elections as well as state elections. She said the state will allow towns to use its tablets for this year's local elections but that the programming cost for the local ballot falls to the town or school. "A paper ballot is still printed even though the voter uses an electronic device," Baker said when describing the tablet's process. She said the town will need to plan for purchasing and sharing tablet costs with the school in future elections.
