With just 49 towns in state still using hand-counted ballots, Whately seeks electronic tabulator

WHATELY — With hours upon hours spent in the aftermath of an election counting ballots, Whately’s town clerk hopes to speed up the process with an electronic tabulator.

Amy Lavallee is looking into the purchase of an electronic voting tabulator for future elections, which she said will significantly cut down on time spent hand-counting ballots. While she has a $5,000 grant in hand, she needs an additional $2,000 to complete the purchase from New Hampshire-based LHS Associates.

“I was surprised by how tedious the process is of counting afterwards. As a voter you don’t think about the background and what happens after you put that ballot in,” Lavallee said at Whately’s election location, the Town Hall. “After doing my fourth [election], I thought, ‘There has to be a better way,’ and there is a better way.”

The voting process, she emphasized, would hardly change at all for voters walking into Town Hall, as they will still fill out the traditional ballot and hand it to election staff. The major difference would be that ballots wouldn’t go into the historical ballot box anymore.



https://www.gazettenet.com/With-just-49-towns-in-state-still-using-hand-counted-ballots-Whately-seeks-electronic-tabulator-56973144