Amherst Town Meeting adopts electronic voting

Amherst's Spring 2016 Town Meeting began this week, with the debut of its new electronic voting system. In November 2015, Town Meeting voted to amend its rules to allow the use of electronic voting, and appropriated funds for the purchase of an electronic voting system. The system was procured over the winter, and made its debut this week. The electronic voting system replaces the previous tally votes, which were conducted by members passing in green or red cards to indicate votes for or against an issue. These tally votes produced the data available on this site detailing the voting records for all Town Meeting members, but they were lengthy and cumbersome, taking up to ten minutes each to conduct a vote.

With the new electronic voting system, all votes will initially be conducted first by voice vote, as they always have been. On the call of a single member (or if the moderator is in doubt), an electronic vote will be taken. With the ability to take a full recorded vote of the entire meeting in about thirty seconds, the electronic voting system is expected to produce much more detailed information about the voting histories of each Town Meeting member.

The Spring Town meeting began on Monday, May 2, but the list of articles considered that night were relatively routine, producing mostly unanimous or near-unanimous votes, with no need to take any of the votes to the electronic system (apart from a test of the system at the beginning of the meeting). Wednesday night saw the first use of the electronic system, with a vote on a motion to increase the elementary school budget by $30K to fund library para-professionals. Apart from a few early hiccups, the system worked smoothly, with a vote outcome of 134 in favor, 12 opposed, and 6 abstentions.

The abstentions recorded in that vote provide an interesting new data point, since the old red-card/green-card tally vote system provided no way to record an abstention on a vote. A member could abstain by not passing in a card, but the records would only show that the member was in attendance that night and did not vote on that issue. There was no way to tell whether the member was actually absent for that vote (they may have arrived late or left early, missing the vote), or whether they were there but chose not to vote. With the new system, members can choose to vote "Yes", "No", or "Abstain" for each vote, and the statistics recorded on this site will reflect those votes.

Amherst's Spring 2013 Town Meeting concluded after its ninth session on Monday, June 10, extending beyond its customary 10PM deadline to consider four final petition articles, wrapping up close to 11PM.

The final session produced three tally votes on zoning articles. Bucking the trend of recent years, the Spring Town Meeting finished up with a total of ten tally votes, the most since the 20 tally votes in the spring of 2007.

The database at tallyvotes.org has been updated with the tally vote results, along with attendance records for all nine sessions of the Spring Town Meeting. Click the links below to see the results from each of the tally votes, or use the "Go to the database" button at the top of the page to access the full database search screen.

5/15/13 - Article 26 - Appropriate $30K for Town-Gown planning study
        (Passed - 122 YES, 46 NO)

5/20/13 - Article 29 - Substitute petition article paragraphs into rental regulations
        (Failed - 74 YES, 116 NO)

5/22/13 - Article 36 - Rezone property on Main St from R-G to B-N
        (Passed - 120 YES, 55 NO)

5/29/13 - Article 42 - Acquire Echo Village property - motion to refer
        (Passed - 95 YES, 93 NO)

6/3/13 - Article 43 - Acquire Cushman property - motion to dismiss
        (Passed - 98 YES, 90 NO)

6/3/13 - Article 31 - Change standards and conditions for mixed-use buildings - motion to refer
        (Failed - 82 YES, 94 NO)

6/3/13 - Article 31 - Change standards and conditions for mixed-use buildings
        (Passed - 119 YES, 56 NO)

6/10/13 - Article 32 - Change dimensional regulations for COM and B-L districts
        (Failed - 110 YES, 67 NO)

6/10/13 - Article 32 - Change dimensional regulations for B-VC and B-G districts
        (Passed - 121 YES, 53 NO)

6/10/13 - Article 35 - Create form-based dimensional regulations for non-conforming lots
        (Passed - 107 YES, 49 NO)


All Spring 2013 tally vote results

The nine sessions of this spring's Town Meeting was longer than seen in recent years, but not as long as the stretch from 2005 through 2008, which saw spring Town Meetings over ten nights long every year.



Overall attendance was 75.4%, down slightly from the record high in 2012, but still higher than the recent average of 72.4%.



Attendance varied from a high of 83.3% on the first night to a low of 69.7% on May 15.

The first seven tally votes for the 2013 Spring Town Meeting have been posted.

Click the links below to see the results from each of the tally votes, or use the "Go to the database" button at the top of the page to access the full database search screen.

5/15/13 - Article 26 - Appropriate $30K for Town-Gown planning study
        (Passed - 122 YES, 46 NO)

5/20/13 - Article 29 - Substitute petition article paragraphs into rental regulations
        (Failed - 74 YES, 116 NO)

5/22/13 - Article 36 - Rezone property on Main St from R-G to B-N
        (Passed - 120 YES, 55 NO)

5/29/13 - Article 42 - Acquire Echo Village property - motion to refer
        (Passed - 95 YES, 93 NO)

6/3/13 - Article 43 - Acquire Cushman property - motion to dismiss
        (Passed - 98 YES, 90 NO)

6/3/13 - Article 31 - Change standards and conditions for mixed-use buildings - motion to refer
        (Failed - 82 YES, 94 NO)

6/3/13 - Article 31 - Change standards and conditions for mixed-use buildings
        (Passed - 119 YES, 56 NO)

All Spring 2013 tally vote results

Amherst's Fall 2012 Special Town Meeting concluded after its third session on Wednesday, November 28.  Average attendance during the three nights of this Town Meeting was 71.6%, the highest attendance at a fall Town Meeting in the past six years.

Amherst's Fall 2012 Town Meeting began on Monday, November 19 and continued the following Monday, November 26.  The second session produced a single tally vote on a zoning article that would have added a new use category for single-family homes rented to unrelated individuals, and regulated this use by Special Permit.  The article failed by a vote of 69 YES, 102 NO.

Amherst's Spring 2012 Town Meeting continued into its sixth night on May 16, with a tally vote on the capital budget for buildings and facilities under Article 17.  Two amendments were made to reduce the appropriation, but the original (unamended) amount was passed.

Amherst's 2012 Annual Town Meeting is underway, with four tally votes so far, two on the budget for community services and two on village center rezoning efforts in North Amherst and Atkins Corners.

The nomination deadline for the 2012 Annual Town Election was Tuesday, February 14, 2012, and nominations are now closed.  The database has been updated with candidates for all townwide offices, along with candidates for Town Meeting in each precinct.  You can examine voting records for the candidates in any specific townwide or precinct-level race.

Amherst's 2011 Fall Town Meeting concluded on Wednesday, November 18, 2011, on its third night.  The only article considered that night was Article 17, a proposal for village center rezoning in North Amherst and Atkins Corners, including the creation of a form-based code.  The final vote on the article produced the third tally vote of the Fall.  The article failed to achieve the two-thirds majority required to pass zoning changes, with a vote tally of 119 YES, 79 NO.

Amherst's Fall 2011 Town Meeting continued into its second night on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2011, with 147 members present, and a single tally vote.  Article 18 was a non-binding resolution presented by members of the recently-disbanded Committee on Homelessness, seeking to re-establish the committee.  The article failed by a vote of 60 YES, 65 NO.