This Massachusetts town still hand counts ballots, plans to make process more efficient

WHATELY, Mass. (WWLP) – The town of Whately is one of 49 towns statewide that still counts all of its ballots by hand.

Whately’s town clerk hopes that by attaining an electronic tabulator instead of using this ballot box it’ll speed up the process and give people instant results. Typically on election night after the polls close it can take several hours to count each and every ballot by hand. It takes a lot of man power which at times the process quite tedious and timely.

Amy Lavallee hopes to purchase an electronic voting tabulator before the end of the year
with the help of a state grant. Although many people enjoy using the old timey ballot box, having an updated system like the tabulator will significantly cut down on time spent hand-counting ballots.

The voting process would not change at all for voters, people would still come in on election day to submit their ballots. This long-standing tradition isn’t going away completely it might still be used for smaller local elections.

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