Letter: Night of the Living Voting Clickers

Letter to the Editor05:00PM / Sunday, May 14, 2023Print Story | Email Story

To the Editor:

I did a little research regarding the proposed Williamstown electronic voting devices and am offering more information than was provided by Selectman Daley.

First: The cost of the devices is $26,000 for 1,000. Williamstown, actually has more poverty than Lanesboro, and I’m sure 26 needy families could make good use of $1,000.

The devices appear to be of Asian origin and are identified as SunVote M30 Response Keypads. Other towns in New England have begun using these or similar devices. Williamstown appears to be gung-ho to jump on the bandwagon.

They are designed to work via Bluetooth radio waves. The keypads use two lithium CR2032 batteries each. They employ two-way RF 2.4GHz digital communication technology.

Some questions are:

Are they safe to use for everybody?
Could they affect anyone's medical devices?
Could having 1,000 keypads simultaneously pressed have cumulative, unpredictable consequences?

Up to 30 percent of the population may be sensitive to RF radio waves. Common symptoms may be anxiety, hyperactivity, irritability, depression, chest tightness, fatigue, memory loss, headaches, dizziness, sleep issues, noise sensitivity, ringing in the ears, burning eyes, nervous bladder, heart palpitations, muscle tension, joint pain and skin rashes.

Can these keypads be hacked? Can voters/entities obtain additional keypads and vote more than once without being easily detected?

Conversely, how do you prevent the people sitting near you from seeing your vote?

There may be advantages to using these keypads. People may be more willing to oppose out-of-control spending if they can do it anonymously. However, it may be premature to adopt using these keypads without more longitudinal study.

Ken Swiatek
Williamstown, Mass.

iBerkshires.com Text Ads

Now's the time...

to harvest value from your home. Click for more details about a HELOC. Insured by NCUA.

www.greylock.org

rk MILES Blding Materials

Are You Ready to Update Your Home? Start With rk MILES. 4 Locations (800)670-7433

www.rkmiles.com

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Williamstown's Gas Supply Is at Capacity, and Economic Development Is at Stake

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires.com
05:48AM / Monday, September 21, 2026

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — For more than a decade, town officials have been grappling with how the Village Beautiful can spur economic development.

Last week, the Select Board heard about a major impediment the town can do nothing about.

"Berkshire Gas had reached out to me last week," Town Manager Robert Menicocci told the board during his report at the twice-monthly meeting. "I did meet with them, and they're reaching out to let us know they're out of capacity for Northern Berkshire.

"The pipeline that comes up through North Adams and feeds into us is at its maximum capacity. So there will be no additional installations for the very foreseeable and, probably, distant future."

That means that soon no more new residential or commercial hookups for natural gas will be available in town. And new development is exactly what Williamstown has been hoping to spur, particularly in its population center.

Economic development was the focus of an intensive, yearlong town study in 2015. It has been at the heart of many of the initiatives of the town's Planning Board in recent years. And it has been a rallying cry of the Finance Committee, which has consistently told residents that without "new growth" in the property tax base, the spiraling tax burden will continue to be split among existing taxpayers.

As recently as Aug. 24, during the Select Board's annual tax classification hearing, Town Assessor Christopher Lamarre told the panel why growing the tax base is the only way to avoid either cuts to town services or a Proposition 2 1/2 override vote.

View Full Story