CLARKSBURG, Mass. — Voters next week will find their traditional oak ballot box has been traded in for a new electronic voting machine. 

 

The purchase was approved in the fiscal 2023 budget at town meeting and arrived shortly after the primary in September. 

 

"I think it's going to be a nice pleasant surprise for the people," said Town Clerk Marilyn Gomeau. "The big improvement, I feel for us, is the end of the night. The counting. There's no hand counting, you'll only have to count the write-ins."

 

The machine is familiar to Gomeau — it's a newer version of the boxes used in North Adams, where she was assistant and city clerk for more than two decades. 

 

Hand counting votes was something new for her when she was appointed to the part-time post more than a year ago. 

 

Gomeau said change can be tough but voters won't see that much of a difference. They'll still fill out their ballots, albeit the ballots are designed to be inserted into the new machine. What's different is that voters will have the opportunity to recheck their ballots before final submission. 

 

The machine has two buttons on the front: the red one that says "return" will eject the ballot so it can be reviewed, the green button will "cast" it. The machine will track the number of ballots cast and separate them into one of two bins depending on if there is a write-in. Once the election is over, the machine will issue a strip of paper with the votes counted.

 

Gomeau anticipated she would have results within a half-hour. 

 

The machine was being tested Saturday and the election workers were being asked to attend to see how the machine  operates.  

 

The old ballot box for Precinct 1 and its little bell that rang when a ballot was hand cranked into it has been stored away in the vault with two others. The town once had three precincts, a nod to the neighborhood clusters that were a fair distance from each other. 

 

The oaken ballot box was manufactured by Perfection Ballot Box Co. of Worcester during the first half of the last century. There were used throughout the state until being phased out for new technology. A number of small towns, such as Clarksburg, have continued their use into the 21st century. The Vineyard Gazette had a story about wooden ballot boxes in 2016 and noted two were still in use on Martha's Vineyard.

 

That story noted that the date of manufacture and number of the Perfections could be found on a certificate inside the box but Gomeau said they couldn't find a date on Precinct 1. 

 

The town had a good turnout for the September primary of 341, or about 37 percent. Gomeau said there has been a good early voting for the general election, mostly in terms of absentee ballots or mail-ins. 

 

"I'm excited that we're getting it," she said of the new machine. "I also think the younger people like to see the modern technology and that might draw more younger people out."