Town Meeting changes under discussion locally and statewide

In a survey by Lincoln’s Town Meeting Study Committee (TMSC), a plurality of respondents were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with how Town Meeting is run, and almost three-quarters would like to see written “pro and con” summaries of warrant articles before voting.

The online survey was filled out by 566 Lincoln residents to help guide the recommendations of the TMSC, which was formed after complaints about Town Meeting in March 2024 highlighted by the vote on the controversial Housing Choice Act. Controversy swirled that day and afterwards about who was allowed to present information and how.

The survey also asked how respondents got their information about issues before Town Meeting, and how they would prefer to discuss and vote on issues. While 95% said they approved of the use of clickers to vote, 50% supported having discussion and votes on two different days, or at different times on the same day. The committee previewed the results at the October 20 Select Board meeting and will present and discuss them at the State of the Town meeting on Saturday, Nov. 1.

TMSC members used AI to compile and summarize the hundreds of survey comments. The most frequently stated sentiment (mentioned by more than 80 of the respondents) was that voting needs to be more accessible, fair, and modernized. Close behind were these opinions:

• The Town Meeting process is seen as unfair, biased, and undemocratic
• There is a need for equal opportunity pro and con arguments
• Town Meeting length, structure and moderation require improvement
• Time and scheduling are major barrier to participation

Lincoln is not alone is looking for ways to improve Town Meeting, though until fairly recently, many thought that the state law requiring in-person Town Meeting discussion and voting was an almost insuperable roadblock. But a bill filed by Rep. Carmine Gentile (H.2274) would allow remote participation and voting for any town with Open Town Meeting. The bill has been endorsed by the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Municipal Association, and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council.

“There’s a little more groundswell for remote voting than we realized,” said Jim Hutchinson, the Select Board’s representative on the TMSC.

At the start of the pandemic, the state allowed towns to conduct other types of meetings remotely, an innovation that has been largely successful. A bill signed in March 2025 extends that option until March 2027, and there are discussions about making it permanent. 

If Gentile’s bill becomes law, residents would be able to obtain digital credentials from the Town Clerk in advance, use their smartphone or tablet to remotely check in, view the queue of voters (both on premises and remote) seeking to speak, watch and listen to the proceedings with real-time visual transcription, and speak (when allowed by the moderator) to offer an opinion, make a motion, etc. They could also audit their vote to confirm that it was correctly received and counted, and report a discrepancy in the vote before that vote is finalized.

Concord and Wayland have also filed home rule petitions asking the legislature to allow them towns to allow remote Town Meeting participation. Lexington filed a similar petition in 2022 but it never came up for a vote on Beacon Hill.

“If these bills [H.2274 and its Senate counterpart, S.3114, filed by Sen. Michael Barrett] advance from Committee, then they would likely need to pass in the House and Senate by the end of July 2026 or be refiled in the next legislative session (2027-2028),” said Gentile’s legislative aide Ravi Simon. “We are hopeful that either the statewide local option bill will pass, or that the legislature will allow Wayland and Concord to pilot this concept.”

The other hurdle is creating and implementing software that will allow voter participation securely and smoothly. “If the Littleton Water Department can be hacked by overseas [actors], imagine Town meeting voting,” said TMSC member Andrew Pang.

The TMSC was originally planning to release its report at the State of the Town, but they’re holding off because they haven’t settled on what to recommend about splitting Town Meeting into two sessions and/or “joining the remote voting home rule petition bandwagon,” Hutchinson said.

“I don’t see us full-out recommending either of those be adopted,” he said. “What we’ve been talking about is whether to recommend that those issues be put to a vote at a Town Meeting so that residents can tell us whether they want those things, and if so, exactly which variation we’d recommend voting on.”

The TMSC will meet remotely on Monday, Oct. 27 at 9:00pm. Click here for the Zoom link.