Wareham voters will take electronic voting for a test drive at the October 28 Town Meeting.

Spurred by a desire to speed up voting and by concerns that hand-count voting makes some voters reluctant to vote differently than friends and neighbors, Town Moderator Claire Smith and other officials have for several years been looking into a system that would allow anonymous, button-pushing voting.

On Tuesday, Selectman gave the go-ahead to a trial of such a system at this year’s fall Town Meeting.

For the trial, Ohio-based Turning Point Technology will allow Wareham to use its Response Card remote controls free of charge.

Residents will have about 20 seconds to cast their vote on their assigned Response Cards. They will press 1A to vote “yes” or 2B to vote “no.” Upon completion, the result will instantly appear on a screen at the front of the auditorium. 

“Once I say ‘Now I will call for the vote,’ the Turning Point Technology technician will activate the remotes and record the votes on the computer,” said Town Moderator Claire Smith. 

While the trial will be free, Smith said purchasing the system would cost $17,000. Leasing would cost $2,000 per Town Meeting for up to 400 units.

The cost includes remote controls, a receiver and a technician from Turning Point Technology to set up the devices and oversee the process. 

Until now, votes at Town Meeting have been taken by a “show of hands,” with “tellers” counting raised hands to determine whether a proposal passes. 

The new technology would allow voters to vote anonymously. 

“No-one has any idea how you vote,” said Smith. “Everybody is just pushing the buttons.”

“People won’t see how others vote, and that’s really good because many voters are a minority,” added Select Board Chair Patrick Tropeano. 

If feedback is positive, Wareham will join a handful of towns across the state that have chosen to lease or purchase electronic voting devices for town meetings — including Concord, Dover, Falmouth, Lynnfield, Sherborn, Webster, Westwood, and others. 

“Most towns prefer to rent the technology because it changes so quickly and you constantly have to update it,” said Smith. 

“There are towns that bought the technology but they have people on their committee who are MIT graduates and computer technicians, so they know how to update the software. For the average town, you don't have that, so it’s cheaper and better to rent.”

Wareham town officials took the initiative to adopt electronic voting five years ago. 

But due to high prices caused by low competition in the services, the town didn’t have enough funds to sponsor the change. 

“Now, when more towns are buying into [electronic voting] and there is a growing competition among the companies that provide this technology, the cost is going down,” said Smith. “I am excited about giving this a try to see how people feel about it.”