Press Release: 7/11/2025

Testimony submitted to the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government In support of H.2274, An Act authorizing remote participation at town meeting

Testimony submitted to the

Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government

In support of H.2274, An Act authorizing remote participation at town meeting

By Nancy Brumback, LWVMA Legislative Specialist

July 22, 2025

In June, as annual town meeting season was winding down, the League of Women Voters of

Massachusetts received an email from a Mansfield resident who was distressed that the school budget

would be cut because town meeting did not approve an override. She noted that she, and many of her

friends, were not able to participate in the open town meeting because they have small children and

cannot attend an hours-long meeting on a weeknight, even though they are very concerned about the

school budget. She questioned why there was no other way than in-person attendance to participate in

town meeting votes.

Parents of small children, people with certain disabilities, seniors who don’t drive at night, and residents

who travel for work are just some of the voters who cannot participate in their town’s government because

they cannot attend the annual town meeting in person. Currently, the open town meeting format, used in

about 250 towns, allows only in-person participation. (Towns that use the representative town meeting

format, with delegates elected from districts, are permitted to hold those meetings with a remote or hybrid

format.) Each year, as annual open town meetings come to a close, voters raise questions about changing

the process to allow more voters to participate more easily.

A volunteer technical committee in the town of Wayland has been working for several years on a concept

to allow remote participation in town meetings in a secure fashion. Their proposal would allow remote

voters to fully participate in warrant article discussions, vote on warrant articles and have their vote

counted in real time. A presentation on this concept is available here. But no company will even begin to

develop software that could implement Wayland’s proposed approach until the law is changed to allow

hybrid open town meetings. The Wayland Select Board asked that this bill be filed to allow the option for

remote and hybrid town meetings.

H.2274 would allow, but not require, hybrid or remote access and participation in open town meeting, and

LWVMA is supporting that bill. Wayland also filed a home rule petition, H.2272, An Act authorizing

remote participation at town meetings in the town of Wayland, as a backup to a statewide bill. But other

towns are also interested in testing remote participation in town meeting; Concord authorized a home rule

petition at its spring town meeting.

A key League position supports this bill: Promote an open governmental system that is representative,

accountable and responsive; that has a fair and adequate fiscal basis; that protects individual liberties

established by the constitution; and that assures opportunities for citizen participation in government

decision-making....(LWVUS). In addition, LWVMA supports home rule for towns in local matters, and

this bill would allow towns to experiment with ways to run their town meetings.

The League urges this committee to report H.2274 favorably and quickly. The widespread use of remote

participation in the meetings of local government boards such as Select Boards and school committees has

greatly increased interest and participation in local government. It is time to allow towns to experiment

with remote participation in annual town meeting--the legislative arm of town government. Right now, the

in-person-only requirement means the major business of the legislative body of the town—passing a

budget, approving capital purchases, and adopting new town laws—is very frequently conducted by a

very small percentage of the town’s voters.

Thank you for your consideration.