Last week I spent a morning in New London’s historic Town Hall observing a post-election audit. I noticed this interesting device. Can you explain it, without reading further?
While you are thinking, here is a panorama of the Council Chambers. Two plaques on the wall list the Mayors starting in 1646 and note New London was founded by John Winthrop, the Younger.
Now back to the device above. It is actually a mechanism for requesting and publicly displaying voters. Those are ping-pong balls with the names of council members. The Clerk calls off a member’s name and then places the ball in the yea or nay track. In the end the longest track wins.
Unlike votes in our elections, the council does not have to deal with a secret ballot. Like votes in the General Assembly where they are recorded on a big board, or when we raise our hands in a public meeting the whole process is transparent and easily validated by everyone present.
In a town council or legislature it is a good idea since the members should be accountable to the public. When we vote by secret ballot it is to prevent any voter from being bribed, coerced, or otherwise beholden to anyone but ourselves for our vote.
