Thursday, January 29, 2009

Electronic Voting

If you watched the ending of the impeachment tribunal in the Illinois Senate today, you saw the electronic vote tabulation board. What if we had that at the Woodstock City Council?

There could be consideration, deliberation, debate, pondering ... all that stuff and, when it was time to vote, what if the members of the City Council had to press a button and record their votes, and the vote wouldn't be shown until all had voted?

Each member would record his or her vote, based on individual belief in the merits (or lack thereof) of the Motion. There wouldn't be any "Let's see how the others vote." Of course, the first one or two to vote don't have a herd to follow.

I've wondered on many nights why the votes so often are 7-0, even after vigorous discussion and a fair number of "I don't think I can support this" comments. And then 100% of the City Council supports it with a 7-0 vote.

If you aren't in favor of it, vote No.

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