Election: Poll Pads
Paperless Voter Check-In
The Town of Groton will be implementing the use of Poll Pads at the Fall Town Meeting being held on Saturday, October 28, 2023.
The use of these tablets allows the election worker to look the voter up in one of two ways:
- By manually entering the first few letters of the voter’s first and last name;
or
- By scanning the bar code on the back of the voter’s driver’s license (which speeds up the process further but is completely voluntary).
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts does not require that a voter present a license to check‐in; however, presenting a license allows for a more streamlined check‐in process. The Poll Pad will match the name and date of birth of the voter with the name and date of birth it reads from the bar code on the back of the drivers’ license. No information from the scanned license is retained by the Poll Pad.
Another change being implemented at the Fall Town Meeting will be how the check‐in process will be done. Instead of checking in by address, as has been done in the past, voters will check‐in by name and have the ability to check‐in with any election worker by utilizing one of the two options above. The Poll Pads are programmed to immediately talk to one another and eliminate any opportunity for voters to check‐in more than once.
