TownVote Update for Hive Members

Good Morning and thanks for being a Hive member!

I just wanted to send a quick update about VoteLight and Burlington TownVote.

I sent an update to voters yesterday about the Issue I’d created as a media outlet. I was looking at the wrong column when I entered the district share for the 325-student option, so that has been fixed thanks to a member with an eagle eye—thank you! If you received the update, then the system is working the way it should! If you voted or are an elected official (Planning Board, Select Board, or School Committee) and didn’t get the email, please check your spam/junk, and if it’s not there, let me know and we’ll troubleshoot.

I also want to reinforce that the purpose of this pilot is to determine if VoteLight provides something of value to the community and would be a good partner moving forward. It is too early, and the participant group is too small, to use TownVote as a valid survey of the town’s sentiments on any topic. If we do roll it out to the entire town, though, it could grow into a valuable tool. Thanks to all who have provided feedback so far, and to those who have voted.

Now that we’ve established the basics of how VoteLight works, I wanted to share some other features that could be useful.

• Ask questions. You can use the Q&A tab to ask a question to the person who created the Issue. Questions are private, but if the Issue creator responds, the question is made public.
• Additional links. The creator of an issue can post additional links and information about an Issue. They can also enable the ability for others to add additional information.
• Re-vote. If you change your mind about an issue after thinking or learning more, you can. Only your most recent vote is counted.
• Share Issues. You can also share the issue using the link icon at the top right of the issue.
• State & National Issues. As a voter in your state and country, you are also able to see state and national issues and vote on them. A few state and national issues have already been added, and they’ll apear in your feed.

We are still ironing out kinks, but many of you have expressed that you think this could ultimately be a good thing, and that is encouraging! We’ll keep on keeping on, but if you have feedback/corrections/ideas, please continue to reach out!

Nicci