Wayne County Commission Upgrades Electronic Voting System

Wayne County will utilize an electronic voting system with a public display and legislative meeting app.

(This picture is a mock-up of what the modernized board room will look like with the new system.)

St. Cloud, Minn., July 26, 2022 – To keep up-to-date with modern meeting technology, Wayne County will be upgrading to the latest e-voting software later in 2022.

With the adoption of the OpenMeeting Technologies e-voting system, the largest county in Michigan, Wayne County, is upgrading its electronic voting and digital meeting management processes, joining other local legislative leaders across the country as adoption of touchscreen e-voting has been brisk.

“We are excited to support Wayne County,” said Mark Netsch, Director at OpenMeeting Technologies. “They are replacing an older system with the new OpenMeeting system. Legacy electronic voting systems, those developed over the last 20 years, were an improvement over pen and paper, but they don’t make use of the advances in modern technology. The way the OpenMeeting system works is new. It’s the first e-voting app in the app store purposefully built for legislative meetings. It’s secure, intuitive and takes advantage of modern technology. The advantages and capabilities are night and day.” 

When it comes to voting, board members will be able to vote on legislation with the tap of a button on their touchscreen tablet. E-voting is making the process more efficient and reducing confusion in the process, not just for county officials, but citizens too.

With the secure tablet app, votes are simultaneous, cast in-person in council chambers or in remote meetings, and private until tallied, removing potential concerns about pressure or undue influence.

As public interest in local government continues to grow, improving citizens’ experience in legislative meetings becomes increasingly important. With the new public display, citizens are able to see how their board members vote, follow the meeting easily, see who has the floor, who is engaged in specific procedural action. This makes it easier for citizens to engage in their meeting and reduce any confusion and anxiety around how the meeting is proceeding.

The OpenMeeting e-voting app runs on Android, iOS, and Windows 10 devices – or a combination of them. A standard Windows PC is all that’s required for the Meeting Manager program the clerk uses to run a meeting. This approach minimizes the support impact of adopting our systems.

This digital approach to legislation also paves the way for paperless agendas and processes in local government.

”City council and county board leaders are focused on making smart investments in technology that improves meeting efficiency, member experience, transparency, and public engagement,” said Netsch. “Word-of-mouth about the new OpenMeeting system has been positive. Local legislative leaders talk about common challenges and what’s new and working. Many of our new users have come to us after speaking with a clerk in a neighboring city or county.”

About OpenMeeting Technologies: OpenMeeting Technologies is a pioneer in electronic voting and legislative meeting management. They are helping city councils and county boards modernize their meetings by offering touchscreen tablet electronic voting, paperless agendas, discussion management and a public display. This system improves efficiency, public perception and transparency as well as overall board member and public experience.

The Legislative Board Voting Solution You’ve Been Looking For!

OpenMeeting Technologies is the legislative meeting software solution you’ve been looking for. With one powerful platform, you have easy meeting setup, agenda management, automatic documentation, visualization of procedures, and more! Your board members, citizens, clerk, chair, and everyone else involved will thank you!