Hampden eyes voting machines

Hampden eyes voting machines The Board of Selectmen and Board of Registrar decided to appoint a committee to make recommendations on whether the town should buy electronic voting after a selectman complained that the results were not available until after midnight following the Sept. 14 state primary. At a selectmen's meeting on Monday James Gillen, former city editor of The Republican, echoed the sentiments of Selectman Vincent Villamaino that the town follows an antiquated process in counting the votes by hand.

While other communities release the results the night of an election, it can be several days before the public knows Hampden election results, Gillen, a longtime town resident said. Villamaino said he waited at the Hampden Town House Sept. 14 until 11:45 p.m. for election results before giving up. His nephew, Enrico J. Villamaino, of East Longmeadow, was a candidate to be the Republican nominee for the 2nd Hampden District state representative, and the Hampden election results were needed to determine the outcome. Enrico Villamaino ended up losing his bid to be the Republican nominee to Republican Marie Angelides, of Longmeadow. "I would think people would want to be in the 21st century," Villamaino said at Monday's selectmen's meeting.

Villamaino said that with only one voting precinct, he thinks the town could buy one or two voting machines for $10,000 to $12,000. Gillen said that in his years as city editor for The Republican, the newspaper frequently waited until midnight, 1 or 2 a.m. for election results. Television and newspaper Internet websites have the results from other communities posted in the evening after the polls close, Gillen said. With a voting machine, the public would wait minutes, instead of hours, for the results, Gillen said.