Town clerks in the four municipalities that will be involved in the Wheatland Center School referendum will seek permission to use simple paper ballots for the election.
The Wheatland Town Board got the ball rolling for paper ballots this week when it voted unanimously to seek permission from the state to use the paper ballots. Typically the town uses scanable ballots that are tallied with a machine. The paper ballots, if approved, will be counted by hand. Some 780 ballots were cast in April in a similar referendum in the district.
Three other municipalities — Salem, Brighton and Randall — also will have some residents voting in the referendum. Wheatland town Clerk Sheila Siegler said the clerks from all of those municipalities met and agreed paper ballots would be best for this election. No other matters will be on the Oct. 27 ballot.
“We definitely all want to do it,” Siegler said.
A touch screen voting machine, designed for use by people with disabilities, will still be available as well, Siegler said.
In the referendum, the school district is seeking permission to continue to exceed the state revenue limit by $300,000 per year. Board members stress this would be in effect a continuation of the same power granted four years ago by referendum, not permission to add addtional tax onto that amount.
