WHATELY — Electronic voting tabulators will soon be coming to Whately, however, it is unclear whether the community will actually use them for future elections without first getting resident input.

The Selectboard approved using $2,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding — contingent on a rebate from a Whately Elementary School project — to supplement a $5,000 grant that Town Clerk Amy Lavallee received earlier this year to buy the machines from New Hampshire-based LHS Associates. The deadline for spending the grant money is Dec. 31.

While the Selectboard greenlit the purchase so as to not waste the work Lavallee undertook to get the grant, its members were on the fence regarding whether they would use the electronic tabulators without input from residents.

“I do feel like we need the community to vote on this,” said Selectboard member Joyce Palmer-Fortune. “I think the decision to use our current system or move onto to tabulators is something I would like to see happen at a Town Meeting.”

Lavallee said the electronic tabulation of votes would significantly cut down on the time it takes to count ballots, especially for high-turnout elections like this year’s presidential election. The Nov. 5 election drew 1,094 of the town’s 1,303 registered voters for an approximately 84% turnout.

She said she had 20 counters for the election, which is the most she’s ever had for an election. It cost $1,000 to pay those counters and it still took many hours to count votes — and even more time to convince folks to volunteer.

“I worked 21 hours on Tuesday and that is just the nature of a paper-ballot community,” Lavallee said. “Selfishly, yes, I would like tabulators and to not have to work 21 hours, but it was also a huge scramble. It took three months of me actively finding people to count and I think the board needs to take that into consideration as well.”

A move to the electronic tabulator would have a minimal impact on the voting process for residents, although they would not be able to place their ballots into the historical ballot box and crank the lever as has been the longstanding tradition in Whately and other small towns around the state.

Across Massachusetts, just 49 of the 351 municipalities still hand count votes for elections, with Plympton in the southeastern region of the state being the latest to adopt the use of a tabulator, according to Debra O’Malley, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s Office.

That being said, Lavallee said there is the option to flip back and forth between the tabulator and paper ballots, which is what Gill does for its elections, as there is a cost — about $600 — for programming tabulators.

“We would still be considered a hand-count, paper ballot community,” Lavallee explained, even with the tabulator in hand. “I would use the original ballot box for smaller elections.”

The Selectboard unanimously approved the purchase and a future discussion will take place on whether the town will use the tabulator.

“If we purchase them now, it does not obligate us to use them,” said Selectboard member Fred Baron. “We can still have that discussion.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.