Common Council Training on New Voting System

This was a training session for the Racine Common Council and Clerk's office to familiarize themselves with a new Granicus electronic voting and meeting management system. No official city business was conducted; all agenda items were test items for training purposes.

Training Demonstration

• Staff and alders practiced using the system to call meetings to order, take roll call, record pledges, and manage agenda items.
• The training covered motion and voting procedures, including how council members can motion/second/vote from their iPads or phones, and how the vote cast display updates in real time.
• Features such as adding late-arriving members during a meeting, pausing/recessing, managing public speakers (with pre-populated placeholder names), and handling amendments were demonstrated.
• A test vote on the approval of minutes initially failed (due to insufficient yes votes), then a motion to amend was made and the item passed after all members voted yes.
• A test consent agenda item was pulled for separate discussion and vote.
• The system showed vote results and recorded timestamps for each action.

Key Outcomes

• No official resolutions, ordinances, or decisions were made. All activity was strictly for training.
• Staff learned that the new system allows remote voting and real-time vote display, but the council may choose to show only tallies (not individual votes) during voting to avoid influencing members.
• Participants noted that the system automatically records moves, seconds, and votes, and that double-clicking an item starts a timestamp; inadvertent double-clicks may create duplicate timestamps that can be deleted after the meeting.
• The training concluded with a mock adjournment vote, and the session ended without any formal business.