SB2 could replace archaic Town Meeting
Meredith News
March 01, 2007
To The Editor:
On Election Day Moultonboro voters will decide whether to adopt SB2.
I am a New England native. I began attending town meetings as a young adult and have fond memories of them. I have also lived where all voting is done by ballot, and served in the military when, by necessity, I voted by absentee ballot.
Despite the tradition and my emotional attachment to town meetings, I am in favor of SB2. SB2 places all warrant articles on a ballot for voting while still allowing citizens to debate and amend articles.
Town meetings are an archaic holdover from the days when there were limited means of communication and an agrarian society. Many people never traveled more than a few miles from home and died of old age in the house where they were born. March was chosen, in part, because most winter farm chores were completed by then and spring chores had not yet begun. Almost everyone could attend town meetings and, after months of winter, appreciated a reason to get out of the house to be with neighbors.
March 01, 2007
To The Editor:
On Election Day Moultonboro voters will decide whether to adopt SB2.
I am a New England native. I began attending town meetings as a young adult and have fond memories of them. I have also lived where all voting is done by ballot, and served in the military when, by necessity, I voted by absentee ballot.
Despite the tradition and my emotional attachment to town meetings, I am in favor of SB2. SB2 places all warrant articles on a ballot for voting while still allowing citizens to debate and amend articles.
Town meetings are an archaic holdover from the days when there were limited means of communication and an agrarian society. Many people never traveled more than a few miles from home and died of old age in the house where they were born. March was chosen, in part, because most winter farm chores were completed by then and spring chores had not yet begun. Almost everyone could attend town meetings and, after months of winter, appreciated a reason to get out of the house to be with neighbors.
Times have changed. What once was pure democracy has become undemocratic. Town meetings vest control in a small group of people and deny the vote to whole classes of people who cannot be in a certain place at a given time. These people include good conscientious citizens and taxpayers like businesspeople whose work takes them out of state and military personnel stationed overseas, employees from store clerks to police officers whose schedules call for them to work evenings, single mothers who cannot afford baby sitters, young men who work two jobs to provide for their families and pay the taxes voted at town meeting, elderly people who are housebound or who cannot sit long hours on hard chairs, and NH natives who winter in worm climates for health reasons.
All these people are affected by the decisions made at town meeting, but are systematically excluded from the process of making those decisions. With SB2 these citizens and others could choose either to vote on Election Day at an hour convenient to them, or vote all warrant articles by absentee ballot.
SB2 preserves the best of the present system. It allows full citizen input and the opportunity to amend any proposal going before the voters. But it also gives everyone access to voting. SB2 gives all citizens the franchise to which they are entitled but which is denied many by the town meeting system.
I encourage my fellow Moultonboro residents to vote in favor of adopting SB2. Fortunately, you do not have to attend town meeting. SB2 articles both for the town and for the school district will be on the printed ballot. If you cannot get to the polls, please request an absentee ballot. You may not be able to vote on all issues this year, but you can vote on this one. Then, perhaps, you will be able to vote on all warrant articles in the future.
Rev. John Eaton
Center Harbor
All these people are affected by the decisions made at town meeting, but are systematically excluded from the process of making those decisions. With SB2 these citizens and others could choose either to vote on Election Day at an hour convenient to them, or vote all warrant articles by absentee ballot.
SB2 preserves the best of the present system. It allows full citizen input and the opportunity to amend any proposal going before the voters. But it also gives everyone access to voting. SB2 gives all citizens the franchise to which they are entitled but which is denied many by the town meeting system.
I encourage my fellow Moultonboro residents to vote in favor of adopting SB2. Fortunately, you do not have to attend town meeting. SB2 articles both for the town and for the school district will be on the printed ballot. If you cannot get to the polls, please request an absentee ballot. You may not be able to vote on all issues this year, but you can vote on this one. Then, perhaps, you will be able to vote on all warrant articles in the future.
Rev. John Eaton
Center Harbor
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