Believe in democracy

Editor, The Citizen: Whether or not you support SB-2 comes down to one basic premise. Do you believe in small groups of individuals having the ability to make the decisions for your town or do you believe that every registered voter should have the right to cast their vote in hopes of affecting those decisions. And please don’t say that they can have their voice heard at town meeting because their voices can be heard in a deliberative session just as easily.
I come from a town that passed SB-2 quite a few years back. I am seeing all of the same arguments for and against the bill today that I saw years ago. Fortunately, the residents of the town in which I lived, finally realized that they wanted their voices to be heard and SB-2 was passed, much to the dismay of a small core of individuals who had a very strong voice in the town, prior to the vote.
I guess, for many people, change is a bit unsettling. But I can tell you, from experience, once SB-2 was passed, the majority of the townspeople were much happier. However, I must admit that those who lost power in pushing their own agendas through are still unhappy about the outcome of that vote. In the past, when special interest groups passed warrant articles that cost the town hundreds of thousands of dollars, many of the townspeople were extremely upset. Now that every voter has a say in what passes and what does not, they are much more accepting of the outcome. Even if the voting doesn’t have the outcome you had hoped for, you can at least justify it by saying that the decision was based on the wishes of majority of the voters. And isn’t that what a democracy is all about?
If you consider the number of people who actually have the ability to attend town meetings versus the number of actual registered voters, you can see that a very small percentage of people are controlling the vote. The world we live in today is not the same as the world even 25 years ago. We have many people who travel a great deal for work, we have many people who head south for the winter, and we have people with children whose bedtimes fall well before the conclusion of town meetings. We also have the elderly who may not find it easy to get out of their homes and we also have many people that just don’t have it in them to sit for hours on end in a town meeting. Do none of these individuals deserve to have a voice in how our town spends our money? And now, be honest with yourselves, for those who have attended town meetings, how many of you actually stay until the bitter end. In my experience, once the vote has taken place for a particular item of interest, those interested parties leave the town meeting. So ask yourself, who is really being represented at these town meetings?
In my experience, I have found that those who greatly oppose SB-2 are either currently in power and do not want to let go of the reins or those special interest groups who see their power to push through their agenda threatened.
Now onto another item that outraged me during the process … the strong opinion that a vote may be cast by an “uninformed” voter. No voter needs to attend a town meeting to be “informed”. With today’s overwhelming access to information via internet, TV, newspapers, mailings, radio, talking to friends and neighbors, etc. everyone has the ability to become informed without attending a town meeting. And I find it an insult to be classified as “uninformed” just because I am not present at one of these meetings.
Please remember, that voting is “a right” and no one should have to justify anything beyond being of legal age and legal residency. If another individual doesn’t vote exactly as you do, then is it fair to say that the individual must have been “uninformed”? Isn’t it possible that they might actually hold an opposing view?
Isn’t it funny how “uninformed” has nothing to do with collecting the property taxes being affected by the outcome of these votes?
With the current economic state of our country, it is also evident that everyone needs to tighten their collective belt. Why do towns then feel that they should be exempt from this? My experience has shown me that any townspeople who oppose a capital expenditure are portrayed as being against the children, firefighters, police officers, elderly or any other group that may benefit from the increased spending?
Why can’t they just be people who believe in living within their means?
If you support SB-2, then you believe that you should have your voice heard in how your town actually spends your hard earned property tax dollars.
If you oppose SB-2, then you believe that special interests should have a more heavily weighted voice in how the town spends your property tax dollars, even if it is in opposition to the wishes of majority of the registered voters.

Jane Elliott
Moultonborough