BRATTLEBORO-Please vote to save in-person Town Meeting in Brattleboro. We have the rare privilege of coming together as a community to discuss and address the major challenges and opportunities facing our town. Voluntarily surrendering that privilege would be a shame.
To ensure we can continue to meet in-person — whether in Representative Town Meeting or in open Town Meeting — we need to vote: no on Article 2, no on Article 3, and yes on Article 4 on our town ballot this year.
At in-person Town Meeting we listen to one another, learn from one another, change one another’s minds. Ideally, we find common ground and win-win solutions. When that doesn’t happen, at least we have the opportunity to better understand the varying concerns and desires of our neighbors. This social connection and shared decision-making builds community.
In-person Town Meeting also acts as a check-and-balance on the Selectboard. The Selectboard has to explain and defend its recommendations. The voters then decide whether to approve, reject, or amend the proposed action. Most often, the Selectboard’s proposals are approved. But when there are concerns, the opportunity to discuss and amend is essential.
By contrast, if we switch to Australian ballot, the voters will be limited to choosing “yes” or “no” on what is predetermined by the Selectboard. No discussion. No working together to find common ground. Too much power concentrated in the five members of the Selectboard. Too little power for the people of the town.
The proponents of Australian ballot have co-opted the term “one person, one vote.” But open Town Meeting also is “one person, one vote.” It is open to exactly the same group of people — all of Brattleboro’s registered voters — who have access to the election booth.
If people object to Representative Town Meeting as too limited in its participation, then let’s switch to open Town Meeting. Doing so would allow the broader participation of any interested voter while preserving the essential opportunity to speak up, to listen, to learn, to compromise, and to take action together.
Let’s continue to decide important matters by our collaboration, not by the mere sum of our isolated individual preferences.
Peter Elwell
Brattleboro
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