Quote:
Originally Posted by camp guy
I live in Wolfeboro, and Wolfeboro is an SB-2 town. I lived elswhere for 25plus years in a town meeting vote town, and I lived in Wolfeboro when it was a town meeting vote town, and there are pluses and minuses to the SB-2 form of voting. The opportunity for more people to vote, the day time voting, the absentee voting - all of these are pluses, but the biggest minus is the loss of discussion about an article, and the ability to do someting based on that discussion. I know, I know, there is a deliberative session several days before the vote, and each article can be discussed then, and some changes can be made, but nothing beats a well-moderated discussion right at the time of the vote. You know, in politics it isn't always what is WRITTEN in the Article, sometimes it is WHO is behind the Article. In the town I lived in away from Wolfeboro, the town meeting moderator would require a sponsor of any article to speak to the point of that article as the first speaker, then others could discuss it back and forth. If a sponsor didn't speak, the moderator would rule the article out of order and go on to the next article. At the deliberative sessions there is usually some explanation, but not the good old discussion you need to really find out the WHO behind an article.
So, if you are activly trying to go SB-2, be prepared to give up some of the privileges of discussion you have now.
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You make a good point, but the problem is that there are aggressive factions in most of our small towns that have decided that by building mega-buildings (police stations, fire stations, community centers, elderly-centers, schools, libraries) they can increase the number of personal (them) and build up a voting block that is hard to defeat. The towns are being buried under pension costs & the costs associated with running these buildings. SB-2 came about because of these issues. Anyone who remembers what happened in town-meeting in Bow several years ago understands why SB-2 is popular with the voters. And as an addendum: Almost every town that has voted in SB-2 in NH has hardly ever voted it out again. it's imperfect, I grant you that, but once put into practice, folks seem to like it.