I continue to reassure friends (and myself) that our system of governance, through the wisdom of our forefathers, is self correcting. At our Newbury Town Meeting I was happy to see this played out. A warrant article (not supported by our select board) proposed mandatory hand counting of all election ballots. It was late on the agenda. The proponents had a heavy line up of speakers suggesting, with no evidence, that there is a problem and to protect our “democracy” we must act. This was countered by another resident with a statistical comparison between machine counting and hand counting showing the weakness in their arguments. After listening for a very long time the question was moved with the house discovering that the required 5 persons demanded a secret ballot, adding another 15 or so minutes to the deliberations.
My joy was in the fact that very few people left and the vote was an overwhelming 38 yes and 163 no. Continuing to the next article, a discussion and vote on establishing rules for septic systems to be formulated and administered by the select board, was well debated and enlightening. The vote was done after good and fair discussion paved a path for moving ahead on this concern. Almost everyone stayed until almost midnight. I say this only because it is an example of a town meeting functioning at its best with most folks staying for the 5 hour duration. Democracy is work!
Gregory Uhrin
Newbury