Tag Archives: town meeting

Town meeting: Enclave of democracy, siege mentality

Wellfleet’s recent town meeting, held outdoors at the Elementary School ball field, over six hours of a fine Saturday, was both sobering and refreshing (in no particular order.) Our town has troubles: widely publicized fiscal incompetence, housing prices ridiculously out of the reach of the sort of young people who might want to settle here, […]

What was the selectmen’s real vote on the Safe Community Act?

When, on night three of Wellfleet’s Town Meeting, it came to the vote on he Safe Communities Act,the selectmen were listed as having voted 5-0 in favor. It felt uncomfortable, therefore, to have two selectmen trying to sway the vote against the measure. But without really coming out and saying so. If, as it seemed […]

What does and doesn’t make it to Town Meeting

Town Meeting time again in Wellfleet, that seasonal punctuation mark. Being of a naively, even romantically, democratic bent I’ve always thought, without thinking a whole lot, that anything of importance to this town would get voted on by Town Meeting. I mean, that’s the whole purpose of Town Meeting government, right? To give people—all the […]

Electronic voting in Eastham means a very big change

In its recent town meeting, Eastham replaced traditional voting by voice or raised hands with electronic voting. It seems a small thing, this change, a matter mostly of efficiency and accuracy. But it has more profound implications than you would think from the debate leading to it, which seemed to focus mostly on the expense […]

Eastham: electronic voting will mean the loss of the essence of town meeting

At their May 5 town meeting, Eastham citizens will vote whether to be the first on the block to replace traditional voting by voice or raised hands with electronic voting. The idea is that it will shorten meetings, improve accuracy and ensure privacy. In a newspaper story on the proposal a former moderator from Westboro, […]