Donna Woodward [10/29/2008]

To the editor:Be prepared for a long line at the ballots in Fryeburg on future election days, as there will be much to read and try to understand for each voter as they take their place behind the curtain in our limited voting stalls, ifthe straw vote passes locally on Nov. 4.The town meeting referendum is one of the issues you will be voting on (again), even though it was already voted down at the last town meeting five months ago in June. Why are we being asked again to change traditional town meeting to a "hybrid type" (straw vote). You have to wonder if this referendum would be back if the people behind it had gotten the vote they wanted in June. This has the strong appearance of pushing an agenda, since most people have already expressed that they do not want this style of voting procedure and more than likely are unaware that it is back up for vote, since it was just determined only days ago.The primary reason a few folks are for the hybrid (straw vote) style is their recognition that town meeting attendance has been down over the past few years. This is understandable when we hold our meeting on a busy Saturday in June at a location that can only accommodate 200 people.The hybrid style assumes that people will glue themselves to Channel 3 TV to watch meetings on public access or go get a copy of the meetings from the town office. That is not going to happen, even if they all had cable and they don't! I understand the need for people to be involved in the democracy of our town but the "hybrid" idea has already been voted down so why not try another approach. The idea is to get more folks involved. Keep the town Web page up to date so they can research, read and understand. Makeinformation available at the town office, and run the meetings on Channel 3 for all to review. I do not disagree that we should do all we can to make information readily available to those that choose to access it, but we can't stop there. We still need our town meeting. The town meeting is where the details, adjustments and understanding of many articles come into focus. It's where you get to speak, debate, ask questions or simply listen and learn more. All articles are subject to amendment which means that at the final vote, many of the articles will appear different from printed on the original warrant. This could change the way you originally felt about the article and your vote and the hybrid option would take the right away from us. We can't sacrifice this open discussion opportunity and give e up our voice. We should also try having the meeting split into two evenings, and have it at the school gym that can accommodate more than 200 people.This has been a poorly thought out idea. Our town meeting has served us well for many years. I urge you to vote NO on changing our traditional town meeting, as this question has already been overwhelmingly voted down by the several hundred people in attendance at the June meeting. Since when do we just keep voting on a issue until we get the answer we want?It's going to be a long slow process on future voting days. Voters will need time to read each of the articles before voting. If each voter takes the time to read, comprehend, and vote on all these articles, the day will end before the line does. In short, the biggest problem we face is that the public has already become discouraged and disenfranchised! Putting them through a long drawn-out voting procedure during a major election year would add to the number of people who are politically fed-up.