Wednesday's stuff

May 1st, finally.  Yet some of the same old news hitting the newspapers.  The selectmen received a letter from the attorney for John Wethington asking the Board of Selectmen to petition the Superior Court for a new election.

Whether this matter ends up in court, it should not be by the actions of the town.  It should never have been a consideration by the town  to petition the court to throw out this election. 

There is a whole lot that has to be done to fix the issues which have arisen.  If you went to the polls yesterday there seems to be a bit more procedure in place, at least when I went to vote at my precinct.  

Absent a showing of fraud, I will again state the "what ifs" aren't reason enough to throw out the valid ballots that were, in my opinion.  They should not be enough of a reason for the Town to incur the expense and upheaval to be caused by such a move.

Why the Town shouldn't pay the expense is, or should be pretty obvious.  

I also use "upheaval" as in my own mind, if you feel the need for a new election than at a minimum you have to include Board of Health, the Planning Board one year term, and every Town Meeting member seat decided by a margin equal or less than the number of ballots in question (not sure what that number is anymore either). 

Town Meeting is this Saturday.  If there is a close vote, and subsequently a new election is held, do we at that time hold a new town meeting because some of the people voting were really not elected?

Is there any other way to do it?

You cannot argue that the integrity of the process would be saved by only doing over the Board of Health race.  Not according to my logic book.

Tomorrow night (May 2nd, a Thursday) the precinct meeting will be held.  Some points I think need to be made, based on what appears to be some confusion I am hearing from people.

First THERE WILL IN FACT BE INDIVIDUAL PRECINCT MEETINGS.  The 6 precincts are meeting all on the same night. At 6:30 P.M. members will assemble in individual rooms to elect chairs and secretaries.  If the elected chair wishes to do so, there can be a vote to appoint a fin com member.  Occasionally there is some discussion on other matters.

The meeting at 5:30 is essentially an introductory course for new town meeting members held by the moderator to go over the procedures and nuances of the Town Meeting process.  It is not limited to new members and it is probably something for those who simply have questions on how Town Meeting works should go to.

The meeting at 7:00 is for a review of the articles.  It is intended for members to ask questions regarding the numerous articles.  In the past it had morphed into essentially a mini town meeting debate on some articles and dragged on until late in the evening.

In its present incarnation, it has gone back to its original purpose.  This is the meeting where all precincts will assemble together.  A number of years ago it had been spread over several nights, and at one time was held over 6 nights (one for each precinct).  Quite frankly the attendance levels had been dwindling, there was increasing difficulty assemble all the people who should be present to answer questions.

It seems to be working quite well now.  The informational session ending at a reasonable hour.  People having the opportunity to get their questions answered, if not always satisfactorily, at least in some fashion.  

No system is perfect, but this one seems to work better than what was in place.

As a heads up, I will probably be doing a post tomorrow, Friday will depend on just how reasonable is the time the pre-Town Meeting stuff raps up.  Saturday is probably a no-show morning; and, for Sunday, I wouldn't be looking for any post game wrap up necessarily Sunday morning.

Anyway that's it for today.  Be Safe!