Brandon Deacon: Protect Sanbornton Town Meeting, vote against SB 2

To The Daily Sun,

“The best defense of democracy is an informed electorate.” — Thomas Jefferson

Sanbornton voters will be asked a question at Town Meeting that has been posed about 14 times before: “Shall we adopt the provisions of RSA 40:13 (known as SB 2) to allow official ballot voting on all issues?” I urge all attending Sanbornton’s Town Meeting to vote "no" and defeat this petitioned warrant article, again.

SB 2 proponents claim that Town Meeting infringes on voter rights by requiring attendance to vote on budgets affecting their tax bill, yet conspicuously absent from the SB 2 debate is any mention of civic obligations inherent to Town Meeting. SB 2 opponents understand the criticality for voters to couple the right to vote with an obligation to be informed for democracy to function as the founding fathers intended.

Arguments favoring SB 2 claim that the voters can educate themselves at a deliberative session and public hearings, and by reviewing audio recordings and meeting minutes; however, those are not prerequisites to casting a ballot vote. SB 2 requires either blind faith that all voters will fulfill their civic education obligation, or a discomforting capitulation that uninformed voting is not only possible, but completely acceptable. The premise is disturbing.

Town Meeting, however, safeguards and ensures the civic obligation of education when executing the right to vote. SB 2 deliberative sessions, public hearings, and meeting notes can be ignored; the lively discussions, robust debate, and deliberation about warrant articles among voters and town officials at Town Meeting cannot. Those unable or unwilling to attend Town Meeting can be all but guaranteed that residents voting on their behalf are casting informed votes; SB 2 can make no such claim of assurance.

Keep Sanbornton’s Town Meeting alive. Vote "no" on Article 8 adopting SB 2 on March 13, at 7 p.m., Sanbornton Central School.

Brandon Deacon

Sanbornton