Marcia LeMay: Town needs to be more transparent about warrant articles

To The Daily Sun,

This afternoon I spent time reading the town warrant articles and marking the sample ballot with my choices. The town ballots are long and need some study to be an informed voter. I call it my cheat sheet, which I bring to the voting booth with me. It not only saves time, but also confusion about how to vote on 35 articles. Alton’s warrant articles always begin with quite a few articles submitted by the planning board. This year’s ballot is no exception, with 6 amendments to the zoning ordinances. The problem is that most of the amendments ask the voter to refer to: “Article 200 definitions as detailed in the full-text copy of the 2021 Amendments to the Alton Zoning Ordinance proposed by the Alton Planning Board.”

I went to the town website looking for this copy of the “2021 Amendments proposed by the planning board” and couldn’t find it. I am not suggesting that it isn’t on the website somewhere, but I couldn’t locate it among all the .pdf files posted. Why didn’t the Planning Board spell out exactly what these amendments do? Voters are supposed to decide in the voting booth, with scarce information about how to vote and without the ability to see the “full text” of the proposal. This is not transparency in our town government, and I hope that the articles will be in “full-text” in the future.

Marcia LeMay

Alton