Well, at midway through the afternoon, voting is light by many measure of general elections. However, cast in the light of the 11% estimated Primary Day turnout, it seems that voting locally will exceed that estimate. There is a contentious issue on the ballot – the Selectmen were very unhappy with the vote of the townfolk earlier this year in overwhelmingly voting against a new fire engine. So, they persuaded a judge to have a Special Town Meeting so they could have a second bite at the apple. It’s unclear at the present time if it will pass by the required 2/3rds, but we’ll see.
Now for this, each voter is receiving two ballots – one to say yea or nay to the (unneeded) engine and one for the candidates. I did get a call from someone who reported:
Went inside and went to go get my ballots. Was asked “Do you want to vote for the fire truck?”
The inference was As in “hey, if you don’t want a ballot, no worries – just take the Primary ballot”
And thus, nullifying a real vote against spending a 1/ million bucks for an engine that is, as I said, not really needed. This is nothing more than elected officials not wanting to wait until the next general election to see how the voters feel.
