Tending To Our Democracy

We see them every night on the evening news. People living in the midst of the heaving politics of the Middle East, struggling out from under the crushing weight of authoritarian regimes and autocratic rule. It seems that once oppressed people see that they are not alone in their grievances, much of the fear that paralyzed them from even expressing their wish for freer lives drops away to reveal both resolve and bravery. “We will be free, or we will die,” they tell the cameras. Their impassioned voices remind us how far we have come from our own revolutionary fervor in this country. From Patrick Henry’s imperative “Give me liberty or give me death,” most of us are now unwilling to kill 20 minutes of our time at the polls.

Newtown is hard pressed to muster more than 40 percent voter participation in most of our local elections and referendums, except when we are electing Presidents. The typical budget referendum vote in Newtown brings 25 percent of the eligible voters to the polls, and this turnout comes after weeks of public debate and earnest get-out-the-vote efforts by budget proponents and opponents. Put another way, three of every four people who have made the effort to register to vote in Newtown are willing to let someone else decide how their tax dollars will be spent. (This discounts completely those who may be qualified to vote but have not bothered to register.)

The issue of voter turnout is particularly important this week since we face a referendum vote next Tuesday, March 29, on charter changes that promise to enhance our local democracy. Voters will be asked to approve a modification of local budget ballots in a way that allows taxpayers to express their budgetary preferences in three ways, rather than the customary Yes-or-No choice. The change would allow voters to: approve the budget; reject the budget because it is too high; or reject the budget because it is too low.

In this age when better and more precise information is at a premium, this charter change makes good sense and promises to better reconcile voting results with voter intent. Yet its approval faces a significant challenge — not from motivated opponents, but from unmotivated no-shows. By statute, charter revisions must be approved by at least 15 percent of the town’s registered voters. For Tuesday’s vote that amounts to roughly 2,400 people — about the same number of voters it has taken to win hard-fought budget battles in recent years.

Generating that same level of enthusiasm for a little extra verbiage in a document few people ever read may be a long shot. Most of us will not see it as a liberty-or-death crossroads in history. We need to remember this, however: Liberty may be born at the barricades, but it finds longevity in the ballot box. Every time a voter stays home, freedom takes a blow. Be sure to vote in Tuesday’s referendum. Polls are open from 6 am to 8 pm at the Newtown Middle School on Queen Street.