The old tradition of town meetings in New Hampshire has been replaced by a curious practice called "warrant articles."
With a population of 20,000, the town of Hampton can no longer simply gather its citizens together to consider questions important to the running of the town, like what the school budget, now close to $21 million, should be, or whether or not Mrs. Johnson should be allowed to plant her petunias on the far side of the sidewalk, on land belonging to the town, but in front of her yard.
All these things get placed on "warrant articles" which fill well over 20 pages and which the average citizen has little insight about. Most people go to the high school cafeteria in early March are handed a thick packet and they mark off "yes" or "no" in the boxes at the bottom of the article guided by a rectangle which says, "Recommended by the School Board" or "Recommended by the Budget Committee."
Just imagine if the New York Times reported that ballots for the Russian or for the Nigerian presidency contained a little rectangle just above the voting box which said, under Vladimir Putin's name, "Recommended by the Presidium" or simply, "Recommended."
What a cynical howl would arise from American throats if ballots contained such endorsements.
"Sham elections!"
But in Hampton, New Hampshire, voters are told an article granting public funds to a church school has been recommended by both the School Board and the Budget Committee and then, once the votes are counted, everyone says, "Well, that's democracy. The voters voted for it!"
As noted previously, Democracy ain't easy! If citizens choose not to be informed, they can be easily manipulated. If you truly want to change things, you are going to have to make the citizens of Hampton aware of the issue. The fact that they make the effort to turn out to vote offers hope that they might be willing to actually become "informed" voters.
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