Friday, May 22, 2009

The revolution in Auburn continues

Well, turnout was a little light at around 18%, but we got a bunch of new developments in town yesterday!

Two new BOS members - Mr Hicks and Ms Goodrich, one new on School Committee and Wayne was re-elected (Page and Hammond) AND we have a new charter! The charter vote was really close but since this passed there are really sweeping changes coming for the whole structure of town government.

One change I spoke with the clerk about that I may propose for town meeting is to actually change the hours of the annual town election. Two things she asked for and didn't get that would really help turnout, which to be honest is well below where it should be. Both involve the timing of the election itself.

Moving from Thursday to Tuesday makes a lot of sense. I think most towns hold election like the Presidential election on Tuesday. Having it on Thursday leads to a lot of confusion and frankly even this time of year folks are getting away for an extended weekend (I know of at least two who did this yesterday).

Also most folks who work, and we have a low unemployment STILL in our town something to be proud of, would appreciate opening the polls at 7 vs 8 AM as it is now. So changing from 7AM-8PM would be my other suggestion.

But, overall we had quite a change yesterday and it'll be interesting to see how things progress as time goes on - congratulations to all who ran and let's make this new charter work for the town!

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