It’s up to you: vote

Friday, March 8, 2013

We know it can be hard to get enthusiastic about the local March elections. After all, we’re not inundated with robocalls or TV commercials.

But, we should be enthusiastic about our local elections because in some ways a town councilor or a school board member has a more direct effect upon our lives.

If councilors vote to spend money for an attorney, for example, to defend one of the members of their board, residents have to foot the bill directly in the form of property taxes. And even though we have, theoretically, the final say on town spending either at the polls or at town or school meetings, that isn’t always the case. Councilors and school board members have a certain amount of discretion and sometimes they do not use it wisely or well.

So it behooves us to elect people who have the best interests of all the citizens at heart.

The question, of course, is how do we know? Well, in many cases, the folks running for local offices are people who have lived in town for many years, who have served before, who shop where we shop, who have kids in the schools where we have kids. We talk to them, we interact with them, and if they’ve served before, we know a bit about what they have done and might do.

We should remember that when councilors and the school board make decisions, it involves our money, and if we don’t vote we give up whatever power we have.

We also give up our right to complain. And that should be the first question any of us ask the complainers: Did you vote in March? And this should be the first question we ask ourselves: Am I going to vote in March?

The answer should be, “Absolutely.”