To the Editor:

As a senior I find it very hard to participate and sit through the extremely long School and Town Meetings – they totally burn us out.

The meeting is stacked with teachers and people that benefit from us giving up and leaving. They filibuster and play on emotions to get the vote they want. High school kids have gotten extra credit to speak in favor of the bloated budget and get a pass the next day for attending and speaking at the meeting.

People who work or have babysitters don’t want to attend because of the late hours and those who work a night shift can’t vote at all. Many seniors in this town don’t drive after dark, which prevents them from casting their votes. When calling neighbors and friends to remind them to attend and vote at the meetings, I constantly hear that they don’t want to sit for five hours to hear that their vote will be turned over after casting their vote of choice.

Where is democracy in this town? A vote is a vote, it should not be turned over by a few people who choose to make us vote again.

We need to change the system to all-day voting after all these are very expensive votes and everyone should be entitled to cast their vote of choice.

DWIGHT SACKETT

Hollis