GUILFORD — We are approaching Town Meeting Day in Guilford, where less than 10 percent of registered voters will vote on the town's tax appropriations.
Those folks who have to work, those who are housebound, and others who can't make it to the meeting will be prevented from exercising their voting rights due to the voting process used.
A voter must be present at Town Meeting when each appropriation is voted on. Compare this to the expanded access and opportunity an Australian ballot process would provide.
Let us all not forget or ignore what makes equal rights the heart and soul of democracy, as expressed by Thomas Jefferson at his first inaugural address on March 4, 1801:
“All […] will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression. Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind.”