To The Editor:
At the Waitsfield Town Meeting in 2015, a motion to put voting for the town and school budget placed on a paper ballot was voted down. The number of votes for or against totaled around 182, if my memory serves me right.
Sometime after the meeting, a survey was taken to see how people felt about this and 62 percent of those who responded to the survey were in favor of a paper ballot for the town and school budget.
Not long after that, the select board decided to change the time of Town Meeting to see if attendance at Town Meeting would improve even though this did not address the problem.
On Town Meeting Day in 2016, 56 percent of the 1,200 or so registered voters in Waitsfield cast ballots to elect board members and some other items while an estimated 175 people attended Town Meeting and were able to vote on the town and school budget.
It is quite clear that a large segment of town citizens were deprived of their voting rights. If you want to vote on how your tax money is spent, you must attend Town Meeting. The logical step is to put this item on a paper ballot.
I have not heard what the next step will be.
Bob Brightbill
Waitsfield
