After a select board meeting the other night, I had a rare moment alone to sit and reflect. The beautiful scene of our centuries-old barn, the green-gold horse pasture, and view to Mount Kearsarge beyond overwhelmed me with appreciation for this place that my husband’s parents purchased in 1970, which we now call home. And yet, a sadness washed over me, bringing me to tears.
It struck me that a primary reason for the discord we’re experiencing in Hopkinton right now – and the world over – is that we cannot be together. We are social distancing. We cannot meet each other face-to-face. We are missing that essential element of human connection. We all feel it. We all miss it.
Not being able to gather and interact in person has pushed us further into our separate worlds, further into our bubbles of comfort, further apart in our ideologies. The coronavirus pandemic is largely to blame for this, and it is an understandable instinct: In times of uncertainty and risk, we retreat to our places of familiarity in search of safety and comfort.
Yet because of this, we have lost the face-to-face discussion, dialogue, and yes, disagreement, which is vitally important to the way democracy works in towns across New Hampshire.
Relationships between residents and neighbors are strengthened by face-to-face discussion and deliberation, such as occurs at town meeting. I have heard it said many times: “My neighbor and I disagree about thus-and-such, but we get up at town meeting, say our piece, and state our differing opinions. We can get mad at each other about it, but when the voting is over, we sit back down, shake hands, and say, ‘See you around the neighborhood, friend.’ ”
Towns throughout New Hampshire have not been able to hold in-person meetings of any kind and have gone virtual for all types of boards and committees. Some, like Hopkinton, Bow, and others are holding virtual town and school district meetings with ballot voting by drive-thru. (These optional town meeting procedures were recently provided for by House Bill 1129.)
The pandemic is again to blame for this major shift in the way towns conduct their business. I am grateful that the technology and willingness exists to work around the challenges the pandemic has presented, but I lament the loss of in-person discussion and debate afforded by town meeting.
Some say that these virtual and drive-thru meetings approximate the “official ballot referenda” process allowed under SB 2. Some seek to replace traditional town meeting with the SB 2 process. Proponents of SB 2 say the number of votes cast is the same or higher under SB 2, which may be true, and which is a point I can appreciate. However, proponents also say the deliberative session is “the same as town meeting.” It is not. Final voting does not happen at that session, so people do not feel compelled to attend.
Towns and school districts that have adopted SB 2 have seen a dramatic decline in attendance for their deliberative sessions. Over the past 20 years, the Monitor, NHPR, Union Leader, Nashua Telegraph, and others report that 0.5-10% of registered voters attend the average SB 2 deliberative session.
Yes, incredulously, articles can be amended and finalized at the deliberative session by less than 1% of a town’s voters. Then when the rest of the voters fill out their ballots, the only choice is yes or no. On voting day with the ballot in front of you, you have no opportunity for clarification, discussion, debate, or amendment. Under our existing town meeting format, we are provided the opportunity, time, and space for discussion prior to the vote on each individual article, even when the vote itself is taken by secret ballot. To make wise decisions about things that will tangibly and directly impact their lives, citizens need the type of deep understanding that comes from talking through our differences – this is part of the bedrock of democracy.
Towns that adopt SB 2 come to regret it and many have tried to repeal it. Data from the N.H. Department of Revenue Administration shows that 70 of New Hampshire’s 221 towns have adopted SB 2 by the requisite three-fifths vote. By 2017, 32 of those towns tried to repeal SB 2 in 55 attempts, and only three succeeded. Once SB 2 is in, it is nearly impossible to undo, because it requires another three-fifths vote to repeal.
Perhaps most importantly, when we meet in person, we have to own up to our disagreements and be responsible for our opinions. This is direct democracy in action. We cannot just shout polarizing statements angrily into the void of Facebook, or call into a Zoom meeting without showing our face, knowing that we will not have to see our neighbors around town and feel accountable for our words.
I look forward to regaining that sense of community and camaraderie when the pandemic is safely behind us and we return to meeting in person and working out our differences in face-to-face discussion again.
(Anna Wells is a member of the Hopkinton Select Board.)