Article: Election Beat: History is Made in Lyndeborough, NH

Anyway, I was happy to learn that it only takes 25 signatures to put an article on the town warrant. The warrant is the list of issues that we need to vote on at the town meeting. Most are budget related and proposed by the Selectmen, the town officials. But we also have the petition article. I had this in mind for a few years to do, but it was just this year that I finally decided to go ahead and move on it. Of course, I waited until the very last minute, and so had only a couple of days to get my signatures. I went around my neighborhood first, and then I went to the local general store, where they were happy to let me stand around in the store and collect signatures.

It was the easiest sell in the world. Nobody disagreed and everyone was enthusiastic about it. And of course the first person I asked to sign was one of our respected town elders. So everyone signing after that saw her name, and also when it came down to the vote she was well aware of it.

I'd like to note a couple of other things about this. In the past I have worked with grassroots organizations to try to get things done at the state or even federal level. In this case, I did not work with any organization - other than my own town, of course, which is the best organization you can have behind you for something like this.

I did not make a lot of noise ahead of the vote; I did not invite protesters. I did not publicize it at all. For me, this was purely an internal town matter. I think this is important, because this is real; it's as real as you can get when you are reaching out to your own community. Restoring our democratic elections hinges on this. We must connect with our communities and we must bring our elections back to this level of participation, oversight, and public control.

The other thing I want to note is that before I did anything I spoke with our top two election officials in the town, our Moderator and our Town Clerk. I wanted to hear their thoughts on the matter. They were both enthusiastically in favor of the petition article, thank goodness.
But even if you find otherwise in other places, even if you find opposition among those whose support you would rather have, I think this is still worth pursuing.

It is so simple. And it is so do-able.

Who's going to jump on the bandwagon now? Other towns in NH? In other states? What's your prediction? And, was Lyndeborough's historic passage of this article well publicized?

This historic town law was not really well publicized outside of the election integrity blogs. There was one really fabulous article that was written in a local newspaper, but I have not seen much else. I don't find this too surprising as the whole thing was well under the radar from start to finish, and I am not out there blowing the horn about it either. Somehow I feel as though this is a very important event but that its importance and significance will only come to light later.
I sincerely hope others will follow suit in their communities. I've heard from a few folks here in NH who have it in mind to do this at next year's town meetings. Home rule jurisdictions around the nation are ripe for this type of local control action too.

I suspect that it may be more challenging for those coming after me, because the opposition is now alerted and this particular opposition (to restoring public elections) has always been effective at manipulating truth, people, and whatever else it takes to retain their control. This is another good reason to conduct these strategies on a more stealthy and local level rather than to make a lot of noise about it ahead of time.

I am always happy to talk to other people interested in voting rights and restoring our public elections, so yes, I am available to consult, brainstorm, listen, and lend support as best I can.

Well, it's lovely to have a happy ending to this particular election integrity saga. Way to go. Anything you'd like to add, Nancy?

I guess I would just reiterate how important and how satisfying it is to work within your own community, especially when you are able to achieve success like this. I am so proud of my town. This vote could have gone either way really. I did not do any lobbying or typical "activist" activities prior to the Town Meeting. I was ready to see where the town stood on this. If you see my smile after the vote, which is at the end of the youtube that I posted I think that says it all! That definitely goes down as one of the happiest of days for me, but mostly I just feel proud of my town and our wonderful community elections where the vote is seen as sacred and the duty to count it all the more so. As our Town Moderator, Walter Holland says when we come together to count the votes, "these are your neighbors' votes. Handle them with care."

Everyone in America should be so blessed. If all our cities and towns had real elections like we have here in Lyndeborough, we'd see some real change in Washington.

Thank you so much for talking with me. And for caring so much about grassroots democracy. I hope this catches on.

YouTube :Lyndeborough Bans Computerized Voting

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