The following letter to the editor was submitted by Andover resident Steve Walther, a local government activist. The views expressed are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Andover News. You can learn more about our policy on opinion and commentary on our Mission and Policies page.
Are voters boycotting Town Meeting? Last week over 98% of Andover voters did not vote at Annual Town Meeting, despite 100% being invited. The stunning totality of the boycott comes despite the lack of any formal boycott sponsor or announcement. This is the reality of the conflict between Andover’s Town Meeting and modern life. Given that local turnout for national elections is well above 50%, the problem is clearly not with voting or civic responsibility. The problem is with the Town Meeting format that consistently results in very low voting participation (average of < 1.5% of voters, based on votes recorded in official Annual Town Meeting transcripts from 2021 thru 2024).
In its original form, Town Meeting required 100% participation enforceable by fines. The current <2% voting participation is not a continuation of a glorious tradition and instead a mockery of what Town Meeting meant. One example of mock democracy was article 21, where almost exactly 1% of eligible voters voted to restrict the ability of the other 99% to call for a Town Meeting by petition. 1% is enough in Andover, and folks in that 1% group somehow see this as normal and reasonable.
Any fix for local democracy must allow participation by a majority of the approximately 27,000 eligible voters – something that Town Meeting cannot do in its current form, but that Andover reliably handles for national elections. This is a readily solvable problem. The solution starts with a Charter Commission to propose a more democratic form of local governance – and an effort is currently underway to get this initiated, which requires 4000 petition signatures. Please get your signature on this petition (visit: https://newandovercharter.org/ ) and get Andover on the road to a real democracy, instead of a de facto boycott where 1% calls the shots.
Steve Walther
Andover
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