I pulled my town meeting representative papers at the Town Clerk’s office Friday. I always enjoy going to the clerk’s office — the staff are friendly and can answer just about any question you have. So I left with my nomination paper and a smile on my face, but wondering just how many other people will do the same.
With redistricting this year we need at least 240 people divided into 11 precincts to give voters a choice. The good news is that, flipping through the clerk’s log book for each precinct — anyone who pulls a paper for any elected office must sign it — there are a fair number of names in it with 6 weeks or so left until the filing deadline. Most of the names are familiar — long-time TMRs who want their seat back. (A few have even returned the document with the requisite 10 signatures already.) I saw a few new names, too, but not enough.
You may have heard me say before in this space that 2012 will be a very important year for TM and that I am nervous that there is not enough interest to sustain such a large body. I hope that I am wrong, but research (such as by Robert Putnam in “Bowling Alone”) suggests that older people are much more interested in civic engagement (including running for office) than younger people. With each passing generation — and, indeed, each passing year — general interest in local politics is being lost by attrition. Locally, look no further than the median age of a Billerica Town Meeting representative (55) as compared to the median age of all adults (45). There are few TMRs under age 40, and fewer still who have school-age kids.
With every seat empty going into this year we have a chance to elect scores of younger people into TM, but will they even run? The odds are against this for a number of reasons:
- Too many distractions. When you have an iPod, iPhone, iPad, Xbox, on-demand HDTV, PSP, high-speed internet, and a host of other whiz-bang entertainment options available without leaving the house, who wants to go sit in town hall for 20 to 30 hours a year listening to people make sanctimonious points of order and grumble at each other? Electronic voting will bring a little tech bling to TM, but it may not be enough to draw in the first generation that gets more excited about smartphones than cars.
- Other priorities. Speaking of distractions, a majority of younger people in town are raising kids. Between sports and other organized activities, school, fund-raising, and the PTA, parents can’t find the time to vote, much less serve in town meeting.
- Wrong time of year. To get on the ballot, TM candidates must gather 10 signatures from registered voters in their own precinct. Doesn’t sound like a burden — stopping by 5 or 6 houses in the neighborhood ought to do it. But who wants to trudge around in January or February, banging on doors asking for nominations? Who wants to have their door banged on, to stand out on the icy front stoop shaking out ink from a frozen pen? It’s a shame the election is in April. Were the election later in the year, TM candidates could hold an informal BBQ (or maybe organize a block party!) for hand-shaking, signature-gathering, and civic engaging. A winter election season is very community-unfriendly.
- Full-time employment. You must pick up your papers in person from the Town Clerk, and they are open during normal business hours. If you have a normal-person, full-time job, when exactly do you pick up the papers (and then return them completed)? No wonder so many TMRs are retired.
If we want a 242-member Town Meeting to survive Generations X (hello) and Y, we need to make running for a seat and attending 8-10 meeting a year as attractive as possible for our best and brightest citizens. Just getting on the ballot is a hassle, and it shouldn’t be. Aside from changing the time of year we hold our election, I’m not sure what other improvements we can make without breaking state election rules. (Wouldn’t nomination by e-mail be great, for example?)
I do have one suggestion. If you are running for a TM seat (and if you are reading this, I hope you are), one way to gather signatures inside a warm building is to attend a political campaign event. They are crawling with registered voters. One is coming up this weekend (Saturday the 21st) for BOS candidate Andrew Deslaurier at the Country Club on Baldwin Road. I hope to see you there, and I’ll sign your papers if you sign mine.
