At town meetings, those who show up impact daily life for the rest of their communities, from taxes to school funding.
By Kelly Burch, Granite State News Collaborative
Click the link to watch the full interview on NH PBS's The State We're In.
There are many ways to prepare for town meeting. Get a copy of your town’s annual report, and read up on the issues that you’ll be discussing. Grab a cushion, snacks and water — this might take a while. Then, remind yourself that you’re participating in one of the most direct forms of democracy globally.
“It’s the purest form of direct democracy that residents and voters can have,” said Margaret Byrnes, executive director of the New Hampshire Municipal Association.
During town meeting, any registered voter can become a legislator for a day, gathering with their neighbors to debate and vote on laws that will govern the local town for the upcoming year. School budgets, public works projects, and conservation initiatives are controlled at the local level and decided on at town meeting or school meeting, which some towns and school administrative units conduct separately.
“The bulk of what we rely upon and assume will always be there comes from local government, so we should be involved with that,” said Tama Andrews, senior lecturer in political science at the University of New Hampshire. “Town meeting really is the only avenue for citizens of New Hampshire to have some control and decision-making authority on how they’re going to be governed.”
Whether or not you attend town meeting, you’re affected by its outcomes, said Anna Brown, director of research and analysis at Citizens Count, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on civic engagement. That’s especially true if you’re a property owner, since the articles voted on at town meeting are funded by property taxes.
“If you are at all concerned about your taxes and where they’re going, show up to your local town meeting,” Brown said. “The people who are paying attention are the ones that get to make the decisions and everyone else sees them on their tax bill and their services.”
A long and unique cultural tradition
Town meetings have taken place in New Hampshire since the 1600s. The meetings traditionally take place in March, when farmers had time to spare to decide town policy. Centuries later, most towns still meet in March, although some towns in the Lakes Region hold their meetings in the summer when more residents are around, said Rebecca Rule, author of “Moved and Seconded: Town Meeting in New Hampshire.”
Other New England states like Vermont also have town meetings, but outside of the region it’s rare.
“We’re the only place in the world with the tradition of town meeting,” said Rule.
Town meeting lingo
The language used at town meetings has been in place for hundreds of years, said Rebecca Rule, author of “Moved and Seconded: Town Meeting in New Hampshire.” Here are the phrases you can expect to hear in conversations around town meeting or school meeting:
Warrant: A document issued by the town’s Board of Selectmen or a school board. It contains the articles, issues that will be deliberated and voted on during the meeting.
Amendment: Voters can make changes to a warrant article during deliberation, before voting.
Legislative body: People empowered to make laws. At town meeting, the legislative body is the voters who turn out on that particular day to deliberate and vote.
Moderator: An elected official tasked with running town meeting.
Traditional town meeting: Deliberation and voting are handled in one session.
SB2 town meeting: A deliberative session is held to discuss and amend warrant articles. Later, the warrant articles are voted on at the polls.
At town meeting, any resident can speak on an issue. The present voters work together to amend the warrant articles and then vote on them, often by show of placards, although secret ballots are available.
In many ways, town meeting harkens back to a slower pace of life and clashes with fast-paced modern society where few people want to dedicate an evening or weekend day to crafting legislation.
“The culture has changed,” said Rule. “We’re not all farmers, who can show up and spend a day with our neighbors, have a nice dinner and decide the future of our town.”
Despite that, town meeting still has resonance in New Hampshire, where many people value self-government, said Byrnes.
“You have the ability to directly affect policy as it’s being put into place,” she said. “That is such an important piece of New Hampshire’s entire culture of local control. Nothing can be more local control than a group of residents coming together to make those decisions for themselves and their town.”
The trouble with town meeting
At town meeting, nothing happens quickly. Meetings often last for hours, and meetings with contentious issues can stretch well into the night. That’s inconvenient, but it’s part of the process, said Andrews.
“Democracy is cumbersome,” she said. “It takes time. It’s set up to move slowly.”
People who work evenings, have young children, have transportation issues or health challenges, may have trouble attending town meetings. That limits participation since, in a traditional town meeting, there’s no option for absentee voting.
In part for those reasons, many people feel apathetic toward town meeting, said Brown. There’s no statewide data on town meeting turnout, but the sources who spoke to the Collaborative said it’s generally low and possibly declining. It’s not yet clear how COVID will impact town meeting participation, said Brown.
That leads to one of the complications of town meeting: the people who show up have a disproportionate impact on local government.
“It can be hijacked by small groups of people,” Andrews said. “Then, the decisions being made is not necessarily representative of what the majority of the town would want.”
Town meeting evolves
In 1995, the state government passed a law that allowed towns to alter the town meeting format to make it more accessible. Under this approach, known as SB2, the speeches, debates, and amendments occur at a deliberative session. That session is similar to a traditional town meeting, but without voting. Later, the town votes on the warrant articles that were finalized at the deliberative session. The polls are open all day, and absentee voting is allowed. As of 2021, 72 of New Hampshire’s 221 towns follow the SB2 model.
The impact of SB2 is complicated, said Rule. Deliberative sessions are notoriously underattended, with only 2.4% of voters participating, according to a report on 2012 data produced by the New Hampshire Municipal Association. This is the most recent analysis available.
Although an average of 25.5% of voters cast a ballot in SB2 towns, according to the report, much of the power rests with the people who attend the deliberative session. During that session, the warrant articles are amended, sometimes changing the meaning entirely. For example, a warrant article might ask voters whether to spend $40,000 on new equipment for the town. Still, voters at the deliberative session can change that amount to $0, essentially making the ballot question void.
“The people at the deliberative session get to set the outcome because they decide what people are voting on,” said Brown. “People [voting] get an afterthought of a choice.”
A civic skill
In the era of snap-judgment and party-affiliated political decisions, town meetings push voters to listen to what others in the community have to say, said Martha Madsen, executive director of New Hampshire Civics.
“There’s a chance to hear different points of view and understand that your neighbors may disagree with you, but they’re human beings and they may have some legitimate views to consider,” she said. “It’s a civic skill to be able to sit with others and listen to their points of view that you might really disagree with.”
Madsen encourages adults to bring children to town meeting — or a portion of it — to show democracy in action.
"It’s something we haven’t always taken time to teach our children,” she said.
Brown said that some people could be intimidated by attending town meeting, especially if they plan to speak. This worry may be rising in the current polarized political climate where people fear aggressive behavior, partly because of widely-shared stories of local government meetings gone awry. Brown didn’t know of any examples of town meetings turning nasty in New Hampshire, and she said it’s important that people stay involved despite that narrative.
“For democracy to work we have to lean in,” she said. “If you just abandon it, it’s not going to be reflective of the community as a whole.”
These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.