Many years of discussion about elected offices in the Town of Bethlehem will come to a head in a few week’s time, as residents head to the polls to decide whether or not the office of the superintendent of highways will continue to exist beyond 2013.
It is right and proper (and lawful) that the public get a say in this matter – and with all the past talk about how voters might stomach such a proposal, we’re quite curious to see what the public actually thinks. All the same, there have been public objections to the particulars of the vote that have considerable merit.
Our front-page story on the matter has all the details. Bethlehem residents will be able to go to the polls Tuesday, April 30. Marcy Velte reports some residents had a bad reaction to the manner in which the vote will be carried out – at a single polling place, with paper ballots.
The reason for this, town officials said, is procedural. To open up all 21 polling places would be a complicated and costly affair, and to simplify things would have the result of disallowing absentee ballots, which have become something of a democratic cornerstone.
But there is an even cheaper option available: hold the referendum in conjunction with the November election.
The sole argument against waiting until November is that voters will be faced with having to make two juxtaposed choices: who will be the next superintendent and whether or not to abolish the office altogether. This is unorthodox, to be certain, but we suspect the average Bethlehem voter to by sly enough to reason it out.
The only losers under this scenario would be the small number of people who would needlessly run for highway superintendent should voters approve dissolving the office. We can live with that.
Driving a few miles out of the way to get to Delmar is not so much the issue, though folks in far-flung areas of town who must make a 20-minute drive each way might disagree. No, the problem is voter fatigue.
It seems many residents of Bethlehem are being asked to go to the polls every month. We also have news of the recent Bethlehem Central bond vote in this week’s edition, which is going to be followed closely by the May budget vote. Sandwiched in between will be this referendum on the highway superintendent’s job. Along with a primary and the general election, dutiful voters might end up hitting the polls five times this year (assuming the school budget passes on the first go).
There’s a reason November ballots are often padded with extra propositions and referendums – the people are going to be there already. We here at the local newspaper would love nothing more than to see a public referendum every other Tuesday because it would make for lots of fantastic coverage, but as taxpayers and voters we’d rather see the fairest, most cost effective option win out. It would also eliminate a lot of the issues facing this isolated ballot.
On the whole, scheduling this vote presents a lose-lose situation to Bethlehem officials. Now that it has been set, though, we encourage residents to show out and vote as if it were November come April 30.
