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Voters reject SB2 petition to shift district votes to official ballot
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Summary
A petition to adopt SB2 (official-ballot voting on the March election) failed 158-310 of 468 cast, short of the three-fifths majority required by statute; petitioners argued it would increase turnout by allowing voting in home towns, opponents warned about reduced deliberative engagement.
Voters defeated a petitioned warrant article (commonly referred to as SB2) to allow official-ballot voting on all issues before the district on the second Tuesday in March.
Lead petitioner Louise Andrews of Salisbury urged the district to "modernize" and allow people to vote in their own towns rather than travel to the annual meeting location. "For people in Pennacook, it's easy. The rest of us drive 20 to 30 minutes," she said.
Opponents, including Curtis Rude of Loudoun, argued the current deliberative-session process encourages engagement and that SB2 had been rejected previously in the district. Legal and procedural explanations from counsel and board members clarified that SB2 would require a paper ballot and a three-fifths statutory threshold to pass.
Paper-ballot voting on Article 3 opened at 07:25 p.m. and closed at 08:25 p.m.; the clerk reported 468 ballots cast with 158 in the affirmative and 310 in the negative. Because the measure needed three-fifths (281) to succeed, the article was defeated.
