By Lisa Chmelecki,Staff Writer

MONMOUTH – Raymond Heyse stepped into the booth, closed the curtain and started breezing through the first of the three double-sided pages.

He penciled in his picks for the Board of Selectmen. Then he voted on the four portions of the school budget.

So far, so good.

Then came Article 6: “Shall the Town of Monmouth authorize the Selectmen to enter into a lease purchase agreement for a term of three years for the purpose of purchasing a school bus in an amount not to exceed $65,000?”

Hmmm?

He was stumped. He needed more information.

“I don’t know if the school really needs a new school bus. Are there more kids? Did another bus break down? Or what?”

In previous years, the question would have been posed to Heyse in a room full of other voters. He could have raised his hand, asked his questions.

This year, Monmouth did things differently.

Joining a small but growing number of towns in Maine, it ditched its annual town meeting and presented the town warrant to voters referendum-style.

The switch left Monmouth divided.

Some people were thrilled to be able to cast their votes on everything from the school budget to a $150,000 addition to the town garage without having to give up an entire Saturday in the middle of June.

Others weren’t as ready to give up the annual gathering.

“I miss the regular town meeting, the whole atmosphere, the fighting over the warrant,” said Heyse, who has lived in Monmouth for 17 years and attended town meetings nearly every year.

Voter turnout

The same argument has been heard in York, Bradley, Jay, Lebanon, Jefferson, Ogunquit, Windsor and Newport. Those towns have given up the tradition and spirit of the New England town meeting for what some agree is a more practical approach.

Michael Starn of the Maine Municipal Association predicts more towns will follow.

“There is definitely a heightened interest in it,” Starn said. “It makes sense. If you had the choice of spending four hours to vote or 10 minutes, what would you do?”

Starn pointed out that four of the nine towns – Jefferson, Ogunquit, Windsor and Monmouth – voted by secret ballot for the first time this year.

That’s one indication of a trend, he said. Town officials in Jay, where townspeople have been voting by secret ballot since 1997, offered another.

“So many towns have asked us about the process and our experience, that we finally put together a packet of information that tells them all about it,” said Town Manager Ruth Marden.

The packet includes a list of pros and cons.

Among the pros: a higher voter turnout, the opportunity to use absentee ballots and the ability to draw a broader spectrum of voters, including shy ones who aren’t comfortable with the show-of-hands vote.

Judging from turnout alone, secret-ballot – or “referendum-style” – voting has been hugely successful.

More than 800 people cast ballots in Monmouth earlier this month. That’s double the number of people who attended last year’s unusually crowded town meeting.

Ogunquit tripled its turnout, and Jefferson saw a six-fold increase, according to the Maine Municipal Association. In Lebanon, where the Board of Selectmen authorized the switch in 2002, more than 10 times the previous number of people voted.

“We just felt, Why should a person who is 80 years old and unable to sit through an entire town meeting, not have the right to vote?'” said Gilbert Zinc, a former selectman in Lebanon.

Way of life

Several towns changed to secret ballot after voters complained that town meetings were being stacked by special-interest groups, such as teachers and their families, who were showing up to vote for one item, such as the school budget, then leaving.

“It just gets such a better representation of voters,” said William Harlow, chairman of the Jay Board of Selectmen. “I’m surprised there aren’t more towns doing it.”

Most towns, including Jay, made the switch after a group of people circulated a petition calling for the change, and voters approved it in a townwide referendum.

Not one of the outcomes has been a landslide: 388 to 208 in Jay; 2,427 to 1,758 in York; 775 to 485 in Windsor; 1,356 to 816 in Monmouth.

Those opposed usually share similar reasoning. They’ve argued that town meetings are a way of life in small-town Maine, an opportunity for people to get together with their neighbors and hash out disagreements.

“It’s direct democracy and there’s a phenomenal interest in it,” said Paul Mills, a Farmington lawyer who has moderated town meetings in various towns.

Secret-ballot voting may increase the quantity of votes, Mills said. But he questioned the value of those votes if people don’t have enough information and are simply “shooting at the dartboard.”

Town officials in some towns have attempted to solve this problem by holding additional public hearings before the vote to provide detailed information on each article. A few allow voters to bring cheat sheets into the booth.

“We go to those meetings loaded with information on everything on the warrant,” said Marden of Jay.

Unfortunately, she added, attendance at the informational meetings is always sparse. This year, three people – aside from town workers and school staff – showed up at each one.

Near shutdown

Another disadvantage cited by Mills and listed on Jay’s list of cons is that secret-ballot voting doesn’t leave room for compromise.

At a town meeting, voters can decide to lower the amount of a proposed budget instead of simply rejecting it. With secret-ballot voting, entire departments have been shut down because townspeople weren’t satisfied with the budget and they had no choice but to reject it.

Lebanon went without town hall services one year after voters turned down their municipal budget.

Jay was forced to close its recreation program one summer, and it barely escaped having to shut down its schools another year. After two failed attempts, voters finally approved a reduced school budget the day before classes were set to begin.

Monmouth is trying to avoid a similar situation.

Voters in that town rejected their school budget on June 14. The School Committee and the Board of Selectmen agreed last week to lower the amount by $86,000 and try again.

Since the near-shutdown in Jay, a state law has been created to allow schools to operate on the previous year’s budget until a new one is passed. So there is no chance of the schools’ having to shut their doors

However, other problems exist.

“If the school budget continues to be rejected, the town won’t be able commit to a new tax rate,” said Monmouth Town Manager Jason Simcock.

The cost of printing ballots and reprogramming the voting machine is often mentioned as another disadvantage. Jay spends about $4,000 a year on its election. Monmouth had to buy a $6,300 voting machine and paid $2,500 to print its ballots.

Still, many say it’s worth it.

“I never went to town meetings. It was too long to sit in a hot, sweaty room,” said Elizabeth Urquhart after casting her ballot in Monmouth earlier this month. “This opens the door for more people to give their opinion on how our money is spent.”