New England Town Meeting

The New England town meeting and school district meeting are the only direct democracy institutions in the United States involving lawmaking by assembled voters. Law making by assembled adult males dates to the age of Pericles in Greece in the fifth century B.C. But the only other currently assembled voters' lawmaking body is the Landsgemeinde in a handful of Swiss cantons.

A New England town meeting, except in Rhode Island, is called by the Board of Selectmen--the town's plural executive--which issues a warrant or warning of the place date and time of the meeting. The warrant also contains business articles, a fixed agenda to be acted upon by the assembled voters. Should the selectpersons fail to include in the warrant an article requested by a group of voters, the latter may employ the initiative to place the article in the warrant.

The New England town meeting is a de facto representative body because the majority of eligible voters do not participate in the meeting except in very small towns. Attendance ranges from an average of 9 percent in Connecticut towns, to 26 percent in Vermont towns.

Proponents of the town assembly emphasize that it is the purest form of democracy that ensures that all policy decisions are in the public interest since no intermediaries are placed between the voters and the public decisions.

Critics of the institution claim that, in practice it is not the purest form of democracy. They point to low turnout of registered voters, and the alleged domination of the meetings by special interest groups. James Madison, a critic of town meetings, wrote in The Federalist Number 55, "In all very numerous assemblies, of whatever characters composed, passion never fails to wrest the scepter from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob."

The system of New England town governance has been modified in a number of towns over the years in response to some of these criticisms as well as to growing populations. In the late nineteenth century, a number of towns established a finance committee to advise the town meeting. More recently, 51 towns have adopted a charter providing for a representative town meeting (RTM) in which voting on warrant articles is restricted to elected town meeting members. An additional 34 towns retain the town meeting only to appropriate funds. Thirty-five New Hampshire towns and eight Vermont towns hold only a deliberative town meeting, with voters subsequently going to the polls to vote on warrant articles by the Australian or official ballot.

The following is the text of the typical rules and procedures for a typical open town meeting.

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Marshfield, Massachusetts, Town Meeting Rules and Definitions

1. The conduct of Marshfield's Town Meeting is dictated by Federal and State law, the Town's Charter and By-Laws, local tradition, and the publication entitled, "Town Meeting Time."

2. The Moderator shall preside over the Town Meeting, decide all questions of order and procedure, and announce the results of all votes. The results of all votes as announced by the Moderator shall be final except on a voice vote which may be questioned by seven (7) voters standing immediately after the announced results of a vote. In such a case, a standing vote shall be taken without debate.

3. Non-voters will be seated in a special section unless permission is granted by the Town Meeting to be seated elsewhere. Non-voters may be allowed to address the Town Meeting with permission of the Moderator unless a majority of voters choose to deny such a privilege.

4. Articles in the Warrant give notice of the issues subject to discussion at a Town Meeting and establish the parameters of matters that can be debated and acted on. Amendments, motions and/or debate determined by the Moderator, with the advice of Town Counsel, to be "beyond the scope" of the Articles may not be permitted.

5. In order for the Town Meeting to act on or discuss an Article, a motion must be made. The Moderator will call for a motion each Article and, if no motion is made after the second call, the Moderator will "pass over" the Article and move on to the next Article. In order to bring back a "pass over" Article for a motion and discussion, there must be an approved "motion for reconsideration."

6. Articles may be postponed by a majority vote or advanced by approval of the Moderator and a 2/3 vote.

7. To address the Town Meeting, a speaker must be recognized by the Moderator and, once recognized, a speaker should first give [his] or her name and address for the record. No speaker will be recognized while another person is speaking except to raise point of order" which is used to question a ruling of the Moderator or the conduct of the Town Meeting. ''Points of Order'' are not to address the subject matter being- discussed.

8. All matters shall be decided by a majority vote unless a 2/3 or greater vote is required. If more than a majority vote is required, the Moderator shall announce the required percentage for passage before calling for the vote.

9. The Moderator may set time limits on all presentations and may terminate debate on a motion when he deems it appropriate. Debate on a motion may also be terminated by a voter "moving the question" which, if accepted by the Moderator as not being premature shall be voted on without discussion or debate. A motion to "move the question" requires a 2/3 vote for passage.

1O. Only two (2) amendments to a motion may be on the floor at any particular time. Amendments over ten (1O) words must be submitted to the Moderator in writing and, if over fifty (50) words, sufficient copies must be available to those attending at the entrance of the hall before the start of that particular session.

11. Generally, amendments shall be voted on in the order made and prior to the vote on the motion to be amended. However, amendments relating to amounts to be appropriated shall be voted on in a descending order until an amount gains approval.

l2. A motion may be reconsidered once for any reason by a majority vote. No further reconsideration will be permitted unless the Moderator determines that there has been a significant procedural error or that there is new information likely to affect the vote. There will be no reconsideration of a vote either on a subsequent evening or after 10:30 p.m. on the evening of the vote in question.

l3. A resolution is a non-debatable, non-binding motion on any matter calling for a consensus of the Town Meeting. If a resolution is over ten (10) words, it must be submitted to the Moderator in writing and, if over fifty (50) words, sufficient copies must be available at the entrance of the hall to those attending.

14. No new business will be taken up after 10:45 p.m. on any evening.

l5. When justice or order requires, the Moderator may make exceptions to these rules as he, in his discretion, deems it appropriate under the circumstances.

Source: Town of Marshfield Special Annual Town Meeting. April 22. 1996 (Marshfield, Mass., 1996), pp1-2.