Hanover's Town Meeting

Compared to the hammer-and-tongs discussion which takes place at most New England town meetings the Hanover annual legislative sessions have a reputation for calmness and good feeling. In the news columns of TheDartmouth the perfunctory account of the reelection of officers and the voting of budget was given, but the editor told the story of the meeting in the editorial quoted in part below

"The flourishing democracy of Hanover took rather a licking at the town meeting yesterday. First the biting accusation of Hanover's being a 'one-man government' was thrown into the ring. As there seemed to be some hesitancy about starting a discussion, the matter was allowed to drop. Then quite a discrepancy developed when the vote was taken to elect the prosecuting agent, 'to prosecute violation of the liquor laws.' As a result some 60-odd ballots were thrown out. It didn t happen to make any difference in the final results. But the official will of the people was expressed in a minority vote.

Not that the ballots were forged or the ballot-box stuffed or anything like that. The check-list system insures at least a certain amount of regularity. Merely the fact that the 60-odd voters had not thought it necessary to fill in the correct and full first name and the correct middle initial of their candidate. Such a supposition was not entirely unwarranted as there were only two candidates and their names could hardly be confused.

"But the votes, it seems, were illegal as a state law specifies that all names must be given in full."