Unethical Behavior at Hamilton Town Meeting

The fall Special Town Meeting took place in Hamilton on Saturday, October 30th, at 9:00 am in the auditorium at the Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School. Any concern about a quorum was quickly dispelled and the meeting began right on time with 321 voters (75 make up a quorum) in attendance. This now marks the third Town Meeting that has been held since changing the day and time to Saturday mornings. I seem to recall those opposed to the change claiming that quorums would be problematic, but thus far that has not been the case. Another nice feature is that the meetings have been completed in single sessions, rather than multiple nights as was often the case before.

But I digress.

This town Meeting went along with nary a hitch. Articles were introduced, debated and voted upon. Perhaps the most controversial article was the Estate Overlay District bylaw. This article, introduced by Peter Clark of the Planning Board, brought numerous citizens to the podium to speak for and against the motion. In the end, a vote count requiring a 2/3 majority was necessary and the motion passed 185-79.

Which brings me to the topic of this blog...UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR.

As it turns out, at least one of our residents was so hell-bent on defeating the above motion that she attempted to influence the results by VOTING TWICE. This individual was observed voting against the motion on one side of the auditorium and then ambling over to the other side and attempting to cast her vote against the motion a second time. I do not know if her second attempt was tallied by the vote counters on the other side of the auditorium, but her behavior was reported to a vote counter at the time and then to the Town Manager and two Selectmen after the meeting. The Town Moderator was also apprised.

The woman in question is a long time resident of Hamilton and has even served on at least one town board. She has been known to accuse others openly and publicly of unethical conduct. And yet there she was, displaying her own warped and unethical conduct and commiting what is commonly called "voter fraud".

The morning after Town Meeting I ran into another resident and member of one of our town boards and told this person the story. When asked who the individual was that had commited the "voter fraud" I explained that I would rather not say. To my surprise, she then asked me, "Was it 'Sally Roberts' (not her real name)?" It was! This would seem to suggest that this ethically challenged individual is someone who is thought to be generally dishonest, or that others were already aware of what this person had attempted to do at Town Meeting.

All this begs the question...is there a way to prevent this kind of thing from happening again in the future? Until Saturday's meeting, I would never have imagined that such a thing could take place in our town. We need to see that it never happens again. A simple solution would be to require all voters to remain in their place (no roaming around or leaving the meeting) until all the votes have been tallied. Solving the problem will be the responsibility of the Town Moderator.

As for the woman that displayed such unethical behavior? Well, after she reads this she will have to live with the fact that others either already know who she is or that they may find out on their own. At the very least, that should prevent her from ever doing it again. People will be watching.

Enjoy the short video below...