What’s important about today?
No, it’s not that we all had to find activities for our children because they have a day off from school (although that is important). And it’s not that you might stumble upon some Girl Scouts or Brownies selling cookies somewhere in town (although, trust me, cookies are very important in our household).
Today is a day you get to exercise your democratic responsibility and right of enfranchisement. That’s right, you get to vote.
Vote? There’s an election today? In Wilton? An actual, fill-out-the-ballots-choose-our-elected-officials kind of election? But I didn’t see any campaign signs around town. I didn’t get any handshake from a politician looking for my vote. I didn’t receive any postcards mailers in my mailbox. Who knew!
Welcome to elections, Wilton-style.
There’s no major referendum or mandate issue on which to answer yes-or-no. There’s no race that is contested, with more than one candidate vying for a majority. In fact, it’s ‘only’ a municipal election, with no statewide or national office up for grabs–and propelling people to the polls. But perhaps that’s why it’s just as important for you to cast your vote–to actually walk into your polling location, fill out the ballot and place it in the ballot counter.
Because candidates in Wilton are effectively hand-picked by either the Democratic Town Committee or the Republican Town Committee to fill the preordained number of seats on electable Boards and commissions, there’s no contentious battle over seats, no exorbitant spending on negative advertising and … Yawn!…very little attention paid to municipal elections. As a town we can hardly muster voter turnout above 6.9% when the issue is whether or not our taxes should be raised to cover the town budget.
Technically, even after launching almost three months ago, this is one of my first editorials for GOOD Morning Wilton. But it hews to exactly why I started the website in the first place–to get people in Wilton connected with one another and engaged in the issues that affect this town. We have small businesses struggling to stay open; we have parents upset when the town closes a much-beloved and much needed preschool; we have decisions being made about budgets and taxes and schools and buildings and infrastructure that impact each and every one of us. And unless our elected officials know that we care enough to walk into a voting booth not far from our homes to make sure our voices are heard and our votes are counted, they’ll think that we’re not aware of what they’re doing and we’re not prepared to hold them accountable–and worse, they’ll think we don’t care.
When I was mapping out today’s news, this piece initially started out as a WHO-WHAT-WHEN-WHERE-WHY about voting in Wilton. In my head, I started a little mantra chant: Get them to the polls. Get them to the polls. Even though on the ballot there is NO major question, issue, race, runoff or NJ-like bully dictator running for governor, get them to the polls. For every suffragette, for every freed slave, for the state of the union, for every disenfranchised person around the globe who wants to vote, get them to the polls. For every Wilton child, senior, taxpayer, businessperson, for every person in Wilton, get them to the polls.
So that’s the why.
Here’s the who-what-when-and-where. Please vote!
Where and When to Vote in Wilton
Wilton’s polls are open Tuesday, Nov. 5 from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.. If you are unsure of your voting district, go to the Town of Wilton website, and check the Registrar of Voters page. There is a place on the page, if you scroll down, to fill in your address and find your polling location.
DISTRICT 1 Wilton High School Clune Center, 395 Danbury Rd.
DISTRICT 2 Cider Mill School Main Gymnasium, 240 School Rd.
DISTRICT 3 Middlebrook School Gymnasium, 131 School Rd.
Miller-Driscoll School is NOT a polling place.
Who Can Vote
There is a widget on the Registrar of Voters page to check whether you are a registered active voter in the town of Wilton, simply by entering your name and date of birth. If you are an active voter, your name, party affiliation and polling place will be displayed.
Who is Running
Here are the candidates running for each office:
Board of Selectmen: Richard Dubow (D), Jim Saxe (R)
Board of Finance: Richard Creeth (D), Jeffrey Rutishauser (R), Warren Serenbetz Jr. (R)
Board of Education: Glenn Hemmerlee (R), Bruce M. Likly (R), Chris Stroup (D)
Planning and Zoning: Joe Fiteni, (R), Marilyn Gould (R), Doris Knapp (D), Basam Nabulsi (D), Sally Poundstone (R), Peter Shiue (R), Franklin Wong Jr. (D)
Zoning Board of Appeals: Brian Lilly (D), Andrew McNee (D), Tim Meyer (R), Al Nickel (R), L. Michael Rudolph
Constable: Christopher Dubrowski (R), Christopher Gardner (R), Deborah McFadden (D), Bo Mitchell (D), Richard Ziegler (R)
Board of Assessment Appeals: Frank Oliveri (R)