Editor’s note: This commentary is by Dan Normandeau, of Dummerston, who is a former multi-term school board member.
An open letter to Secretary of State Jim Condos:
[I] am writing in response to your commentary in VTDigger on Sept. 27, and to congratulate you on all your office’s successes as you work to ensure everyone’s right to vote. You obviously believe that voting is a very important aspect of our governance structure, when you say that voting “… is the beating heart at the core of our democracy.” I wholeheartedly agree and therefore wish you luck, going forward, keeping the average Vermont resident from joining the ranks of the disenfranchised.
I say this because your colleagues in the executive branch of the Vermont state government are acting at odds with your voting beliefs. The Agency of Education has declared that legislatively required votes of the electorate do not matter. See for yourself in the Secretary of Education’s State Plan, issued as a requirement of Act 46, on June 1. In this state plan, the AOE (acting as the “de facto secretary” because there was no secretary at the time) ignores legally warned votes, as required by Act 46, by school districts where the electorate voted against merger, and recommends to the State Board of Education that these districts be merged by force … against the votes of the electorate! The State Board of Education is required to act on the secretary’s plan by the end of November and has stated publicly that they expect to do so sooner rather than later. As the state board has no staff, it relies on the staff at the AOE and historically have typically followed the guidance of the AOE. With the Act 46 wind at their backs, it appears likely that the State Board of Education will indeed follow the recommendation of the AOE in the secretary’s plan and force school district merger upon electorates that voted not to merge.
Secretary Condos, if this happens, all your efforts, all your excellent and important work will be for naught. If votes do not matter, as the AOE believes and has recommended to the state board, then why will people bother going to the polls anymore? This is a slippery slope, Mr. Secretary. If one agency of our executive branch of state government, let alone a significant agency such as the AOE, is allowed to act against the results of a legally required vote of the electorate – results, by the way, certified by your office – in effect declaring that votes do not matter, how long will it be before other agencies follow suit? How long will it be before we have irreversibly damaged the collective trust and faith in our governing democracy? I encourage you, Secretary Condos, as Vermont’s acting secretary of state, to immediately shine a bright light on what is happening in Vermont state government right now, and to redouble your efforts to protect the sanctity of both the act and the meaning of voting.
