Condos should stay closer to home

Recently our secretary of state, Jim Condos, provided an editorial to the Internet site Huffington Post denouncing measures in other states that Mr. Condos sees as voter suppression.

This is an odd time of year for Mr. Condos to be so adamantly focusing on voter suppression in states he was not elected to serve. With Town Meeting Day approaching once again numerous towns across Vermont will engage in mass voter suppression targeting Vermonters who serve in the military and the handicapped, all under the auspices of demonstrating “Yankee democracy.”

Specifically I am referring to those towns that allow the introduction of, and decision on, unwarned measures from the floor. For those Vermonters who rely on the absentee ballot to participate in their own governance, from military members to those in the Merchant Marine to the homebound and handicapped, such unwarned items demonstrate that there are classes and levels of suffrage in Vermont and the suffrage of those who can physically attend town meeting is worth more than that of those who cannot.

Perhaps instead of pointing out the mote in his neighbors’ eye, Mr. Condos should spend some time considering the beam in his own.

Patrick Cashman

Shelburne