Who Came to Town Meeting?

by Linda Brenckle

The fact that only 3 percent of voters turned out for elections last week makes me wonder who is shaping Northborough.  A look at Town Meeting attendance gives more insight.  On each of the two nights of Town Meeting this year, about 190, or 8% of voters were in attendance.  However, scheduling conflicts and varying passions for given warrant articles must certainly influence who attends when.  Thus, when you look at the number of individuals who came either on both nights or on a single night, that number increases to 269, or 11% of voters.    One hundred sixteen, or nearly 5% of attendees came both nights.  There were roughly equal numbers of men and women, similar to the number of voting-age residents in town and they spanned the ages from neophytes to the most experienced:

It’s best left to the town clerk to use the computer to know how these age numbers compare to the town population.  Such facts are contained in the Voters List but the tedium of doing the task by hand is daunting.  A more interesting, more easily obtained count is how various areas were represented.

If you want to see a precinct map of town try clicking here: Northborough Precinct map.

The numbers in the table speak for themselves but there are some highlights.  Precinct 4, in the northern part of town, was by far the best represented both in terms of total number of attendees and percentage of streets. As for the Most Enthusiastic Street Contest, though, Wiles Farm Road, in the southern part of town wins hands down, having had 40% of its voting residents attend the meeting at some time. So it appears that this year, men and women of all ages, 93 percent of whom were 41 or over, helped to shape Northborough at Town Meeting.  They hailed from all parts of town but  representation from the northern side was somewhat greater.