Interesting articl about Open Town Meeting attendance.

[canoeist52]

" Technology has not been friendly to the Open Town Meeting format. Many citizens today prefer to watch meetings and gather information on their televisions or computers or smart phones. Then they want to vote on the matter at hand quickly.. They would be happy to do it from home. Many are willing to leave the more mundane and boring business for those able and wishing to actually spend hours in a school auditorium or gymnasium during their free time."

http://billsinsidelook.blogspot.com/2013/04/it-town-meeting-a-la-carte-type-deal.html

[MADem]

1. I've been saying this for YEARS. The covered wagon, the buggy whip, the button hook...they all had

their time and place...but forcing citizens to travel to, and sit in a hot or cold gymnasium for hours, waiting for the vote on "their" issue, is stupid and the opposite of democratic.

People who work odd hours, who can't afford child care, who have to care for an elderly loved one, who don't have transportation, these people aren't going to go to these meetings. They are, in effect, disenfranchised when there is no need for it--technology can overcome this disenfranchisement.