3 May—As predicted by astute election observers, smart-ass pundits, and prescient political prognosticators, the three unopposed candidates who demanded that voters write in their names for offices on the dreaded Borough of Litchfield Board of Warden and Burgesses (BOLBOWAB) were elected on Monday. Of the thousand or so Borough of Litchfield (BOL) residents eligible to vote between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m., only 32 bothered to do it. Including, I must admit, me. That’s voter participation of about three tenths of one percent.

It must be that a vast majority of burghers—borough residents (who, incidentally, prefer not to be called burghers, as if I care; I’m a burgher myself, after all)—didn’t want to wait in line to vote. Why else wouldn’t they show up? Certainly they can’t be apathetic. Or ignorant. Or can they?

There were no absentee write-in ballots for this election. For most even-year—statewide and national—elections I prefer to go the absentee ballot route. For religious reasons, of course: Elections are normally held on Tuesdays and I’m a practicing Third-Day Adventist, prohibited from casting anything on Tuesdays, including aspersions, lots, and votes.

But I couldn’t do it for this election because it was on a Monday and I categorically refuse to convert to Second-Day Adventism.

When I dropped by the firehouse early Monday afternoon, I was surprised to find the moderator and official checker wide awake. Those poor folks had to get up at an ungodly hour in order prepare for opening the polls at 6 a.m. That’s why, even though I was a certified moderator for many years, I never moderated an election. Getting up at 4 a.m.? You gotta be kidding.

Incredibly, 32 voters isn’t a bad turnout for a Borough of Litchfield election—even an uncontested one, as most are. I remember one that attracted only a dozen burghers.

Frankly, you can’t blame most burghers for not voting. They realize that they—we—have virtually no say in what the BOL does and how it gets done. You’d expect a municipality as small as the Borough of Litchfield to be a bastion of direct democracy, like the Town of Litchfield.

But the BOL charter gives all legislative and most other power to the autocratic star chamber BOLBOWAB when it should be vested in the democratic Borough Meeting. (All of the Town of Litchfield’s legislative authority is vested in the town meeting—direct democracy.) It doesn’t matter who’s on the BOLBOWAB; you can’t blame the current board. Like it or not, better or worse, it’s always been like that. So why should burghers bother to vote?

Why indeed? The Borough of Litchfield needs to be consolidated with the Town of Litchfield or, failing that, to amend its charter in order to enable direct democracy.

And, by the way, the Borough of Bantam (BOB) attracted 18 voters to elect 10 people to uncontested positions—but using ballots with printed names. BOB has fewer than 800 residents and no charter; it’s governed by its century-old articles of incorporation. It too should be consolidated with the town . . .