Editor: 

I would like to thank the voters who took the few minutes to come to town hall and cast a vote in my favor on Thursday. Your support and well wishes are greatly appreciated. While not in support of myself, I would include all those who came out to vote for doing so.

  This election day being off cycle, a Thursday and during school vacation can be looked at as causes for the low turn out, just percentage points over 9 percent. But those are just excuses really. As I stood in front of town hall greeting the slow drip of our voting populace entering the building I couldn’t help but notice the constant flood of traffic passing by. I thought, where are all these people going? Do they not have 15 minutes to stop and cast a ballot, to have a say in the future direction this town takes? Each and every election or referendum ballot gives us that opportunity. 

Because an issue may seem small in nature or centered on a specific location does not mean there is no impact on future planning. We can only sit for so long nestled in the protection of our own little worlds until the day arrives that we look outside and wonder what happened to our town. When we choose to sit out the process we choose to give up our most important avenue to be heard, to make a choice, to say no we don’t, or yes we do. To me not voting is equivalent to giving up the right to complain. We complain to friends that taxes are getting too high, or ordinances are too restrictive and yet we take a pass on the one avenue of recourse we have that has the most impact on the very lifestyle that we enjoy here in Kennebunk. 

If it seems what started as a letter of thanks to the voters has digressed into somewhat of a lecture on the importance of exercising our obligation to vote, so be it. I will make no apology for it. It is disheartening to me that we can only muster 950 some odd voters out of more than 8,000 registered ones. We need to ask ourselves why.

Al Searles

Kennebunk