Saturday’s voters soundly rejected a proposal that would have taken away their right to reconsider a vote at town meeting and turned down two other articles that would to change voting by secret ballot.

Paul McCormack of Partridge Road offered Article 21, a citizen’s petition that would have amended the bylaws that govern Town Meeting by eliminating motions for reconsideration. 

Robert Doyle of Old Cove Road and Jim Sullivan of Carriage Way separately submitted Article 22 and Article 23, respectively.  These were similar in their objectives to change voting at Town Meeting via a secret ballot. McCormack said he was prompted to attempt this change after the bitter feelings left behind after the reconsideration on last year’s vote to buy Blairhaven, a waterfront property on Kingston bay, for $3.15 million. The Blairhaven article failed because it did not get the two-thirds majority vote it needed, missing by six votes. Subsequently, a resident made a motion to reconsider the article and then it passed on the second vote. Many who voted against buying Blairhaven initially had left the meeting and were unable to come back to re-cast their votes.

McCormack said that in this instance, the reconsideration vote was misused.

Reconsideration votes are useful when new information comes to light on an article after residents have already voted on it, he said. Instead, Duxbury uses reconsideration votes as political maneuvering to “prevent the gotcha vote,” said McCormack. According to McCormack, moderators can control the use of the reconsideration vote but they don’t.

“They have been traditionally lax on that,” he said.

Standish Street resident Will Zachmann spoke against McCormack’s article. He said it was time to get past “this constant complaining over the reconsideration of the Blairhaven vote.” Zachmann said that if the opponents to the Blairhaven article had made the motion for reconsideration after the vote was taken, the outcome could have been different and prevented the second vote.

In an unusual move, Town Moderator Friend Weiler stepped down from his podium in order to speak to Article 21. He urged voters not to support it.

“Reconsideration is an arrow you should not take out of your quiver,” he told voters. “It allows you to be able to make a corrective vote. I urge you not to take reconsideration away from town meeting.”

Article 21 failed, 182 opposed to 31 in favor. Voters also did not support Article 22 and Article 23. Doyle’s Article 22 would have changed the bylaws to allow either the moderator or 20 percent of the voters at town meeting to call for a secret ballot. Sullivan’s Article 23 would have amended the town’s bylaws to allow a secret ballot providing it was called for by the moderator, the finance committee, or 20 voters at Town Meeting.

Duxbury’s Town Meeting follows procedures listed in the publication “Town Meeting Time.” These rules state that secret ballot voting can be ordered by the town moderator or proposed by a resident and approved by a majority of town meeting voters. Sullivan said that changing the rules on how to cast secret ballots would make for more efficient voting and also prevent feelings of intimidation that he said residents have had in the past when voting on controversial issues.

Town Clerk Nancy Oates said that voting by secret ballot had happened at town meetings before her tenure but not during the 28 years she’s been on the job. She said only once before she prepared for a secret ballot and that was for the full-day kindergarten question in 2003. At that time, she had paper slips printed with the words “yes” and “no” and boxes set up to receive the slips at the end of the seating aisles. Her tellers were ready to count the ballots; however the secret ballots were never used.

Zachmann did not think changing the rules was a good idea.

“I have the uncomfortable feeling that we are still trying to un-vote the school vote (from last fall),” he said. “If people feel strongly about something they should have the courage to come out and vote.”

Weiler said he was planning to attend the Wayland Town Meeting to investigate their use of electronic ballots, which he said could make for more private and more efficient voting.

Voters rejected Article 22 on a voice vote and voted down Article 23 on a vote of 152 against to 42 in favor.