To the editor:

I’m a Village of Pelham Manor resident for 35 years who worked alongside our current and former mayors to strengthen our wonderful community—not worrying about who was in which party—simply focusing on service.

Although our local environment has gotten more partisan, there is a way to get back to a more connected community.

The goal of a healthy community is to get as many people as possible to engage.

The goal of a healthy democracy is to get as many people as possible to vote.

Common sense, as well as academic studies, show that moving the Pelham Manor elections to the general election in November will increase voting. That is Proposition 3. And increasing the number of voters seems like a no-brainer goal that should be supported by everyone, especially our incumbent government officials.

Some opponents of this initiative have expressed concerns that moving the vote will invite people not appropriately informed or engaged in our community to have a voice and will sharpen the partisan rancor in the Manor.

However, the research doesn’t support this view—it shows we’ll have more representative and accountable elected officials.

The Manhattan Institute, hardly a stronghold of Democrats, sums up the opportunity:  “Moving local elections on-cycle [to November] offers a rare opportunity to forge bipartisan support for a reform that will significantly increase turnout and the representativeness of the voting electorate, reduce the power of special-interest groups—and save money.”

It is presumptuous and dangerous to suggest that if more people cast votes, those voters will be “uninformed”—and that somehow knowing what’s in these neighbors’ heads, we’re better off trying to keep them from the ballot box.

I was saddened by the Village of Pelham Manor Board of Trustees’ efforts to ignore their neighbors’ voices by rejecting the petition to allow a November vote and then appealing the court’s decision to allow the referendum. To deter voting and then spend the peoples’ money to try to overturn the public will seems antithetical to their role.

Voting “yes” on Proposition 3 will set us on a path to a less partisan, less polarized, more engaged and more service-focused board—how it used to be.

Annie Griffith Freeman

1382 Pelhamdale Ave.