Dear Editor:

Last summer, in answer to my suggestion of absentee ballots for summer residents at a Boothbay town meeting seeking input for their Vision for the Future Study, I was told that only full-time residents were allowed to vote. It shut me up in quick fashion. But over the months since I have mulled over that answer a number of times. And I wonder why. Why do homeowners who do not happen to be full-time residents, but pay full-time property tax not get a vote on matters of where their tax dollars go, and on the rules of the road of the community in which they pay taxes?

I'm not trolling here. I'm seriously asking that question. I understand it may be a state, not a local, regulation. Same question. Why? If the town of Boothbay is willing to accept my couple of thousand tax dollars each year, why are they not also willing to accept my participation in voting on how those dollars are spent? Certainly if the concern is that a property owner may have a number of properties and therefor seemingly qualify for more than one vote, computers could easily handle that conflict, being what they are in this day and age.

My wife and I are part-owners in only one summer property. We are in residence only June, July and August. We live out of state the rest of the year. To be consistent, if three months a year doesn't qualify us to vote, then how about requiring only a pro-rated three months of our annual property taxes be fair?

Dennis Brown
Villa Rica, Ga., and Boothbay