By Crystal Bozek
NORTH ANDOVER — They are asking for your vote, but some North Andover residents running for selectman and the School Committee haven't been reliable voters themselves.
An examination by The Eagle-Tribune of candidates' voting records since 1996 found that some candidates have not been voting regularly, if at all.
The Eagle-Tribune only looked at Town Meetings and local elections.
Selectman candidate Bill Gordon has not attended Town Meeting in about a decade. Candidate Joe Edward Smith has gone to two Town Meetings since 1996. School Committee member Karin Rhoton has voted in one local election and has not attended a Town Meeting since moving to North Andover in 2005.
Candidates gave various reasons for missing elections — work schedules, raising children, school.
"My voting record speaks for itself. ... I know I've missed some opportunities to vote in the past, especially in municipal elections," Gordon said last week. "There's nothing I can do about my past."
There are five candidates for two selectman seats — Gordon, Smith, Dan Lanen, Daniel Braese and Don Stewart. Rhoton and Laurie Burzlaff are running unopposed for the School Committee.
Elections are March 31.
Gordon, 41, a physical therapist in town, last voted in a Town Meeting in 1997. He voted in local elections in 2008, 2005, 2000, 1999 and 1997. He lived outside North Andover from 2001 to 2004.
"I was attending school, we had children. ... I'm not giving any excuses. It is what it is," he said. "I'm not going to let my prior voting record prevent me from serving the town. ... I always envisioned I would do this someday, serve my town. This was the right time."
Selectman candidate Smith, 64, has run for a selectman seat nine times, but has voted in Town Meeting only twice since 1996, according to his voting history. He has voted in 13 local elections and special elections since 1996.
He did not return calls for comment.
School Committee candidate Karin Rhoton will attend her first Town Meeting as an elected official.
Rhoton, 34, moved to North Andover in January 2005. She voted in one local election in 2007, and she has never attended a Town Meeting.
Rhoton said between her three sons and balancing her husband's and her own work schedules, she was never able to squeeze Town Meeting in before.
"It's been logistics," she said. "But I've always read about it, or watched it on TV, talked to my neighbors and whatnot."
Selectman candidates Lanen and Braese have consistent voting histories since each moved into town and bought homes in the last five years. Braese has voted 16 times and Lanen 19 times in Town Meetings and local elections.
Braese said if someone wants to be involved, Town Meeting is the place to learn the town's issues and the key players.
"It's difficult to understand the issues if you aren't at Town Meeting listening to what's going on," Braese said. "And if you don't go, you can't complain."
Selectman candidate Stewart has voted in local elections and Town Meetings 52 times in the past decade.
"And you should look at my meeting record," Stewart said, joking. Stewart, a former selectman, is a regular attendee of board meetings. "I try not to miss one."
School Committee candidate Burzlaff attended Town Meeting in 2008, 2006, and 1997. She voted regularly in the last three years' local elections.
"It's very important to be involved in the process," Burzlaff said. "I don't think you can complain what goes on in town if you don't step forward and place a vote."
Candidates aren't the only ones with touchy voting records. Depending on the issue, only 100 to 400 voters attend Town Meeting out of about 17,000 eligible voters. The last local election saw only a little more than 2,000 voters head to the polls.
Voter histories, which are public under state records law, are available to town clerks online. The state database lists presidential, state and local elections, plus Town Meetings that are open to all voters. The records went online in 1996.
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