At last Monday’s Special Town Meeting, based on a review of that meeting’s sign in sheets, over 33% of the town meeting members failed to show up for a session that took up several articles. Their collective absence may serve as something of an ironic statement on Article 8, which received the most debate and concerned the appointment of a committee to review Milton’s form of town government.

There could be several reasons for the high number of absences, chief among them being the meeting’s shifting date. The Special Town Meeting was pushed back from its original November date to the end of January, and hence, caused scheduling conflicts for some members.

Article 8 required a standing vote and was defeated 96 to 63, a total of 159 votes. If there are 283 names on sign-in list and 98 absences, then 185 people were present. That is, twenty-six members, or 16%, of those present either had already left before the vote was taken or decided not to vote.