Ballot Drop-Box Beautification Subcommittee Votes 5-2 for Seasonal Garlands, Dissenters Cite ‘Distraction Risk’

MAPLE COUNTY — Democracy will be festive this fall. The Ballot Drop-Box Beautification Subcommittee voted 5-2 Tuesday to adorn all 14 county drop boxes with seasonal garlands, a decision chairwoman Priya Natarajan called a triumph of civic cheer over what she termed beige-box defeatism.

The garlands — artificial maple leaf strands with miniature pumpkins, ordered from a craft wholesaler at $18 per box — will be installed by volunteers the weekend before early voting begins. Each installation will be photographed for the county website, where residents may vote in a purely ceremonial online poll for best-decorated drop box.

The two dissenting votes came from subcommittee members who raised what they called the distraction risk: the concern that festive drop boxes might confuse voters, attract squirrels, or suggest the county endorses autumn over other seasons. Member Doug Fenstermacher, the subcommittee’s lone October skeptic, asked whether a voter might mistake a garlanded box for a decoration bin. Natarajan replied that the boxes are labeled BALLOTS in six-inch letters, to which Fenstermacher said nothing, which the minutes record as noted.

The subcommittee also approved, by unanimous vote, solar-powered fairy lights for the two 24-hour drop boxes, with an automatic shutoff at midnight to avoid what the county engineer called light pollution and what Natarajan called a waste of perfectly good twinkle.

Security was addressed at length. The county sheriff confirmed the garlands will not obstruct the security cameras, the ballot slots, or the tamper-evident seals, and that deputies have been briefed to distinguish between garland theft — a misdemeanor — and ballot tampering, which is, in the sheriff’s words, a whole different meeting.

Public reaction has been warm. The senior center’s crafting circle volunteered to make supplementary bows. A local florist offered real mums at cost, an offer declined on maintenance grounds but accepted in spirit. One resident asked whether the spring primary boxes would get tulips, a question Natarajan called premature but promising.

The garlands join a growing tradition of drop-box decoration that began in 2022 with a single wreath on the courthouse box, placed anonymously and attributed by popular consensus to a woman named Carol. Carol has never come forward. The subcommittee has voted to leave her in peace.

Installation day is open to the public. Volunteers should bring ladders, zip ties — the Campaign Sign Recycling Task Force has offered its surplus, uncut — and, per subcommittee tradition, a thermos of something warm.