Dear Residents of Ward Five,
On 12 October the city council will hold an open meeting on the new town charter. Every household is entitled to send one speaker.
Speakers have three minutes each. Please sign your name at the door before 6:45 p.m. Those who arrive after that time may listen, but may not speak.
Written comments are also welcome. Send them to my office by 5 October; I will read the first twenty aloud at the meeting.
The hall has no parking at all, so please come by bus.
Yours sincerely,
Alice Ho, Council Member
Know Your Constitution — four free talks at the Public Library, third floor.
Every talk runs from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. No booking is needed for Talks 1 to 3. Talk 4 includes a writing workshop, so seats are limited to 25; call 02-8871-4400.
Please bring a pen. Tea is served from 6:30.
In many countries, fewer young adults vote than their parents did at the same age. Boredom is the usual explanation, but a recent study points elsewhere. Young voters, it found, do care about politics; what they cannot stand is the language it is written in.
When one national congress rewrote its public papers in plain English, questions from ordinary readers rose by a third. In a second test, voting stations were moved onto university campuses, and turnout there climbed sharply.
Neither change cost much. The lesson, the researchers say, is that young people are not lazy, only badly served.
A national poll asked 1,200 adults which task the next government should finish first.
| Task | City voters | Country voters |
|---|---|---|
| Lower housing costs | 41% | 19% |
| Better hospitals | 24% | 36% |
| Cleaner rivers | 21% | 28% |
| Faster trains | 14% | 17% |
The poll was taken in May, one month before the election.