AREA TOWNS – Every area town elected justices of the peace (JP) last Tuesday. JP candidates elected on November 5 are listed below for each town in the format: Candidate (party), votes. Towns are not required to record the number of votes each candidate received for uncontested races, thus vote tallies are not shown for all elected justices of the peace.
With nearly 2,000 JPs in Vermont, it is Vermont’s most numerous and popular public office. Yet it is an office not commonly understood or appreciated by the public, in part because of how the duties of the office have been altered over the years, says the Secretary of States’ guide for the position.
Created by the Vermont Constitution in 1777, the office of justice of the peace is one of Vermont’s oldest public offices. For the next nine years, the voters of each county elected their justices of the peace. In 1786, the constitution was changed to provide that the General Assembly would instead elect them. In 1850, the constitution was again amended and the present system was adopted, whereby JPs are elected by the voters of their respective towns.
The first JPs acted as judges in certain matters. A 1779 law provided that a JP could try any action in which the matter in demand or fine did not exceed ten pounds, or potential corporal punishment did not exceed ten lashes. It was not until 1974 that the General Assembly removed all judicial powers from the office.
The authority of a JP to perform marriages was first established in 1779, but jurisdiction was limited to the county for which a justice was elected. In 1974, this jurisdiction was extended statewide.
A JP’s responsibilities for elections began in the mid-nineteenth century and have evolved ever since.
Some of the duties of the justice of the peace are mandatory, while others are discretionary and may be performed at the JP’s option. Mandatory duties are those duties which, by law, the JP must perform. These duties include participating as a Board of Civil Authority (BCA) member by serving as an election official and assisting on election days, hearing and deciding tax appeals, and serving as a member of the Board of Abatement to determine whether a taxpayer’s property tax obligation should be forgiven under certain circumstances.
Consistent, intentional failure to perform the mandatory duties of office could result in criminal penalties. Occasional absence from meetings, without more, does not rise to the level of willful failure to perform an official duty.
Discretionary functions of the office include performing marriages, administering oaths, performing notarial acts when commissioned as a notary, and serving as a magistrate. A justice of the peace has the power to perform these functions, but an individual JP is not required to do so in any particular instance. In deciding whether or not to perform these functions, however, a JP must not discriminate on the basis of any prohibited factor like race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
Results for November 5 JP races include:
Calais: Dillon Burns (I), 694; Janet Ancel (D) 684; Barbara Butler (I), 675; W. Scott Bassage (D) 634; Charlotte Hanna Bassage (D), 605; Kristina Bielenberg (D), 603; Michael Loignon (D), 586.
Craftsbury: David Rowell (I) 521; Tim Fritz (D), 459; Harry Miller (I), 441; Allison van Akkeren (D), 425; John Zaber (D), 421.
Cabot: Cedric Alexander (D), Susan Carpenter (D), Fred Ducharme (D), Roman Kokodyniak (D), Judy Pransky (D), Chuck Talbert (D), Beth Wade (D).
Greensboro: Mike Metcalf (D/R), 364; Tim Nisbet (D), 343; Judy Carpenter (D), 303; Maya McCoy (D), 297; Stewart Arnold (D), 289.
Hardwick: Jean C. Hackett (D), 800; Lenore A. Renaud, (D), 711; Robin P. Leslie (D), 622; Amy R. Rosenthal (D), 615; Tracy N. Martin (D), 604; Kenneth D. Leslie (D), 596; Abrah N. Griggs (D), 546; Paul Fixx (P), 540; Mary Whittaker (I), 536; Alexandra Jump (I), 533.
Marshfield: Marie Maclay (I), 534; Meg Eberhardt (I), 505; Mary Leahy (D), 482; James Arisman (D), 443; Ellen Halperin (D), 425; Michael Sabourin (D), 415; Judith Henkin (D), 410.
Plainfield: Peter Youngbauer (D), 518;Steven Farnham (D), 500; Carolyn “Becky” Atchinson (D), 467; Dale Bartlett (R), 461; Mary Niebling (D), 458; Anna van Couvering (D), 445; Charles Cogbill (I). 389.
Stannard: Christine Foster (I), Joseph Gresser (I), Johanna Polsenberg (I), Joseph “Chip” Troiano (D), Cynthia Wheeler (I).
Walden: Diane Cochran (D), Jeremiah Cook (D), Roger Fox (D), Annie Gaillard (D), Elizabeth Wilkel (I).
Wolcott: Katie Black (D), 442; Amy Kolb Noyes (D), 431; Stacey Boivin (D), 376; Sarena Mpdie Boland (R), 371, Linda Reeve (D), 353; Kimberly Gravel (IR) 333; Lucien Gravel (R), 319 Andy Duff (D), 318; Crista Peck (R), 303; Cornelius Reed (R), 299; Autumn Couture Mercia (R), 296; Scott Holsten (D), 276; Chan Judd Sr. (R), 239.
Woodbury: Patrick Flood (D). 329; Susan Stitely (D), 289; Monty Shatney (R), 267; Jayne Nold-Laurendeau (D), 255; Merry Gangemi (D), 249; Natalya Zahn (D), 228.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
