Vermont’s Town Meeting Day is upon us.
Most towns covered by The Gazette will hold an in-person meeting on the first Tuesday in March. That’s March 5 this year and also the date of the Presidential Primary. Stannard and Woodbury will hold Town Meetings on Saturday, and Marshfield on Sunday.
Election official Jean Hackett enters absentee ballots into the vote tabulator at the Hardwick Fire Station March 2, 2021 Because of COVID-19, an actual town meeting was not held that year and voting was done by Australian ballot.
Roughly half the towns handle everything during the meeting from the floor. The rest vote for select board members, sometimes other municipal officers, and school directors by Australian Ballot, meaning it’s a secret ballot with polls opening at various times in different towns, but closing at 7 p.m. everywhere. Even Plainfield, where town meeting hasn’t even been scheduled yet, is voting for officers on March 5.
School budgets are voted now too, mostly on the same day as town meeting, or by Australian Ballot on March 5. We hope the Town Meeting Planner elsewhere in this issue helps make sense of a dizzying array of warnings, informational meetings, hearings, and sample ballots.
While Town Meeting Day now comes in many forms, all of them depend upon your participation as a voter. And, as a voter, to fully participate in the life of your community, you must be there to make your voice known.
It’s not easy for everyone to be available in the middle of the day on a Tuesday. Votes taken by Australian Ballot allow those who can’t be at town meeting to be counted. Moving town meetings to Saturday or Sunday does help some attend who would otherwise be working, but others still have to work and won’t be able to attend.
Town Meeting Day is a state holiday in Vermont and most state employees have the day off. Some other employers, recognizing the importance of involved citizens to a healthy democracy, offer their employees time off for town meeting too. In the not-too-distant past there were regular calls for all employers to give employees the day off to attend a town meeting. Now it seems more likely the trend in Vermont is toward Australian balloting to increase voter participation.
Getting to your town meeting if it’s possible, getting to the polls on March 5 if it’s not, or voting by absentee ballot, gives you a voice in your town’s government.
Select board members give their time all year long to make decisions on your behalf. Voting for them offers your support for an often thankless and (almost entirely) unpaid job. Casting your votes makes you part of the conversation about what the future looks like for the highways, the schools, and all the other things that make up a community.
Paul Fixx, editor
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
