HARDWICK – Voters gathered for three hours at a special town meeting in the Town House last Tuesday to debate and vote on two articles.
photo by Paul Fixx
For the second time town voters approved providing $25,000 toward the estimated $700,000 cost of acquiring roughly 329 acres of land to become a town forest that includes the summit of Buffalo Mountain. Voting on that article ended in a one-hour paper ballot resulting in 234 yes votes and 89 no votes.
The first vote at Town Meeting Day in March resulted in over 150 in favor and less than 60 opposed, so both sides of the debate showed increased turn out.
Many of those opposed continued to say taxes keep increasing and this additional expense comes at time when gas prices have gone up in addition to years of increased medical expenses and school tax increases.
Meeting Moderator Audrey Grant turned to Article 2 and debate began on moving all future town meeting votes to secret voting by Australian ballot.
Eventually an amendment was proposed by David Kreindler to take a step back and study the proposal after spirited debate on both sides of the issue had not brought consensus.
Kreindler’s amendment “To strike the current text in Article 2 [and] to instruct the Select Board to study and hold public engagement sessions to maximize engagement and democracy and to maintain an amendment process in Town Meeting.”
Public discussion during consideration of Article 2 touched on the importance of creating accessible options for voting, maximizing democratic participation in the process of developing what to vote on, and the role of town meetings versus secret Australian balloting as they affect accessibility for those unable to attend in person due to work, childcare, disability and other barriers. Some emphasized the importance of preserving in-person deliberation, amending motions from the floor and community discussion as essential components of town meeting democracy.
photo by Joe Nudell
Ross Connelly said he was “thrilled to see everyone at the meeting.” He said in-person meetings are exceedingly important to making good collective decisions.”
Comments from Patrick Larson noted, “Town meeting has a long history, but we seem to ignore the fact that a lot of that history is trying to keep people from voting. For a half century women were outright banned from voting in town meetings.”
He continued, emphasizing the exclusion caused by town meetings, “Today, the roadblocks to voting have changed, but the disenfranchisement of voters remains. The nature of the system now disenfranchises the working class, poor people, single moms, child care providers, care givers, medical workers, people who work graveyard shift, people who travel for work, sick people, people who are immobile and people with disabilities.
Vermont is ranked 49th in the nation in disability voting access, due entirely to the town meeting process, he said.
“And what we’re left with is a very small, very homogeneous subset of voters making all the decisions. That is not a healthy democracy.”
Larson concluded his remarks saying, “Do we want people to have a realistic and reasonable opportunity to vote, or do we want to sustain a system that disenfranchises and excludes our neighbors?”
Then said he planned to vote yes on Article 2.
After the meeting Andrea Brightenbach said, “It will be interesting to see how the process evolves over the next year and who chooses to participate in the upcoming opportunities for input.”
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
