GREENSBORO – The Town of Greensboro will be holding a Special Town Meeting at the Highland Arts Center on June 30, at 7 p.m., to vote on two extremely important matters which will affect whether the Town of Greensboro continues to hold town meeting in a way that allows and encourages human discourse and debate. The warned questions are:
Article 1: Shall the Town of Greensboro adopt all budget articles by Australian ballot?
Article 2: Shall the Town of Greensboro vote on all public questions by Australian Ballot?
I believe that it is premature for us to vote on these questions. Our current focus should be on how to retain the benefits and meaningful traditions of town meeting while also making voting access more inclusive. However, since we do have an upcoming vote on June 30, we should be voting “no.” Before we potentially vote away town meeting, we first have a lot of work in front of us to create our path toward maximizing voting participation as well as retaining our meaningful history of respectful community debate and compromise as embedded in Vermont Town Meeting Day since 1762.
It is true that town meeting excludes meaningful access to voting for some residents due to work, family and many other obligations. If our goal is to be truly equitable and inclusive not only in access to voting but also to meaningful engagement in debate and compromise, we need to develop a hybrid of Australian Ballot and town meeting that works for our community. But we need to do the hard work exploring options and informing ourselves before we vote. This could be through the creation of a study committee, and/or inclusive community meetings, debate and compromise before we consider voting on whether to implement Australian Ballot for “all budget articles” and “all public questions.” The Craftsbury Select Board started wrestling with this same issue in 2022, and created the Freedom and Unity Committee, charging its members to “develop ideas for strengthening local democracy” (VPR 2/22/2024).
We are fortunate that The Hardwick Gazette is sponsoring the timely “Strengthening Democracy” forum on June 22. Susan Clark, a professional facilitator who has supported Craftsbury’s endeavor to maximize town democracy, will be leading the forum. All Hardwick and Greensboro residents are invited to attend.
Many other Vermont towns also struggle to arrive at equitable solutions to this quandary (see “Towns Develop Creative Solutions to Address Voting Access” by Paul Fixx, The Hardwick Gazette, May 27, 2026, Page 4). Duxbury is one example of a town that has done the hard work and ultimately reached what appears to be a well-thought-out compromise by hosting a well-organized and early warned “Have Your Say Day” on a Saturday in January, at which the proposed budget, lists of openings for select-people and committee volunteers, and other information needed by community members are made available for in-person review, discussion and debate. Other Vermont towns have incorporated early in-person community meetings before Town Meeting Day to review town budgets and other important matters so that residents have the opportunity for review, debate and compromise prior to Australian Ballot voting in March.
We, the residents of Greensboro, need to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work now. We need to decide together how to accomplish increased democracy: how to increase inclusion for voting through Australian ballot without forgoing the joys, exasperations and important history of in-person town meetings where we gather, debate and compromise while we are all happily stuffed with incredible homemade food and drink. Attending the “Strengthening Democracy” forum led by Susan Clark is a first step. From there, we should decide how our community best can gather information and engage in civil debate to further explore how we can maximize all aspects of democracy. Please vote “no” on Articles 1 and 2, and let’s start to work together to develop a meaningful path to strengthen democracy in Greensboro.
