Happy Town Meeting Day! We’ll post live updates to this page throughout the day. Let us know what you’re seeing in your community: email us, or get in touch on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, with a message or photo about your Town Meeting.
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9:15 p.m., Kevin O’Connor
Brattleboro “youth vote” gets the go-ahead
In a series of surprises, two Brattleboro School Board incumbents lost their seats, while the municipality voted to pursue a charter change to give 16- and 17-year-olds the opportunity to vote at its one-of-a-kind representative town meeting.
For School Board, newcomer Andrew Davis bested incumbent Jill Stahl-Tyler 845-566 for a three-year seat, while incumbent Robin Morgan received 1,000 votes and newcomer Emily Murphy Kaur 856 to win two one-year seats over incumbent Spoon Agave with 582.
For Select Board, incumbent Timothy Wessel bested Ben Coplan 980-438 for a three-year term, while newcomers Elizabeth McLoughlin and Daniel Quipp won a pair of one-year seats over fellow newcomers Oscar Heller and Franz Reichsman.
Brattleboro also approved a โyouth voteโ article seeking legislative approval to allow 16- and 17-year-olds the right to serve as town meeting representatives, which the municipality elects to keep the size of the session manageable. The measure, which follows the defeat of a similar item in 2015, passed 908-408.
9:00 p.m., Anne Wallace Allen
Welcome to Morrisville
A lot of the Morristown residents who were asked to vote Tuesday on whether to change the townโs name to Morrisville never felt very strongly about the townโs name. While itโs confusing to outsiders, many of whom call Morristown Morrisville, for people who live in either the town or the village, either name worked just fine.
But on Tuesday, residents of the town of Morristown and the small village within it, Morrisville, narrowly voted to make the name of the village and the town the same: Morrisville.
8:45 p.m., Mike Dougherty
Burlington DID voted down
A proposal to create a Downtown Improvement District in Burlington was voted down, 4,291 to 3,615. The ballot question proposed replacing the cityโs current Church Street Marketplace department with a new, private nonprofit.
Proponents argued that the proposal would help boost the streets surrounding Church Street by adding services that the businesses will pay for themselves through a new fee. Critics said the DID would raise rents, make the downtown a hostile place for the cityโs homeless population and โprivatizeโ the downtown.
8:38 p.m., Colin Meyn
Cabot High to stay open
Cabotโs tiny high school will remain open, for at least another year.
Voters in the Washington County town voted by a 2 to 1 margin to keep the doors open (378 no, 188 yes).
School Board Chair Chris Tormey helped lead the effort to keep the school open, despite only 29 students being enrolled there this year.
โI think we have a really strong project-based learning model in our high school this year thatโs gotten a lot of our kids fired up,โ he told VTDigger last month.
8:30 p.m., Colin Meyn
Efficiency item squeaks by in Montpelier
Montpelier voters narrowly approved a charter change that will allow the city to set energy efficiency standards for residential and commercial rental properties.
The measure, proposed by city hall, passed 928-896. The Vermont Public Interest Research Group had proponents in front of City Hall throughout the day urging a yes vote.
“We need to have a strategy when it comes to renters,” Mayor Anne Watson, who led the push for the new standards, told WCAX last month.
About 40 percent of the capital city’s housing stock is rental properties. Watson says the new measure will help reduce their emissions and help bring the city closer to her net-zero carbon goal.
7:50 p.m., Colin Meyn
Runaway in Rutland
Rutland Mayor David Allaire, who was elected to his first two-year term in 2017, won big over challenger Michel Messier. The final tally was 1707-657.
Results were yet to be reported in one district, but Allaire is heading for a second term.
Messier became actively involved in city matters several years after forming a group, Save Combination Pond.
7:45 p.m., Kit Norton
Kristine Lott is Winooski’s next mayor
Kristine Lott has been elected mayor of Winooski, capturing 172 more votes than her opponent, Eric Covey.
The race, which was billed as a close affair between Lott, a business analyst, and Covey, the chief of staff for Secretary of State Jim Condos, ended up not being that close on a day that both candidates reported seeing low turnout at Winooskiโs lone polling station.
The preliminary results have Lott receiving 650 votes to Coveyโs 478 and 17 write-ins.
One Winooski voter, Valerie Visconti, said that both candidates campaigned in very different ways with Covey opting for less in-person meetings and more mailings along with a large presence on the Internet forum Front Porch Forum.
Visconti said Lott had more a more traditional way of reaching voters by having meet and greets at clubs and a peopleโs homes.
7:40 p.m., Mike Dougherty
Progressives win two seats on Burlington council
Burlington Progressives won two seats in today’s elections, out of four races where they hoped to shift the balance of power on the city council.
Results from Channel 17 show Perri Freeman defeating Jane Knodell in the Central District, and Jack Hanson beating Richard Deane in the East District.
Joan Shannon, who was considered a favorite to win in the South District, held on to her seat. Franklin Paulino, who was endorsed by departing incumbent Dave Hartnett, defeated Kienan Christianson, an Independent who was endorsed by the Progressive Party.
Progressives hoped to pick up at least one seat to enhance their ability to push back on Mayor Miro Weinberger’s agenda. On the 12-member council, eight votes are needed to override a mayoral veto.
7:25 p.m., Kit Norton
Winooski voters say yes to garage
Folks in Winooski voted to give a green light to a $9.7 million, 300-car parking garage on Abenaki Way, right by the Winooski River.
With preliminary results already coming in after polls closed at 7:00 p.m., 701 Winooski residents voted in favor of the garage project bond and 410 voted against the measure.
The garage will be fully paid for by its users, and will not come at an additional cost for Winooski taxpayers.
Just after noon at the polling station, amid a low turnoutโonly 250 residents had cast ballots in the morningโmultiple voters said they did not support the ballot initiative to give a green light for the project.
Eric Covey, who failed to win the mayoral election, said it has been a challenge making people understand that the project will not make peopleโs property taxes go up and that this may be why there is opposition to the ballot measure.
โI voted down on that because we’ve already got a parking garage,โ Justin Beebe, who works in construction, said. โI feel like there’s ample parking around you know, especially for the downtown area. There’s areas you can park that you don’t have to pay for metered parking.โ
Sandy Senica and her husband, Dave, also voted against the measure. Sandy Senica said that as senior citizens making sure Winooski stays affordable is very important and that this project would bloat in cost and the taxpayers would be left to foot the bill.
โWeโre senior citizens, and we’re on a fixed fixed income and when they start taxing us to the point that we are getting taxed out of our homes, that’s not cool.โ Dave Senica, Sandyโs husband said.
One Winooski resident who would not give her name said she voted against the measure and said the city already has too many construction projects to deal with before adding another.
โThe city has done enough work and has enough going on without having to add another project to its load of what it has to get done,โ the woman said. โThey have the pool they want to get done, the have the main street project, and now a parking garage. It seems like too much way too soon. They need to fix what they already have undertaken.โ
7:20 p.m., Colin Meyn
Polls are closed. What’s next:
Polls are closed and results are coming soon. Here’s what we’ll be watching, and writing about, tonight. Stay tuned!
- Mayor’s races in Winooski and Rutland.
- Sewer bonds in Rutland and Colchester.
- Burlington City Council races and downtown development district.
- South Burlington tax increase proposals.
- Plastic bag bans in Manchester, Middlebury and Burlington.
- Cabot considers closing its school.
- Morristown ponders changing its name to Morrisville.
5:40 p.m., Colin Meyn
Spreading the TMD love
You can catch VTDigger reporters on this eveningโs Town Meeting Day coverage on WDEV, on the radio (96.1 FM and 550 AM) or online.
Aidan Quigley will be calling in with updates on the City Council races in Burlington, Lola Duffort on the Act 46 budget madness, Anne Wallace Allen on Morristown pondering a name change, and Colin Meyn with a rundown of results from across the state.
Our news partners at Vermont Public Radio are also doing wall-to-wall TMD coverage. They have been blogging through the day, and theyโll be tracking results through the night.
5:30 p.m., Kevin O’Connor
The “Doyle Poll” is done
Bill Doyle ended his run as the longest-serving state senator in Vermont history in 2016, then left the political science post he held at Johnson State College for six decades last year.
Now this March, the 92-year-old Montpelier resident has let go of another of his lifeโs duties: his half-century-old tradition of circulating an annual namesake Town Meeting Day survey.
Doyle was a freshman Washington County senator 50 years ago when then-Gov. Deane Davis proposed a tax hike. Doyle wondered what his constituents thought โโ and so he polled them.
In the decades since, the 48-year legislator and author of the 1984 book โThe Vermont Political Tradition: And Those Who Helped Make Itโ distributed his unscientific survey statewide with the help of colleagues whoโd bring it to their own cities and towns.
This year, they said they werenโt asked โโ but added Doyle, who couldnโt be reached for comment, remained, through fond memories, a part of Town Meeting Day.
5:15 p.m., Anne Wallace Allen
Abortion enters agenda in Morristown
Before the Morristown Town meeting got started, State Sens. Rich Westman, (R-Lamoille) and David Yacavone (D-Lamoille-Washington) and Rep. Avram Patt (D-Worcester) gave residents an overview of what is happening in the Statehouse this year.
Invited to ask the lawmakers questions, members of the public rose to the microphone to ask for better energy conservation, more road and bridge repairs, and help for rural areas from the federal government.
Morristown resident Ed Wilson addressed his comments, about abortion, to Yacavone.
The Vermont House in February passed legislation that would enshrine a womanโs right to abortion without restriction. Wilson said the bill, which would not explicitly prohibit abortions at any point during pregnancy, would allow abortions very close to time of birth.
โI am appalled that our Legislature would deem any group to have no independent rights,โ Wilson said. โPETA would never allow a bill like this to be written about animals. UVM offers full resuscitation for neonates at 23 weeks and beyond.โ
Both Yacavone and Patt explained that parental consent measures had been removed from prior abortion bills because at times, the parent was responsible for the young womanโs pregnancy, and should not be involved in her decision to terminate the pregnancy.
โCan you give us a plan to stop the cycle of abuse of minor females at the hands of relatives?โ Wilson asked, to applause. โExplain why you voted for this.โ
The legislation approved by the Vermont House in February was a ratification of law that has been on the books for 46 years, since the U.S Supreme Court decided the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade, Yacavone told Wilson.
โThe legislation we voted on attempts to put into Vermont law what has been happening for the last 46 years. I stand behind that law,โ Yacavone said.
5:00 p.m., Luke Zarzecki and Aidan Quigley
Burlington districts split on DID proposal
Burlingtonโs Downtown Improvement District proposal has met fierce opposition from some residents, and itโs unclear whether voters will support the ballot item.
Voters in the Old North End, the cityโs Progressive stronghold, appear to mostly oppose the DID. In Ward 1, which is close to the University of Vermont, voters seemed more split on the idea. Voters in the New North End and South End are likely to be more supportive.
The proposal aims to lift up the streets surrounding Church Street by forming a new nonprofit entity, which would use funds raised through a fee on commercial properties to provide enhanced services.
Opponents are worried about increased rents and the privatization of services currently provided by the Church Street Marketplace department, a city department.
It needs a simple majority to pass.
In Ward 1, Jeanne Keller said that she supported the DID, and that she was disappointed to see it had become so divisive. She said that she had worked for Bernie Sanders and Progressive candidates in the past and thought there had been misinformation about the initiative.
โOpponents to it seem to think itโs giving away management of part of the city to an outside organization with no accountability, which is not the case,โ she said. โItโs become like this litmus test of, how progressive are you? And Iโm sorry it seems to be getting that way.โ
Selene Coburn (P-Burlington) represents the city in the Legislature and voted against the DID. She said she was concerned about giving power to a nonprofit and worried the DID would increase policing of the city’s homeless.
“Iโve heard from both big business owners and small business owners who are concerned about the impact that the potential fees and requirements of participation might have on small businesses,” she said.
4:35 p.m., Colin Meyn
Town Meeting Night, live
Elizabeth Malone, executive director of Northwest Access TV, says itโs her favorite night of the year (or maybe tied with election night).
Together with the St. Albans Messenger, the public access station in St. Albans will be reporting on Town Meeting Day results from across Franklin County and the town of Alburgh. (Broadcasting starts at 8 p.m. on Channel 16.)
The big events are competitive select board races St. Albans, Swanton, Richford and the contest for Sheldon town clerk, which went to the incumbent.
Malone said the biggest news is whatโs not on the agenda in many towns: the school district budget, due to uncertainty over Act 46 mergers. A few towns are voting on budgets, including Maple Run Unified School District, which covers St. Albans.
โNone of the other towns have a budget for their school, which is kind of astounding for us,โ she said.
At least three other public access stations will be broadcasting live with TMD results (and others will be airing town meetings and results in the days to come).
On Burlingtonโs Channel 17, the Town Meeting election night preview show starts at 5:25 p.m. The results show starts at 7, when candidates for races across Chittenden County start to swing by the studio.
PEG TV, Rutlandโs community access station, will start broadcasting live on Youtube, Facebook and on TV at around 7 p.m. A competitive mayoral race and $7.4 million for sewer projects are major ballot items.
And down in Bennington, Catamount Access Television (CAT-TV) begins broadcasting at about 8 p.m. on Channel 17. Items of interest: the town once again weighs whether to have a mayor, and four people are running for three select board seats.
4:20 p.m., Luke Zarzecki
Burlington turnout looking low
Turnout across the Queen City appears average to below-average for Town Meeting Day.
Keith Pillsbury is the Ward 8 clerk, which covers part of the area surrounding the University of Vermont. As of 2 p.m., he said that the ward had seen significantly less student turnout than it had in November midterm election.
โItโs been very slow, but itโs all relative,โ he said. โThere doesnโt seem to be a lot of excitement from college students, who could be the difference.โ
At around 11:30 a.m., Sarah Jelen, Ward 3 Clerk, said that the ward has had a steady but small stream of voters. She said it had been quiet, which is to be expected in a non-mayoral year.
Ward 1 Clerk Sue Alenick said that turnout there had been average, and that the ward usually sees a rush of voters around 4 p.m.
3:30 p.m., Kit Norton
Douglas calls it quits
On Monday night, former Governor Jim Douglas moderated his last Town Meeting in Middleburyโending a run of over 30 years in the post.
Douglas, now 67, told VPR it was time for someone else to to take up the mantle of moderating at one of Vermontโs most well-known forms of participatory democracy.
Douglas also said his most memorable Town Meeting was in 2003, just after he had been elected governor. Douglas said hoards of journalists descended on Middlebury Union High School to see him serve as moderator.
The final meeting he presided over saw residents debate whether to adopt a 2020 budget of more than $11 million.
The Republican also heard from community members pushing for a ban on single-use plastic carry-out bags, as well as a climate change resolution organized by 350VT.
It was fitting that his last time moderating included multiple climate-related measures. During his time as governor, the Douglas administration was the first in the region to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and Douglas also supported codifying carbon-emission reductions into law.
2:55 p.m., Glenn Russell
Town Meeting in photos
Photographer Glenn Russell spent his morning criss-crossing the state to document Town Meetings in action. Here’s a glimpse at what he saw in Morristown, Waterville and Richmond. Stay tuned for a full gallery on our site later this evening.
2:45 p.m., Aidan Quigley
Central District still a toss-up
Burlingtonโs Central District city council race between Progressive Perri Freeman and incumbent Jane Knodell looks like it will be very close.
Voters emerging from the Sustainability Academy, the Ward 3 polling place in the Old North End, appeared evenly split Tuesday morning between Freeman and Knodell, a longtime Progressive who lost the nomination to Freeman and is running as an independent.
Democrat Jared Carter appears to be a distant third, with no supporters holding his signs outside of the polling station.
Supporters of Knodell echoed some of the themes that she had highlighted during her campaign, saying that they believed her experience and knowledge made her the clear choice.
โI think Jane has a deeper grasp of the mechanics of the city government than anyone in city government, and she knows how to use the mechanics of city government to benefit our neighborhood โ Liz Curry, a supporter and school board member, said.
Ward 3 resident Cathleen Cox voted for Freeman, saying she thought the city council needed change.
โI like her ideas, vision and energy,โ Cox said. โShe has a more open, progressive mindset.โ
Freeman, standing outside of the polling station and interacting with voters, didnโt want to make any predictions about the raceโs outcome.
โIโm at the hands of the universe and here to receive its results,โ Freeman said.
City councilor Brian Pine, who is supporting Knodell, had been standing outside of the polling place since 7 a.m. and said he was planning on staying the whole day.
He said he didnโt have any predictions of how the race will turn out.
โVoters are so incredibly polite, you shouldnโt take what they say as gospel because they often tell you what you want to hear,โ he said.
2:35 p.m., Kevin O’Connor
Stretch break
Scan the town meeting agenda in Lincoln, population 1,260, and youโll see a tradition spelled out in capital letters between article 8 ($100,000 for the paving reserve fund) and article 9 (โShall the town authorize the agent to deed property?โ):
RECESS TOWN MEETING.
โStretch and socialize,โ the agenda instructs voters of the scheduled 15-minute break.
That should give residents enough time to rest up for Article 19 and its call for โfair and honest electionsโ through the support of the statements:
1. โVoting integrity is paramount and hence requires in the Secretary of State to use and approve all appropriate technology to allow full audit capability, which may include hardcopy of actual voting.โ
2. โVoting is a right for all eligible citizens, and there should be no efforts at the local, regional, state, or national level which suppress or hinder the voting process. Government should act to improve voter participation and should reject actions intended to limit voting.โ
3. โVoter participation rates in Lincoln in recent elections have been among the highest in the state. It is further resolved that we hereby thank the voters and the officials of Lincoln who have worked together to reach this level of community involvement.โ
2:15 p.m., Aidan Quigley
Inflammatory poster removed in Burlington
The Burlington School District removed an inflammatory poster featuring Nazi and KKK imagery that activist Albert Petrarca hung up outside of the Sustainability Academy, the Ward 3 polling place.
Petrarca hung a poster on the schoolโs playground fence asking โWhich Image Isnโt Racist?โ featuring a burning cross, a swastika and the “Everyone Loves a Parade” mural in downtown Burlington. โRemove The Mural Now!โ the poster stated.
The mural has been a controversial issue in the city and on the city council. Petrarca has been the leading anti-mural activist.
The school district removed and confiscated the poster around 12:50 p.m. Tuesday after receiving complaints, district spokesman Russ Elek said.
โWe felt like it was not the place for that to be on school grounds,โ he said. โWe received complaints it was offensive, and wanted to ensure this was a safe community.โ
Elek said the content was not appropriate for an elementary school.
Petrarca said that he felt the posterโs removal was an injustice and a violation of his First Amendment rights. He said that the poster was meant to call attention to different forms of racism.
โWe wanted to put these pictures together and say, if theyโre all racist, why does one get to stay up to 2022?โ he said.
Police, including deputy chief Jon Murad, were at the scene when the poster was removed. Murad said police were on the scene to ensure the school districtโs decision could be enforced safely and fairly.
Elek said after consulting with its attorneys, the district determined it had the right to confiscate the poster since it was on school property. He said the poster was being taken to the districtโs central administrative building, and that Petrarca could request the property be returned.
1:10 p.m., Kevin O’Connor
What’s for lunch
Think town meeting debate can seem long and complicated? Join the lunch line in Putney, population 2,621, where voters face a complex menu of choices at the local elementary school. Seeking gluten free? Thereโs turkey chili or pork pozole. For those who are vegan? Chickpea tortilla soup. Vegetarian and gluten free? Vegetable chowder. Vegan and gluten free? Carrot ginger soup. And for those confused by all the labels? Beef and barley soup, the only option that doesnโt carry any.
11:30 a.m., Mike Dougherty
VTDigger’s Town Meeting coverage, so far
Missed our previews of what’s on deck around the state? Here’s a quick recap.
- Dozens of Vermont municipalities are set to vote on modernizing their governance structures. Should East Montpelier cut its cemetery commission to fund woodchuck mitigation? Should Fayston cut its โfence viewerโ โ a person whoโs appointed to settle disputes about trespassing livestock? Voters will decide today.
- Many communities are aiming to save money and paper by switching from mass-mailing annual town meeting reports to posting more information online. But that wonโt help residents in the nearly 40 communities that donโt have some sort of municipal website.
- Burlington, Manchester and Middlebury are set to vote on plastic bag bans. Amid some skepticism, Brattleboro โ the first place in the state to institute one last year โ reports that the program has been โa real success.โ
- Most towns and cities will vote on school budgets today. But those facing forced school district mergers under Act 46 will face some confusion. More than 30 school boards had asked that merger activity be delayed while their lawsuit challenging the state-mandated consolidations was adjudicated. Yesterday, superior court Judge Robert Mello ruled against that request โ meaning a delay of forced school district mergers under Act 46 wonโt be coming from the court.
- If a non-binding climate change resolution passes in the 24 towns where it’s being considered, a quarter of the state will have supported a call to halt the construction of fossil fuel infrastructure, commit to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, and ensure that transition is fair and equitable.
- Voters around Chittenden County have major choices to make on this yearโs Town Meeting ballots. Burlington has four competitive city council elections, a robust school budget and a handful of charter changes proposed. Winooski will select a new mayor. And South Burlington voters are deciding on multiple tax proposals.
- Burlington voters will also decide on creating a Downtown Improvement District, replacing the Church Street Marketplace department with a new, private nonprofit. Proponents believe that the proposal would help boost the streets surrounding Church Street. Critics argue the DID would effectively โprivatizeโ the downtown.
VTDigger reporters are spread out at Town Meetings and polling places across the state. Stay tuned for more on these stories as we hear results.
10:40 a.m., Kevin O’Connor
ATVs, fighter jets and tow trucks
On your way to town meeting in Alburgh, population 510? Better slow down and buckle up. Article 11 on the ballot will ask voters to approve the use of legally registered, insured and operated all-terrain vehicles on local roads, but only with a suggested speed limit of 35 mph and helmets required if seatbelts arenโt available.
As for people off to town meeting in Charleston, population 993? Donโt fly. The town may be almost 100 miles away from the stateโs largest city, but article 10 will ask the Northeast Kingdom community to affirm: โWhereas the basing of the nuclear capable F-35A fighter bomber and storage of nuclear weapons at the Burlington International Airport is unacceptable due to extreme hazards inherent in the 1) storage of nuclear materials, 2) toxic waste byproducts of maintenance of the jet and its weaponry, 3) potential accidents including crashes, and 4) effectively turning this commercial airport, located in a residential community, into a military target; we the voters of Charleston demand that the F-35A fighter bomber not be based in the state of Vermont.โ
And finally, stay home if the weatherโs stormy in Stamford, population 811, where the Select Board notes in the annual report: โDan received a phone call late at night because someone was stuck on Klondike Road during the last bad ice storm. The Select Board agreed that being out late at night and getting stuck should not constitute an emergency and the town is not a towing service. Dave said the State Police have called him when someone is stuck to go sand the road. If someone is stuck, the police should be calling a tow truck, not the town. If the roads are very slippery, people should be responsible and not go out if they do not have good snow tires, studs or tire chains.โ
