Vermont electoral officials agree: The Covid-19 pandemic will significantly upend this year’s traditional March town meeting season.
They just can’t sum up how yet.
“We know of a few towns that have said they’re going to change their date or move to Australian ballot,” said Secretary of State Jim Condos. “But everybody at this point is kind of playing it by ear.”
In a typical year, Vermont’s 246 municipalities would be posting notices for town meetings and votes on or around the first Tuesday in March. But coronavirus concerns have spurred municipalities to pause, so they can consider state calls to either postpone in-person gatherings until later this year or opt for mailable ballots.
“The riskiest thing right now is to hold a floor meeting,” said Will Senning, the state’s director of elections.
The Vermont Legislature just passed a temporary law that gives local leaders several options for rescheduling or switching to ballots — actions that voters usually have to approve a year in advance.
The secretary of state’s office is sharing a summary of what’s permitted, as well as floor meeting guidance that calls for:
- Health screenings and collection of names and contact information of all who attend.
- Crowd limits of 50% of fire safety occupancy or one person per 100 square feet, whichever ensures distancing of at least 6 feet.
- Cloth face coverings over the mouth and nose, even when someone is speaking.
- No discussion of questions not on the agenda or extras such as potluck meals, bake sales or staffed information tables.
“While municipalities are empowered to make individual decisions to fit their circumstance,” the guidance continues, “mask mandates and building capacity limitations may present municipalities with difficult legal questions if voters are turned away or if the meeting puts voters in an unsafe situation.”
The guidance concludes: “Municipalities are strongly encouraged to not conduct their annual meetings in-person (‘from the floor’) this year.”
All that information hasn’t stopped local leaders from phoning the secretary of state’s office and the Vermont League of Cities and Towns municipal support organization.
“We’ve been blown out of the water by the number of calls we’ve received,” said Karen Horn, the league’s director of public policy and advocacy. “A lot of places are still trying to figure it out.”
North and south approaches
In northernmost Alburgh, population 1,998, the town will move questions it usually decides from the floor to a March 2 ballot for mailing or voting at the Volunteer Fire Department Bingo Hall.
“People might not like the idea, but they’re going to understand why,” said Town Clerk Donna Bohannon. “We usually don’t have a huge turnout at town meeting, but we figured everyone is going so stir-crazy, they might come out this year.”
In southernmost Vernon, population 2,303, local leaders will retain their usual first Tuesday in March ballot to decide town officeholders and the school budget but will reschedule floor debate on everything else until a May date yet to be determined.
“Local government in Vermont is not a one-size-fits-all proposition, but most towns, including mine, want the right to have a public discussion of issues as opposed to just voting ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” Vernon Town Clerk Tim Arsenault said. “We’ve been looking at doing something daytime or nighttime, inside or outside — we haven’t discounted anything yet.”
Brattleboro — Vermont’s seventh most populous municipality with about 11,000 people — is the only locality that aims to keep town meeting attendance manageable by limiting proceedings to 140 elected representatives. It has received legislative permission to debate and make decisions online this year, as it did for the first time last fall when it shared a Zoom link with eligible participants.
However, the state isn’t allowing any other city or town to do the same because of concerns those communities don’t have the ability to open participation to all locals — and close it to outsiders.
“Not everybody has access to a computer or a smartphone,” Condos said. “And how do you make sure that everybody who’s online is registered and allowed to vote?”
The secretary of state’s office is surveying municipalities about their town meeting plans in hopes of posting some sort of calendar in the near future.
“There’s a lot of angst about losing traditional floor meetings and the opportunity to get together as a community and debate,” Senning said. “Nobody’s trying to take that away permanently. These changes are temporary. These changes are one year only.”
Correction: The original version of this article listed the population for Alburgh village, rather than the population for the entire town.
