In a special election Tuesday, Burlington residents will decide whether the city government should borrow $60 million and invest it in a slew of infrastructure projects and renewable energy initiatives.
But in a sense, the election is already underway. More than 5,500 voters had already mailed their ballots to the city clerk’s office as of Monday afternoon, according to Amy Bovee, Burlington’s assistant city clerk. Ballots could still be placed in five drop-off boxes around the city until Monday at 4:30 p.m.
For day-of-election voting on Tuesday, polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for registered voters to cast their ballots at local polling places around the city. To locate the right polling place or learn how to register to vote, visit the city clerk’s website.
Tuesday’s election features two questions. The first one asks voters whether the city can borrow $40 million to check a number of boxes off its infrastructure wish list, while the second asks if the Burlington Electric Department can borrow $20 million to move along its renewable energy goals and improve the local power grid.
With no candidates on the ballot, it might not seem like Tuesday’s election would draw a big turnout. But with every registered Burlington voter receiving a ballot in the mail, the vote totals on Tuesday may be higher than in any other special city election over the past decade.
The city’s June 2011 special election, for instance, also asked Burlingtonians two questions, with one of them — akin to Tuesday’s Question Two — polling whether the electric department should borrow money to improve the local power grid.
The department won approval for its loan in an election that garnered fewer than 3,000 votes, well under the sum already received for Tuesday’s questions. In the 2011 election, a mere 300 voters requested absentee ballots — a far cry from the 5,524 ballots submitted so far this year, all of which effectively were from absentee voters.
In a June 2014 contest that drew 6,450 voters, residents narrowly approved the school budget and elected two school commissioners. Fewer than 1,000 voters requested absentee ballots that year.
