When Kirby Moderator John McClaughry gaveled in his 55th annual Town Meeting in 2021, he faced only a half-dozen locals in one of just five Vermont communities that gathered in person that Covid-19 pandemic year.
On Tuesday, McClaughry found more company — as well as others wanting to part ways.
Town Meeting attendance in the Northeast Kingdom hamlet returned to its usual 50 or so participants. Kirby was joined by 180 other municipalities resuming floor votes (and some 60 more casting ballots) as Vermonters from northernmost Alburgh to southernmost Vernon chose local leaders and weighed a collective three-quarters of a billion dollars in spending requests.
“Our potluck lunch is also back,” added East Montpelier Town Clerk Rosie Laquerre, who asked residents to bring their own plates, cups and utensils.
The two-year pandemic pause spurred many communities to try mailable ballots. That, in turn, sparked record voter participation — and calls to move permanently from making decisions in-person to on-paper.
“We’ve sometimes had budgets of millions of dollars voted on by less than 200 people,” Morristown Selectboard Chair Bob Beeman said. “Having them switch to a ballot will draw upward of 2,000.”
Added Marlboro Town Clerk Forrest Holzapfel, “A higher level of voter engagement on budget decisions feels vital to the health of our little democracy.”
That’s why the latter community is debating whether to partially or fully switch to ballots, deciding the question alongside counterparts in Bakersfield, Bethel, Bradford, Bridgewater, Coventry, Craftsbury, Danville, Essex Town, Franklin, Highgate, Ira, Jay, Lunenburg, Marshfield, Rockingham, Strafford, Williamstown and Wilmington.
“This number seems significant to us,” Ted Brady, executive director of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, wrote in a preview.
Old-fashioned floor votes still have their supporters. Westminster residents woke Saturday to a foot of snow. But the local highway department began plowing at 5 a.m. so that a crowd of 70 people could attend Town Meeting at 10 a.m.
Attendance stayed strong statewide Monday night (including in Athens, the Windham County map speck that shares the same name as the Greek crucible of democracy) and Tuesday morning (where the Barnard Town Hall looked like an art print of longtime resident Sabra Field).
“We have strong feelings about voting from the floor and the discussion and ability to amend articles that the precious tradition allows,” said Andy McLean, town clerk in Dover.
Bridgewater is using the return of its meeting to show off its new fire and rescue station. But it’s also one of the nearly 20 communities debating whether to move to ballot voting.
Marlboro, for its part, tapped its recent informational session to discuss the pros and cons of a switch.
“I feel the one advantage to Town Meeting is people raise their questions and issues, there can be a revision of the budgets, and you walk away with a completed situation,” resident Andy Reichsman said.
But others counter that most working people can’t gather on the traditional first Tuesday in March, limiting decision-making to residents who are retired or can take time off.
“We keep talking about the glory of a 200-year Town Meaning tradition, but 200 years ago women and Black people weren’t even allowed to vote,” Marlboro resident Carol Ann Johnson said. “I just don’t think that 100 people should have the only vote on a $4 million budget.”
Statewide, the Vermont Coalition for Disability Rights has released a statement urging more inclusion.
“Unfortunately, for too long, Town Meeting Day has not provided opportunity for equal representation including for people with disabilities, older Vermonters, those without access to transportation, and people who are unable to obtain childcare or time off from work,” it said.
The coalition is advocating for more use of ballots and audiovisual technology. Others are suggesting that people who want to engage in the municipal process attend proceedings throughout the year.
“A lot of people show up at Town Meeting and think they’re participating in the making of the sausage, but they’re not,” Johnson said in Marlboro. “They need to get involved early on. They need to go to the selectboard and school board meetings. That’s where it happens.”
The move toward ballots isn’t necessarily new. A New York Times correspondent traveled to Shrewsbury three decades ago to cover that community’s switch in 1993.
“Just as the Town Meeting had given voice to the concerns of Shrewsbury’s populace, so does its demise reflect the complexity of their lives today,” the reporter wrote. “In these recessionary times, many people cannot afford to give up a day’s work in the name of democracy. And with all the new state and federal regulations to take into account, meetings had turned into 8- and 10-hour marathons.”
Then again, some Town Meetings remain more like sprints. In Kirby, McClaughry kept Tuesday’s affair to an hour, even with a tribute to retiring Town Clerk Wanda Grant, a four-decade mainstay.
“I’ve gotten the hang of it,” the moderator said after 57 years of practice.