This story by Alex Hanson was first published in the Valley News on March 7.
STRAFFORD — In approving town and school budgets and electing officials, voters might have been doing so for the last time at a traditional Town Meeting.
Packed into Strafford’s celebrated Town House, residents opted to make all of their future town and school district meeting decisions by Australian ballot. By a single voice vote at the morning school meeting, and in three separate ballot votes at the better-attended Town Meeting in the afternoon, Strafford ended a tradition dating back to the late 1700s, choosing a method that supporters said offers wider access to weigh in on town business.
The long debate centered on whether the traditional floor meeting, which requires a voter to be present to register their assent or dissent, has outlived its usefulness in a time when many people are pulled away by work and raising children. Australian balloting allows voters to stop in and vote during a window, often as wide as 12 hours, on an election or meeting day.
“I think that as the world shifts, we need to shift also,” resident Christa Wurm said during debate on the school article.
“We have a new world, where people are working full-time,” Selectboard Chair Toni Pippy said.
If voters want to participate in person in town government, there are many opportunities at budget meetings prior to Town Meeting, she and other officials supporting Australian ballot voting said.
Parents pointed out that they were in attendance only because their spouse stayed home, and some said that while raising kids they had been able to attend only a handful of annual meetings.
“This is maybe the fourth Town Meeting I’ve been able to attend,” School Board member Maggie Hooker said. She could take a day off work, but she “was not in a situation where I could live without that pay.” And town residents also work in New Hampshire, where employers don’t have to honor Vermont’s Town Meeting Day.
“There are 900 voters in this town,” Mary Linehan, a Selectboard member and the prime mover behind the Australian ballot voting proposal, said during the school district meeting. “Only 100 of us are here. … I think it’s just a fairness issue.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic, when all Vermont towns shifted to Australian ballot voting, Strafford saw a big increase in participation, with turnout rising from 23% in 2020, the last floor meeting, to 50% in 2021.
“When we saw those numbers … as a selectboard, we thought we really had to bring it up for voters,” Linehan said in an interview.
Those who argued for keeping the floor meeting said that its virtues of civic engagement and speaking publicly, and civilly, about the community’s business should not be cast aside lightly.
“This moment in time is a time when we need to be forced into a space with people we disagree with,” Meg Teachout, a school board member for the past three years, said. Discussing issues is “a beautiful skill that’s worth preserving. That skill might die.”
“My first Town Meeting was here in Strafford in 2018, and I felt like I had participated in democracy for the first time,” resident Lisa Kutolowski said.
“I moved up here and found out what democracy was,” said Stephen Marx, a former Selectboard member and 40-year resident.
He pointed out that the high turnout during COVID had a lot to do with ballots being mailed to everyone in town.
A few voters urged the assembly to move gradually by approving Australian ballot just for town officials and continuing to consider budgets and public questions at a floor meeting, perhaps at a meeting held on Saturday, when more people might be able to attend.
But voters were in no mood to wait. They approved deciding elections for town officers by Australian ballot, 95-77. They then decided to use Australian ballot to vote on budgets, by a count of 82-52, and on public questions, by a vote of 74-50, the final vote taken after no further debate.
“I’m absolutely thrilled,” Linehan said after the meeting, “delighted to see that we got an overwhelming majority.”
Voting by Australian ballot will put a greater burden on the Selectboard and School Board to make sure voters are well-informed, she said.
Next year’s Town and School Meetings will consist of an informational meeting, which has to be held within 20 days of the vote, which must take place on Town Meeting Day, the first Tuesday in March.
In other business, voters approved a $3.7 million school budget and a $1.35 million town budget by voice votes. School board members Jessica Tidman and Eric Lopez were reelected to one-year and two-year terms, respectively, and Dustin Ray was the only person nominated to replace Teachout, who stepped down to devote more time to her family and her teaching career.
There were no nominees for a three-year term on the Selectboard. Jeff Solsaa was reelected to a two-year term, and John Freitag was elected to a one-year term. Linehan and Pippy both ended their time on the board after serving for three years and eight years, respectively.