By Sophia Buckley-Clement
RUTLAND HERALD
Town Meeting Day has been typically synonymous with a gathering of Vermont voters, voicing their opinions and shaping legislation as a community. But with the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic prompting a steady move toward Australian ballot instead of in-person floor meetings, citizens have been left questioning if Town Meeting Day’s tradition has been altered forever.
For a second year, many Vermont towns chose to operate the day entirely through Australian ballot — or secret ballot — after Gov. Phil Scott signed another bill allowing a switch to the method, bypassing the floor meeting typically necessary for each town to make that decision.
In a survey conducted by the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, only 63 municipalities out of 249 surveyed planned to hold some sort of in-person meeting.
And with the increase in voter participation that many towns saw with the usage of mailed and Australian ballots, the debate on which modality is worth keeping is occurring in many towns.
“It’s kind of a question between democratic quantity and democratic quality. Is simply the number of ballots cast a good descriptor of democratic excellence, or are there other qualities that we want to talk about? Like seeing each other as whole people,” said Middlesex Town Moderator Susan Clark.
Clark, who is co-author of the book “All Those in Favor: Rediscovering the Secrets of Town Meeting and Community,” said the future of Town Meeting Day at this point is nearly impossible to foresee — but that a complete removal of the typical floor vote would remove a community’s ability to shape the articles proposed to them.
“You have way more power when you’re participating in a town meeting in-person because you’re a legislator, so you can amend the content. (With) Australian ballot, it’s a conversation that only has two words: yes or no,” Clark said.
But for some, the simplicity of Australian ballot has not removed participation by voters, but rather extends access to those not typically able to attend a floor meeting because of work or a lack of child care.
Poultney is a town that has been using an Australian ballot process for several years now, and Town Clerk Betsy Wescott said that though they are down on absentee ballots slightly from last year, Australian ballot has brought better turnout.
“I think it’s more convenient for the people that work to either do absentee or be there in person to do their voting (by Australian ballot),” Wescott said. “And a lot of people don’t like to share their opinions. They like to have their privacy when they’re voting and be able to vote the way they feel instead of saying it out loud.”
And for those in larger towns and cities, some have said a full move to Australian and absentee ballot voting just makes more sense.
Montpelier Town Clerk John Odum has seen between 430 and 440 absentee ballot requests this year, and said the return trends suggested a robust Town Meeting Day for the Capital City. Montpelier, having a population of over 7,000, has been using Australian ballot for years.
“We just decided we didn’t want to change the way we’d always done (Town Meeting Day). That would probably create more problems than it solved,” Odum said.
Though the overwhelming majority of Australian ballot-based Town Meeting Days may seem to indicate a trend, some participating in this format are simply waiting out the pandemic to return to their typical in-person meetings.
Halifax changed its voting day to May 3 on account of two fiscal year audits currently being conducted, and though they typically have a floor meeting, COVID-19 concerns have pushed the town to use entirely Australian ballot for a second year.
Town Clerk Patricia Dow said that even though Halifax has seen a rise in voter turnout since the switch, the social aspect of Town Meeting Day is greatly missed by the townspeople and is something that can’t be ignored.
“(No floor meeting) is a definite loss to our community,” Dow said. “We would always come together and put on a huge potluck lunch. Every single town meeting. A lot of it is coming together with neighbors that you just don’t see on a daily basis.”
Williamstown, one of the 63 towns to host an in-person meeting this year, also feels a deep affinity for the social aspect of Town Meeting Day despite seeing a steady decrease in voter turnout over the past 20 years.
“If we went two years without doing an in-person meeting, (we could) lose that sense of speaking and democracy. Even though it’s it hasn’t been like things were even 20-25 years ago where the gym was packed, it still it gives people the right to speak and to voice their vote,” Williamstown Town Clerk Barbara Graham said.
Rochester Town Clerk Julie Smith, who also has a love for the traditional Town Meeting Day, said that though the community appreciates being able to come together, the status of how voting will proceed in her town — and, ultimately, across the state — is still incredibly up in the air.
“Australian ballot may be the new way of voting, but I know when you think of Vermont, you think of the communities, (the) small towns, and just the overall feeling of traditional floor vote or coming to vote in your town. It’s sad to think that that’s going away,” Smith said.
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