Vermont
Vermont sees community engagement in politics through annual 'Town Meetings'
- In some Vermont towns, residents hold an annual meeting to discuss and vote on local issues.
- Town Meeting is a tradition that, in Vermont, dates back more than 250 years, to before the founding of the republic.
- Last year, residents of neighboring Morristown voted to switch to a secret ballot system, ending their town meeting tradition.
Julie wants more donations to the food pantry. Kipp is busy knitting a sweater. Shorty is ready to ask: Why is so much being spent on a truck? The coffee, fresh-baked bread and donuts have been laid out. Eighty-seven voters have squeezed into the Elmore Town Hall.
Town Meeting is about to begin. Moderator Jon Gailmor stands up.
“Good morning, everyone, and welcome to democracy,” he says. “This is the real thing, and we should all be proud that we’re doing this.”
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Across the United States, people are disgusted with politics. Many feel powerless and alienated from their representatives at every level — and especially from those in Washington. The tone long ago became nasty, and many feel forced to pick a side and view those on the other side as adversaries.
Town Clerk Sandra Lacasse places a sign outside the town office on March 5, 2024, when the town holds its annual Town Meeting in Elmore, Vermont. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
But in pockets of New England, democracy is done a bit differently. People can still participate directly and in person. One day each year, townsfolk gather to hash out local issues. They talk, listen, debate, vote. And in places like Elmore, once it’s all over, they sit down together for a potluck lunch.
Town Meeting is a tradition that, in Vermont, dates back more than 250 years, to before the founding of the republic. But it is under threat. Many people feel they no longer have the time or ability to attend such meetings. Last year, residents of neighboring Morristown voted to switch to a secret ballot system, ending their town meeting tradition.
Not so in Elmore, population 886. Its residents are used to holding tight to traditions. They’ve fought to keep open their post office, their store and their school, the last one-room schoolhouse in the state. Last fall, Elmore residents voted 2-1 in favor of keeping their town meetings.
Elmore calls itself the beauty spot of Vermont. The town borders a lake, which in early March is dotted with people ice fishing. Beyond, a mountain rises. At night, steam floats up from sugarhouses, where maple sap is being boiled down into syrup.
The heartbeat of the town is the store. “I’ve always said it’s a live, living, breathing creature. I don’t own it; she owns me,” says Kathy Miller, 63, a longtime former owner who still helps out at the store. People would come in not only to buy milk and pick up the mail, Miller recalls, but to use the fax machine, find a plumber or just to swap gossip.
After joining the state grocers’ association in the 1980s, Miller testified before Congress about the impact of credit card fees. Back then, she believed that little people could have a voice in national politics. But these days, she says, Washington has gotten away from the basics. Too big, she says. Too messed up. Tilted off its axis.
Miller describes herself as a Republican who hasn’t drunk the Kool-Aid. But at Town Meeting, she says, political differences don’t mean a thing.
“There’s no animosity,” she says. “People can talk about things. You shake hands with your neighbor when you leave.”
At Town Meeting, she’s successful in pushing for an increase to the town’s library funding from $1,000 per year to $3,000.
Gailmor, 75, is a singer-songwriter who describes himself as an independent voter. He first moved to Elmore in 1980 and says he found the town meeting tradition nothing short of miraculous. It wasn’t some politician spouting off but real people taking part. He was so inspired that he even wrote a song about it.
“Greet the old town folks, hear the gossip and the jokes, dip a donut in a good strong cup of Joe,” Gailmor sings. “Find your favorite chair, plant your buttocks there — we’re getting down to business, don’t you know.”
At town meetings, people sometimes go beyond voting on local issues and decide to take a stand on national issues of the day. At home, Gailmor holds a photograph of his late wife, Cathy Murphy, when she was speaking out against nuclear weapons at an Elmore Town Meeting in the 1980s.
This year, Elmore decides to take a stance on another broader issue by adopting a declaration of inclusion. It states the town will welcome all people regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity.
Frank Bryan, a retired University of Vermont professor who wrote a book about town meetings, coined the term “forced civility” to describe the way people dealing with disagreements in person are compelled to recognize each other’s common humanity in a way that larger-scale political interactions do not allow.
But just having voters show up for hours on a weekday morning is challenging. Morristown is one of many Vermont towns to end the tradition of town meetings. Richard Watts, the director of the Center for Research on Vermont at UVM, says people in larger towns tend to feel less sense of connection.
There’s a key downside when a town moves to secret ballot, also known as an Australian ballot because states there were the first to adopt such a system in the mid-19th century: It’s usually a straight up-or-down vote. That means people can’t make tweaks or debate issues. And for some, the open, collegial debate is the genius of the entire system.
Elmore’s Town Meeting has been going for nearly four hours. What has unfolded represents a cross-section of democracy, of people choosing for themselves how to live and work and govern.
An impassioned speech by Julie Bomengen secures an extra $500 for the Lamoille Community Food Share, raising Elmore’s annual contribution to $750.
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Several people have been criticizing the town’s spending habits. Others argue that replacing equipment like the road maintenance truck will only end up costing more if the can is kicked down the road. “We have just spent two-and-a-half million on this new garage, and then we go out and put $300,000 into a new truck. I think that’s a little overkill,” Shorty Towne tells the crowd.
After exhaustive discussions, Elmore’s annual town budget of $1.1 million is passed in a voice vote. There is no dissent.
Gailmor commends townsfolk for holding a lively and well-attended meeting. Kipp Bovey, who has been active in the meeting, has made good progress on knitting her sweater. Towne has had his say about the truck. Democracy has unfolded on a small canvas. And the much-discussed American political polarization? It’s nowhere in sight.
It’s time to adjourn.
“Lunch is cold,” Gailmor says. “But it will be in the church.”
Vermont
Bernie Sanders says Trump's 'lying' when he claims Kamala Harris is more liberal than the Vermont senator
EXCLUSIVE: WEST LEBANON, N.H. — When it comes to Sen. Bernie Sanders, former President Trump is no laughing matter.
The longtime independent senator from Vermont, progressive champion and two-time runner-up in the Democratic presidential primaries is on a two-day swing this weekend in neighboring New Hampshire as well as Maine to campaign on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris to make sure the GOP presidential nominee doesn’t return to the White House.
“Trump cannot get elected. We’ve got to do everything we can to make sure that does not happen,” Sanders told a crowd of supporters during his first stop Friday in New Hampshire, a key swing state in presidential elections.
TRUMP MOVES TO DEFINE HARRIS AS ULTRA-LIBERAL
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont speaks to supporters at a campaign event on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, on Friday. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
But minutes earlier, Sanders briefly broke out in laughter when asked in a national exclusive interview with Fox News about comments from Trump this week arguing that Harris — who has replaced President Biden at the top of the Democrats’ 2024 national ticket — is more liberal than the Vermont senator.
Trump over the past week has worked to define Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general, as an ultra-liberal, pointing to her record in the U.S. Senate and as vice president.
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Speaking to a packed arena in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday, Trump charged that Harris was the “most incompetent and far-left vice president in American history… She is a radical left lunatic who will destroy our country if she ever gets the chance to get into office.”
And mentioning Sanders, Trump argued that Harris is “more liberal than Bernie Sanders. Can you believe it?”
Former President Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
Sanders, responding, said, “I would hope that when he said, ‘Can you believe that?,’ people said no.”
“It’’s not true. Once again, Trump is lying,” Sanders emphasized. “Let me just simply say that for better or for worse, Kamala Harris is not more progressive than I am.”
During his Fox News interview and later at his event, Sanders took aim at Trump, who two months ago was convicted of 34 felony counts in the first criminal trial of a former or current president in the nation’s history.
“This is the most important election, I think, in our lifetimes. I will do everything that I can to see that Donald Trump is defeated,” the senator stressed.
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Sanders argued that “the American people will not and cannot accept a president who is a pathological liar, somebody who believes that women should not be able to control their own bodies, somebody who in the midst of massive heatwaves thinks climate change is a hoax and somebody who actually does not believe in democracy, has not said that he will accept those election results if he loses. So, for all of those reasons, Trump must be defeated.”
Sanders is campaigning on behalf of Harris, but he hasn’t formally endorsed the vice president.
Vice President Kamala Harris arrives for a campaign event in Milwaukee on Tuesday. (Daniel Steinle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“I think if the vice president is to win this election, and obviously I want her to win, I think she has to start talking about issues of relevance to the working class of this country, because there are tens of millions of people who are really hurting,” Sanders explained. “They want to know what the next president is going to do for them, and I hope very much that Vice President Harris will make that clear.”
“The path towards victory is to talk about issues that are relevant,” he reiterated.
Asked what Harris specifically needs to detail, Sanders said, “I hope that the vice president will be talking about the need to substantially lower prescription drug costs… the need to have tax reform so the wealthiest in this country start paying their fair share of taxes, so we can greatly expand child care and affordable housing in this country, and I think we’ve got to be very strong on the issue of climate change and make it clear that we’re going to transform our energy system away from fossil fuel if we’re going to save this planet for future generations.”
Sanders said that Harris’ choice of a running mate — which is expected to come in the next two weeks — will be a signal of whether she will project a progressive agenda as she runs for the White House.
“I think it will, and I hope very much she looks at one of the many progressive people who are out there who I think would do a good job as vice president,” the senator said.
Sanders was making his swing through New Hampshire and Maine less than a week after President Biden suspended his 2024 re-election rematch with Trump. Biden made his move amid mounting pressure from within the Democratic Party for him to drop out after a disastrous performance in last month’s first presidential debate with Trump.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont speaks to supporters at a campaign event on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris in West Lebanon, New Hampshire on Friday. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
The embattled president’s immediate backing of Harris ignited a surge of endorsements of Harris by Democratic governors, senators, House members and other party leaders. By Monday night, the vice president announced that she had locked up her party’s nomination by landing the backing of a majority of the nearly 4,000 delegates to next month’s Democratic National Convention. On Friday morning, former President Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama were among the final major party leaders to endorse the vice president.
Harris has also hauled in a staggering $129 million in fundraising since Biden’s announcement, her campaign touted on Thursday morning.
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Republicans charge that the process has been anything but democratic — and they point to Biden’s own words.
Before dropping out, the president had repeatedly cited the 14 million votes he won in this year’s Democratic presidential primaries as a reason he should stay in the 2024 race.
“The voters — and the voters alone — decide the nominee of the Democratic Party,” he emphasized in a letter on July 8. “Not the press, not the pundits, not the big donors, not any selected group of individuals, no matter how well intentioned.”
Trump, at his rally in Charlotte on Wednesday, called the switch at the top of the Democrats’ national ticket “an undemocratic move.”
“These are nasty people, the Democrats,” Trump argued.
And Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas claimed in a social media post this week that “Joe Biden succumbed to a coup by Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Hollywood donors, ignoring millions of Democratic primary votes.”
But Sanders, who argued during his marathon 2016 Democratic presidential primary battle against eventual nominee Hillary Clinton that the party was working against him, doesn’t buy the GOP criticism.
“These are extraordinary times and the Democrats had to move very quickly,” Sanders said. “So I think that given the reality that Biden dropped out and having a Democratic convention coming, I think what happened is she announced her candidacy, she rallied the support she needs, and I think that’s fine.”
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
ESSEX JUNCTION, Vt. (WCAX) – Car enthusiasts will converge in Essex Junction on Friday for the annual Wolfsgart show.
Cars of all makes and models will be parked at the Champlain Valley Expo this weekend.
Gates open for spectators at 9 a.m. on Friday with events scheduled through Sunday.
You can find tickets here.
Copyright 2024 WCAX. All rights reserved.
The Aug. 13 statewide major party primary is less than a month away and early voting is already underway.
In this election, Republican, Democratic and Progressive contenders will vie for their party’s nominations in the following races: U.S senator, U.S representative, governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer, secretary of state, auditor of accounts, attorney general, the state Senate (30 seats), state Representative (150 seats) and high bailiff (14 seats).
Primary winners face off against each other and minor party candidates in the Nov. 5 general election.
For Vermonters interested in casting your ballot prior to election day, below is a complete guide to early and absentee voting.
What do I need to know about early and absentee voting?
Any registered voter may request an absentee or early ballot via mail, phone, online or in person. Family members and healthcare providers are also allowed to advocate for a voter to receive an absentee ballot.
Voters can request and track the status of an early voter absentee ballot online by logging into their My Voter Page at https://mvp.vermont.gov/. Ballots can be returned through the mail or in person, unless delivered by justices of the peace on the day of the election, who will bring the ballot back with them.
Absentee or early ballots are available no later than 45 days prior to the primary or general election and 20 days before a municipal election using secret ballots.
For more information about absentee or early voting, visit the Absentee Voting FAQs page or Early & Absentee Voting page. Voters can also contact the Elections Division at sos.elections@vermont.gov or 800-439-VOTE.
You can find your city or town clerk at https://outside.vermont.gov/dept/sos/Elections%20Division/voters/townclerkguide.pdf, from whom you can request a ballot, on the Secretary of State website.
The deadline to request early or absentee ballots is 5 p.m. the day before any election, or whenever your town clerk’s office closes that day.
Megan Stewart is a government accountability reporter for the Burlington Free Press. Contact her at mstewartyounger@gannett.com.
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