Two important voting opportunities this March

This March, Charlotte residents may find exercising their rights as voters confusing, and that’s probably a profound understatement.

Voting will take place on two different days with two different ways of voting in two different places.

On Saturday, March 1, at 9 a.m., residents are encouraged to attend a more traditional Vermont-type of town meeting with voters deciding some town issues via voice vote from the floor of a gathering at the Charlotte Central School’s multi-purpose room. This is the location, but not the date, where voters for years have expressed their will on town concerns in Charlotte.

On March 4, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., on the first Tuesday in March and the traditional day for Town Meeting Day in Vermont, residents are encouraged to come to the Charlotte Town Hall to cast their votes on other issues and candidates for town offices that will be decided via Australian, or secret, ballot.

Voting on March 1

The March 1 voice voting will be on nine articles and other issues that might be raised from the floor by residents. This ability to bring up issues for discussion and a voice vote at town meeting is unique to New England, giving individuals a way to introduce a topic for consideration that might have profound impact on a town.

Article 1, of the nine articles to be considered on this day, is basic boilerplate whereby each year residents vote to give themselves the right to vote upon town issues. That’s right: It is a vote on whether to vote.

Article 2 is also standard. Each year residents vote to give the town the right to collect taxes to pay for the expenses contained in that year’s budget.

Article 3 is also an issue that is voted on each year, but the text of this article changes depending on each year’s proposed budget. This year Charlotte voters are being asked to approve expenses of $4,265,990 for the budget for the fiscal year that runs from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026.

The selectboard and town clerk Mary Mead expect that more than $2.5 million to pay for expenses will come from taxes and more than $1.7 million will come from other revenue sources the town collects.

Article 4 asks voters to approve for $62,000 of the money raised by property taxes to be delegated to the town trails reserve fund.

Article 5 asks for voters to authorize the selectboard to delegate $5,000 from the budget to maintenance of the town’s recreation trails.

Article 6 is a request from the recreation department for voters to authorize the town to allocate $40,000 from the property taxes collected to a capital fund for the building of a new bathhouse at the Charlotte Town Beach.

Article 7 is an opportunity for voters to decide whether they would prefer for the budget to be voted on by Australian ballot rather than by voice vote.

Since the pandemic, Charlotte’s budget has been approved by Australian ballot. In Vermont towns, like Charlotte which approve their budgets by voice vote, were granted the power to suspend the necessity of meeting in large groups to vote in order to minimize the risk of spreading the coronavirus.

Now, that the risk of infection has subsided, the voice vote required by town statute is back in effect, but some have argued this gives a small group of town voters the right to decide on the budget. Because more people participate in Australian ballot decisions than participate in community meetings to voice vote, the change has been proposed in hopes of increasing the number of residents participating in the decision about the significant issue of the budget.

Article 8 is an article that would change all voting in Charlotte issues to being decided by Australian ballot.

Article 9 is another boilerplate issue. This one gives those residents who have gathered for in-person voice voting at Charlotte Central School the authority to consider other issues that might be raised from the floor.

Voting on March 4

On Tuesday, March 4, residents will have the opportunity to vote on two articles.

Article 10 is the portion of the Australian ballot where voters will vote for candidates for open positions in the municipal government.

Applications to run for the various town positions are still being taken, and after a candidate applies there is a couple of days wait before the ballot is created to give them time to reconsider their decision to run for office. The list of candidates and offices for which they are running will be included in The Charlotte News as soon as it is available.

Article 11 is a provision asking residents to approve a charter for Charlotte that would give residents the authority to vote on changes to town land-use regulations.

In July, the legislature passed a provision that gave Vermont selectboards the authority to approve changes to land-use regulations. Article 11 would restore this authority to Charlotte voters and was compelled by a petition drive that collected enough signatures requiring a vote requesting a town charter on this issue.

There was a hearing on this article, the first of two required by state statute, 30 minutes before the regular selectboard meeting this past Monday, Jan. 27. At the hearing, Charlotte’s representative Chea Waters Evans explained the process for submitting charter requests to the legislature.

If voters approve this article, Evans said at the hearing, the next step is for the municipal charter proposal to go to the House Committee on Government Operations and Military Affairs, which she is a member of. If that committee approves Charlotte’s charter, it would go before both houses of the Legislature. If it is approved by both of those bodies, the charter proposal would then go before the Governor for him to approve or not.

Evans said she felt the legislature might be reluctant to make this change to a statute that was passed so recently and that could cause confusion if other towns jumped on this bandwagon.

Karen Frost spoke at the hearing about her decision to circulate the petition. She attended planning commission meetings and stood outside the general election asking people how they felt about the issue.

“It was pretty overwhelming that people feel that they want to retain local control,” Frost said.

The second required hearing on the charter proposal will be at 7 p.m., this coming Monday, Feb. 3, at the town hall. This is the final of the two hearings required by the state statute whenever a town has a charter that was proposed by petition, town administrator Nate Bareham said.

A third public hearing on Feb. 24, also required by state law whenever there is an Australian ballot vote scheduled for reviewing any items about which residents have questions or concerns. Among issues to be considered by Australian ballot are the election of people who are running for municipal office, so at the Feb. 24 hearing residents will have the opportunity to ask those candidates questions.