Interested in running for town office?

Mary Mead, Town Clerk/Treasurer

This year, if you would like to run for office, you do not need to submit a petition. All that is required is to fill out a “Consent of Candidate” for the office you would like to run for and submit it to the Town Clerk’s Office by Monday, January 25th at 5:00 p.m. If you go to the Town website, and click on the “Town Clerk” tab on the left, and then scroll down to the bottom of the page you will see a link for that form as well as a link that tells what offices are up for election. Let’s not have an empty ballot with no one running for office!

We will not be having Town Meeting this year and will be voting all articles by Australian ballot, as a safety precaution due to COVID-19. Not only will you be voting for Town and School officers by Australian ballot, as usual, but you will be voting on everything that would have been a floor vote, on Australian ballot. In other words, there will be no amending anything before it goes to a vote. Whatever the Selectboard has put on the Warning will be exactly what is on the ballot. This will be interesting as Town Meeting typically has 125 people actually coming in person to the meeting (at the most) and voting articles off the floor, amending the budget and actually this year we would have gone back to voting the Town budget off the floor. The number of people voting on Town Meeting day by Australian ballot for the Town and School Officers has historically been in the 1,200 range. I expect even more this year as absentee ballot voting has increased in popularity. Translation, this year will be the largest number of people we have ever had voting on the budget and any other money related articles.

Now is the time to start requesting your absentee ballot for Town Meeting if that is the way you prefer to vote. We will be voting once again, in person, at the Town Hall, not at Charlotte Central. If you have any questions about this new format for Town Meeting or how to run for office, don’t hesitate to call us at (802) 425-3071 or email me, Mary Mead, or Sy Koerner.