Duxbury: Mud season at the polls as voters pass the budget, elect officers
March 6, 2024 | By Lisa Scagliotti 
Since June 2020 Duxbury voters have been casting ballots outdoors in a drive-through format. Tuesday's election was the muddiest to date. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
Duxbury residents navigated worsening muddy roads on Tuesday to head to the polls where the town’s drive-through election area outside of the town highway garage and offices had melted into rutted mud with standing puddles.
The conditions didn’t deter many, however, as Town Clerk Maureen Harvey reported turnout of 39.8% as 464 of the town’s 1,166 registered voters cast ballots.
From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., elections officials worked methodically in teams keeping the check-in booth stocked with fresh ballots on clipboards. Inside the larger check-out booth, up to six people including Harvey collected ballots, dropping some into boxes and sliding others into the scanning machine. They took turns checking out voters at the window and handing out “I voted” stickers and eclipse-viewing glasses supplied by the state ahead of next month’s total solar eclipse.
Election worker Shawnee Perry worked the check-in booth, greeting voters and handing them clipboards, ballots and pens and hearing their stories of getting to the polls. “I’ve heard some amazing stories today,” she said, referring to the weather and mud season conditions. “I’m impressed with how many have come out to vote.”
Not many voters were looking to get out of their vehicles on Tuesday at the Duxbury town highway garage and offices parking lot. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
Voters who ventured out on the soggy election day said it was important for both local and national issues.
Duxbury voter Sarah Page, who worked as a teacher at Harwood Union High School for 30 years before her retirement in 2010, said she spoke for herself and her husband in saying that “we are in favor of public education and voted for school budgets.” She also mentioned that she was voting because “(former president) Donald Trump is an abomination.”
Speaking out of the window of her car, another Duxbury voter, Piper Boudreau, shared her thoughts: “I am concerned about a lot of my rights as a woman and also a lot of other people who live in this state. A lot of people don’t think Vermont’s vote counts, but I think everyone’s vote counts.”
Looking in from outside the check-out booth at the Duxbury elections drive-through: (left to right) Mark Morse, Town Clerk Maureen Harvey, Jill Smith and Bonnie Morse. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
Election results
Voters state their name and receive ballots on a clipboard with a marker as they check in at the Duxbury polling spot on Town Meeting Day. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
In the U.S. Presidential Primary, Duxbury voters chose President Joe Biden on the Democratic ballot with 171 or 80.7% of the vote. On the Republican ballot, Nikki Haley was the top choice with 144 or 57.1% of the vote; former President Donald Trump had 94 or 37.3% of the vote.
On the local ballot, Duxbury voters handily approved several budget articles:
$1,167,946 for the general and highway fund, 341-91
An addition of $115,000 to the capital reserve account, 325-100
A transfer of $84,000 from surplus to a storm escrow account, 376-56
$30,000 from surplus to the pavement fund, 352-75
None of the local offices on the Duxbury ballot had contests on Tuesday.
Returning to the Duxbury Selectboard will be Jerry McMahan, who won 342 votes, and Patrick Zachary, who received 388 votes. Newcomer Crystal Sherman won the open one-year seat with 375 votes after Ann Harvey did not seek re-election. McMahan ran for a one-year seat as well; Zachary won a three-year term.
After no one filed to get their name on the ballot for an open five-year seat on the town Budget Committee, former selectboard member Jill Smith announced recently she would be willing to serve. She was elected as a write-in candidate winning 55 votes. In Duxbury, a write-in candidate needs just 12 votes to win election and be the top vote-getter.
Also elected on Tuesday were: Dan Senning as Town Moderator with 426 votes; Mari Pratt with 358 votes to the remaining four years of a five-year Budget Committee position; Max Popowicz to a three-year seat on the Board of Listers with 413 votes; Dwight Day with 412 votes to a three-year seat on the Cemetery Commission.
Harvey received 417 votes to be elected delinquent tax collector for three years. And Eric Potter and James Welch won two-year terms each as First and Second Constables. Potter received 411 votes; Welch won 415.
Neither of Duxbury’s two positions on the Harwood school board were up for election this year.
March 2020 was the last year the Duxbury had an in-person town meeting where all voting and elections were conducted in person. During the pandemic, elections officials decided to try an option that the state offered to limit indoor gatherings and the drive-through polling format caught on. The first few elections were still held at Crossett Brook Middle School using the school’s parking lot loop, later they moved to the town office and garage property.
In November 2022, voters at a special meeting voted to make the change permanent. For the second year now, the town has convened a community meeting in early January with many of the trappings of a traditional March town meeting short of voting. The meeting gives townspeople a chance to mingle and to offer input on the town budget before the Duxbury Selectboard adopts it for the March ballot. They also get to announce candidacies for local office and pass around petitions to collect signatures in preparation for the March election. Town Meeting Day voting is now exclusively done on paper ballots using the drive-through format.
This year’s state primary in August and November’s general election likely will follow the same format.
University of Vermont Community News Service reporters Danae Moyer and Oliver Stavri, and Waterbury Roundabout correspondent Maddie Hughes contributed to this report.
