Local candidates start preparing for Town Meeting Day elections
December 22, 2023 | By Lisa Scagliotti
Waterbury Town Meeting 2023. File photo by Lisa Scagliotti
Voters will have their say in multiple elections in 2024 to fill offices from local town officials on select boards, school boards, cemetery commissions and more to the state legislature, statewide offices including the governor, the full U.S. House and president of the United States.
Close to home, town clerks around Vermont are already handing out petitions for candidates to fill out to get their names on the Town Meeting Day ballots. The annual local elections will happen on Tuesday, March 5.
The deadline for local candidates to file their completed petitions is 5 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 29, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
Waterbury Town Clerk Karen Petrovic said she has already begun handing out petitions to those interested in running for office. She said candidates need signatures from 30 individuals who are registered to vote in Waterbury. All candidates are advised to get several extra signatures, should any not be valid.
Three seats on the Waterbury Select Board are among the offices that will be on the Waterbury ballot in March, two one-year seats and one three-year seat.
Current board Chair Roger Clapp told Waterbury Roundabout that he will file to run for the three-year spot. That seat is now held by board Vice Chair Dani Kehlmann. Clapp is in his second consecutive one-year term.
This is Kehlmann’s first term on the board. She has not said what her plans are. Kane Sweeney’s first one-year term also ends in March. He says he has taken a petition and plans to file to run for re-election.
Two Waterbury seats on the Harwood Unified Union School Board will be on the ballot as well, but neither incumbent is planning to put their name up for consideration. Both Kelley Hackett and Marlena Tucker-Fishman said they will not seek re-election. The school board terms are for three years. Waterbury has four seats on the 14-member school board. The other members, Victoria Taravella and Jake Pitman, are not up this year.
Election officials John Bauer and Liz Schlegel staff the voter check-in table at Town Meeting in March as voters mark ballots behind them. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
Other Waterbury town positions to be filled in March are:
Three Library Commission seats: One full five-year term; a two-year seat and a one-year seat from unexpired terms due to resignations.
One Cemetery Commission seat for a full five-year term.
One Board of Listers position for a three-year term.
The positions of Town Clerk and Town Treasurer now held by Karen Petrovic who said she plans to run for re-election. Petrovic was elected for the first time this year after being appointed in late 2022 after former Town Clerk and Treasurer Carla Lawrence retired. Voters at Town Meeting this year approved measures to revise the term lengths for the positions from one year to three years each.
In addition to elected offices, local residents may also serve on volunteer boards, committees and commissions that are filled by appointments by the Select Board. There currently are positions open on the Housing Task Force and the Conservation Commission. Applicants are asked to complete a short form. Contact Town Clerk Karen Petrovic with any questions at 802-244-8447 or karen@waterburyvt.com.
Duxbury: January meeting, March elections
Elections official Greg Trulson staffs the check-in booth at Duxbury's drive-through polling place on Town Meeting Day 2023. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
In Duxbury, three seats on the Selectboard will be on the ballot in March: Patrick Zachary and Ann Harvey’s one-year terms and Jerry McMahon’s three-year term ends then.
Candidates in Duxbury need to collect signatures from just 12 voters registered there, according to Town Clerk Maureen Harvey. The number is calculated as 1% of the town’s voter checklist which for Duxbury currently is 1,164, she said.
In addition to the selectboard seats, other offices that will be on the Duxbury March ballot include: one seat on the town Budget Committee, a three-year seat on the Board of Listers, and one-year terms for delinquent tax collector and two constables.
On Town Meeting Day, all voting will be done by paper ballots using the town’s now-familiar drive-through format outdoors at the town office and highway garage site along Vermont Route 100. Duxbury for the second year will hold an informational town meeting in early January for discussion purposes only. The Selectboard has set the date for Saturday, Jan. 13, starting at 9 a.m. at Crossett Brook Middle School.
Duxbury voters in 2022 decided to permanently switch their Town Meeting Day process to Australian paper ballots for all town business as was done during the COVID-19 pandemic. Still wanting to preserve its traditional in-person meeting, however, they agreed to hold a town-meeting style community gathering in January. That took place for the first time this year with more than 100 voters in attendance.
The pie table is full at Duxbury’s first January town-meeting-style informational meeting earlier this year. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
The Selectboard is working on the budget that voters will see on the March ballot and will share it with voters at the January meeting. At the first informational meeting held on Jan. 7, the board budget presentation was followed by a lengthy discussion with community members asking questions and offering comments.
Also at the informational meeting, Harvey reviewed the list of offices that would be on the ballot, community groups had tables with information about their activities, and the Duxbury Historical Society organized a potluck pie table with several dozen pies and coffee.
Calling the informational meeting “Pie Day,” Selectboard Chair Richard Charland recently said the board hopes to repeat the “format and success” from the first such gathering.
“The focus for the meeting is to inform and get feedback from town taxpayers on town warnings and the budget before we go to print for Australian ballot on Town Meeting Day,” Charland said. “The turnout for Pie Day was great and anyone looking to volunteer is asked to contact the selectboard.”
More information will be shared soon, he said, so residents should mark their calendars.