GUILFORD — Town meeting remains one of the best active forms of democracy. Yet for the past few years, some residents in Guilford have been pushing for the use of the Australian ballot system instead of town meeting.
These people argue that the Australian ballot would create better representation of all voters in the town by letting people vote on issues without having to take time away from work to attend town meeting.
However, if this were to happen, the whole town of Guilford would lose an opportunity to discuss issues and weigh the pros and cons rather than blindly checking off boxes on a form.
I strongly believe we need to keep our town meetings the way they are. The article “We Can Keep Meeting This Way” by Mark Bushnell in the March 4 Rutland Herald includes some very interesting information about the tradition behind town meetings and the historical context in which they first occurred.
The first Town Meeting in the state took place in John Fassett's Bennington home, and March 31 marks the 250th anniversary of this historical event.
“Sometimes town meeting, or the desire to host one, led to the creation of a town,” states Bushnell. Town meetings have come to represent the history and culture of Vermont. No other state in the nation has quite the same democratic system.
Town meetings work well for the citizens of Guilford and Vermont, so why change them now?