Town Meeting Day 2011 Live Blog

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UPDATE (3/1 at 9:45 p.m.): Thanks for joining us for tonight's live blog and chat. We had as many as 50 people following along as results and updates from around the state came in. Thanks, too, to our friends at Channel 17 for their coverage. [Ed. clarification: That's "50 people at a time" -- nearly 500 people tuned in overall, and the average length of their stay was 40 minutes.]

For election results in Burlington, Winooski, South Burlington, Colchester, and Williston, check out Channel 17's results page.

We took a few highly unscientific polls of the live blog viewers, and here are those results. 92 percent of you voted on Town Meeting Day. 67 percent of viewers said turnout at their meeting/polling place was low, while 33 percent said it was steady. No one said they thought turnout was "very strong." And 71 percent said they didn't think Burlington election results were a referendum on Mayor Bob Kiss and his administration — perhaps because only 17 percent of Burlington's registered voters turned out for Town Meeting Day.

Got any more thoughts on Town Meeting Day? Tell us in the comments, or tweet about them using the hashtag #tmdvt.

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Seven Days is teaming up with Channel 17 once again to provide live coverage of Town Meeting Day 2011. We'll be hosting a live chat tonight with reports and tweets from around Vermont beginning at 6:00 p.m. You can follow along below, or on the sevendaysvt.com home page, where we'll be streaming Channel 17's live coverage alongside the chat.

And all day long, tweet about Town Meeting Day happenings in your town using the hashtag #tmdvt.

See you tonight at 6:00 p.m.!

 

Comments

[Jcarter]

It's a shame there wasn't a "Referendum" on Bob Kiss. We would have a new mayor today.

[gonefrompoliticsforgoodin2012]

Oh, I think the Burlington results were a clear referendum on the mayor (albeit, a non-binding one), don't you think?

[Tyler Machado]

For what it's worth, a few people in our live blog said turnout in Burlington (about 17%) wasn't enough to consider it a referendum on the Kiss administration.

Of course, it could equally telling that 83% of BTV voters didn't feel compelled to show up.

[Jcarter]

" a few people in our live blog said turnout in Burlington (about 17%) wasn't enough to consider it a referendum on the Kiss administration."

Really doesn't matter how many turned out to judge whether it was or wasn't. Polls only take in to account a small portion of the people...

No matter how many voted ~70% still rejected Kiss' tax increase. You could argue that mainly was due to Ward 4&7 but that only indicates that the progs didn't want to come out and support their own.

Kiss is a sinking ship, and no one trusts him. No one is going to give him more money when he can't account for what he already has gone through. It absolutely is a referendum on Kiss.

[dale tillotson]

A couple things to think about in the next few weeks.
With the lawsuit and everything else hanging over the Mayors head the next council President may very well become acting mayor for the remainder of the Kiss term.
So the night a council president is elected will probably be a long one as the council will remain deadlocked forever electing a president.
So any predictions on the next council President, and how do you think who is going to vote for whom on that night.
I am off to work on that now. Be back later.

[Walter Jeffries]

Here's a report for Orange Town meeting:

http://flashweb.com/blog/2011/03/orange-town-meeting-2011.html