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4 posts categorized "Town Meeting Day 2011" Feed

October 26, 2011

Democratic Mayoral Debates for Dummies

DSC00590If Burlington voters thought they had killed off instant runoff voting once and for all, think again.

It's alive and well in the Democratic primary for mayor — and boy does it show.

An upside to IRV is that it's supposed to allow candidates to focus less on a winner-take-all strategy and more on taking substantive policy stances that appeal to a wider range of people — people who may be endorsing one of their competitors.

The downside is that it makes for excruciatingly boooorrrriinnng debates, if you can even call them debates. They're more like live versions of a candidate's Facebook page — basic bio, interests, work history, a poke here and there.

Continue reading "Democratic Mayoral Debates for Dummies" »

March 28, 2011

Annual Survey Finds Support for VY's Relicensure in 2012

Vy It's official: By a slim margin, Vermonters believe that Vermont Yankee should be relicensed in 2012. That's the key finding from this year's annual Doyle Survey, an unscientific snapshot of opinions collected on Town Meeting Day.

State Sen. Bill Doyle (R-Washington) — for whom the survey is named — collected roughly 15,000 surveys from 142 towns and cities.

"The results on the Vermont Yankee question this year was probably the closest of of any question," Doyle told Seven Days. It is also a sharp turnaround from preliminary results issued earlier this month. At that time, about 47 percent of respondents said they wanted VY closed in 2012, 40 percent wanted it relicensed and 12 percent weren't sure.

Now, with the results finalized VY supporters top opponents. Of those who filled out the survey, 45 percent wanted VY relicensed, 41 percent do not and 14 percent are unsure.

Last year, only 31 percent of respondents wanted VY relicensed. Perhaps the news coverage of those tritium leaks had something to do with public sentiment?

Illustration credit: Tim Newcomb

Continue reading "Annual Survey Finds Support for VY's Relicensure in 2012 " »

March 10, 2011

And the Doyle Survey Says ...

Doylesurvey With 34 towns reporting and 3587 votes tallied, the 2011 Town Meeting Survey results were released this week by Sen. Bill Doyle (R-Washington).

Doyle has conducted this unscientific survey of residents across Vermont for more than 40 years, and said this year's 13 questions included what he believes to be a record number of "new" queries. In past years, Doyle has tended to rely on very similar questions. This year, several politicians, and members of the public, asked him to put specific items on the survey ballot.

Big winners from this year's survey are: expanding the bottle bill, keeping the state's motorcycle helmet law intact and,  once again, banning the use of cellphones will driving. Those who filled out the survey also said there should be tougher penalties for repeat DUI offenders.

By a slight margin, those who filled out the survey said that Vermont Yankee should not have its license renewed in 2012, and that people should not be mandated to buy health insurance.

Continue reading "And the Doyle Survey Says ... " »

March 01, 2011

Town Meeting Day 2011 Live Blog

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.

***

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.!

 

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