Town Meeting Day

A year has passed since I came on staff at the Burlington Free Press. I started last year on Town Meeting Day which is one of our biggest coverage days of the year. Last year I covered Brookfield and kept my head above water, but this year I covered Franklin county and racked up some miles on the car between Montgomery, Bakersfield and Sheldon. In Vermont, Town Meeting Day is a special reminder of how small town politics still thrive. On this day, even the tiniest of towns will gather all together at the town hall or village school or local grange to discuss the annual budget, vote on elected officials and then crowd together to share a potluck meal perhaps in the nearby historical society hall. Wooden benches, tattered American flags, little kids bundled up nestled in their parents arms, 89-year-old voting officials, Girl Scouts hawking their cookies, and the smell of cow manure are all things that greeted me when I entered the quaint and quintessential Bakersfield Town Hall on Tuesday. The hair styles are dated. The eyeglasses much too large. The rubber boots tall. And, the trucker hats worn proudly and without a single notion of who Ashton Kutcher is. This is Vermont, preserved, quiet and friendly. We're old fashioned in many ways, but isn't that makes us great?

The various towns each had their own way of voting whether it was through Australian ballot, vocal voting by "ay" or "nay", paper ballot, or a raise of hands. The hot button issues: salting and grating the dirt roadways and finding the capital to buy that new truck the maintenance crews so desperately need. Practical concerns for practical needs. The budget amounts were reasonable and not inflated...it was refreshing.

The most challenging part of Town Meeting Day (besides not having cell or internet service for miles) is capturing an image, or images, that stands above the rest. How do you find a moment that is different than all of the years preceding it? We're talking about people sitting in chairs or benches voting. I found the details most interesting and focused on those since if you look at the big picture you're really just looking at a bunch of seated people looking very plain. These are my favorite takes. I shot hundreds of photos that day, as did the rest of the photo staff and our freelancers. Three huge online galleries later, the photo staff swept Vermont for a massive blanket coverage of Town Meeting Day and our hard work showed.