BRATTLEBORO-Representative Town Meeting is like that worn-out old coat you have in the closet: torn, full of holes, zipper’s not quite right, and it doesn’t really fit anymore.
You know that there is a new model out there that will perform better. But you just can’t let the old one go, even though you know it needs to.
Brattleboro held its first Representative Town Meeting (RTM) in 1961 with 24 articles. It took approximately four hours. In 2025, RTM had 18 articles and lasted approximately 11 hours.
In 1961, 177 candidates ran for the 105 RTM member seats. Just one year later, in 1962, there were 35 candidates running for the 62 open seats. Even by the second year of RTM, it didn’t seem to be a popular way of conducting town business for Brattleboro.
We’ve had two public hearings, various Selectboard meetings, information sessions, and Charter Review Commission discussion on the pros and cons of Representative Town Meeting (RTM), Australian (secret) ballot, and open Town Meeting (OTM).
In all of these meetings, information was presented, different points of view were heard, debate took place, questions were asked, and answers were provided. Participants were in the room or present via Zoom. In fact, at one of the hearings, someone stated that they had planned to attend in person, but had started to feel ill and decided to use the Zoom option.
Because the meeting was on Zoom, they were still able to provide input and have their voice heard — an option that is not available to them in either RTM or OTM. All of these hearings and meetings were done so that when you have your ballot in front of you, you can make the best informed choice.
This is exactly what Town Meeting by Australian ballot is all about and how it is proposed to work. You gather your information from meetings, forums, and information sessions — in-person or on Zoom — or from the paper, never mind all the tech at your fingertips to do your research with.
You go through that information, you think and rethink, you digest, you come up with more questions. You take the time to make the best-informed decision that you can.
Then, you use all of that when you have your ballot in front of you, be it at the kitchen table with an absentee ballot or at the polls on the day of voting.
And the best part: Every registered voter gets to do that at whatever level of involvement they need to come to their conclusion. They are not rushed in a short time frame, for one particular item, at a one-day meeting (where in the end the question may not have been fully thought through in the time frame given or where you may not have even been allowed to give your input before the question was called).
All of the hearings and meetings that there have been for this decision about Australian ballot were a beta test. By all indicators, it is good, and it works.
Vote yes to end RTM. Vote yes for Australian ballot. Vote no for open Town Meeting.
Brian Tyler
Brattleboro
This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons.
This piece, published in print in the Voices section or as a column in the news sections, represents the opinion of the writer. In the newspaper and on this website, we strive to ensure that opinions are based on fair expression of established fact. In the spirit of transparency and accountability, The Commons is reviewing and developing more precise policies about editing of opinions and our role and our responsibility and standards in fact-checking our own work and the contributions to the newspaper. In the meantime, we heartily encourage civil and productive responses at voices@commonsnews.org.