Politics

Every ten years, the Vermont State Legislature is required to conduct a redistricting process, based on the census results. Earlier this year, the Vermont State Legislature redistricted the Vermont House of Representatives and renamed Brattleboro’s three Districts as Windham-7 (previously Windham 2-1, or District 1), Windham-8 (previously Windham 2-2, or District 2), and Windham-9 (previously Windham 2-3, or District 3), changing the district lines slightly.

For local Town Meeting Day elections, the districts will be called: “Windham-7/Brattleboro District 1,” “Windham-8/Brattleboro District 2,” and “Windham-9/Brattleboro District 3.”

Absentee ballots for the Brattleboro Annual Town Meeting and Windham Southeast School District vote to be held March 1, are now available. Due to the pandemic, voters are encouraged to vote absentee.  Absentee ballots for these two elections must be requested. Anyone wishing to vote absentee may apply for an absentee ballot until 5:00 p.m. on Monday, February 28, although we recommend doing so as soon as possible for mail time purposes.

Absentee ballots may be mailed to the voter by the Clerk’s office, picked up by the voter, or if a voter is in need can be delivered outside of the voter’s location by two Justices of the Peace.  All voted ballots must be received by the Clerk before the polls close on election day in order to be counted.  For more information or to request an absentee ballot call 251-8157.

When divisions reign between the people, and there are sides, and each side hates the other, things can get very heated.  Consider the old truism that the worst feuds are family feuds.  Well, here in America, we used to be Americans but now we’re Good Americans and Bad Americans, and, if news media is any indication, we despise each other.  Moreover, we have had four straight years of this hatred.  I lived through the entire 1960s, but even during that similarly divided time, I never feared for the Republic.  Today, people are evoking the Civil War as a comparable period. 

Now cynics know that America’s current division does not have to lead to civil strife.  Our hatred for each other could be united into hatred for a third party somewhere else — a Russia, for instance, which Americans are accustomed to hating from at least the time of the Bolshevik Revolution, if not before.

The Brattleboro Town Clerk’s office would like to remind those interested in running for Brattleboro Town Officers, Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) Board Members, and Town Meeting Members, that Consent of Candidate forms are available at our office. Please call or email our office to request the form. Due to the pandemic, petition requirements were recently waived for candidates to have their names placed on the ballots for this election. Town elections will be Tuesday, March 1 at the American Legion – 32 Linden Street, and the Annual Representative Town Meeting , Saturday, March 19, location and format will be announced at a later date. Consent of Candidate forms must be filed in the clerk’s office no later than 5:00 P.M. on Monday, January 24 in order to have their name placed on the ballot.