click to enlarge - Courtesy
- Town Meeting Day 2024
On many a Town Meeting Day, Fairfax resident Alice Scannell would look at her ballot in bewilderment. While she knew about some of the offices and the candidates hoping to fill them, many were a mystery to her.
"I'd be like, 'What in the world does a cemetery commissioner even do?'" Scannell recalled.
She figured that if she had these questions, her neighbors did, too.
So she teamed up with another Fairfax resident, Pat LaClair, to build a website that would let voters know what positions were up for election on Town Meeting Day, who was running and why they wanted the job.
Their nonpartisan Fairfax Voter Project went live earlier this month (sites.google.com/view/fairfax-voter-project/) and already has had 1,000 unique visitors. The goal is to publicize statements from all the candidates running for local office in the Franklin County town of 5,200 so voters can make informed decisions on March 5.
No opinions. No heated political rhetoric. No anonymous posting. Just informative introductions to those running for local office.
"It's really clean. It's just the candidates and what they want to say," Scannell said.
Scannell, a social worker, and LaClair, a former high school teacher, came up with a questionnaire for all the local candidates, gave them a week to fill it out, then posted their answers.
This year there are candidates for town moderator, selectboard, school board, library board, delinquent tax collector, Bellows Free Academy trustee and cemetery district commissioner.
Some candidates initially were hesitant, figuring they were a lock for a volunteer position that is sometimes viewed as more of an appointment than an elected post, Scannell said.
It took some nudging, but everyone eventually came around. The site has answers from all 18 candidates on the ballot, including those running unopposed.
Scannell and LaClair hope to jump-start interest in the upcoming election — especially among younger generations and newer residents — and reduce the risk of political divisiveness.
"The commitment of these folks running for local office is an antidote to the dysfunction of national politics, and I hope our questionnaire helps everyone see that," LaClair said in an email.
Correction, February 21, 2024: A previous version of this story misreported the population of Fairfax and misattributed a quote.