The Brattleboro Selectboard recently voted 3–2 to hold this year's Annual Representative Town Meeting (RTM) completely in person, with no remote option. And with that, a large blow in a line of blows was dealt to the accessibility and diversification of our town's government, bolstering an increasingly regressive status quo.
Town meetings in Vermont are sacrosanct and celebrated instruments of government for the people, by the people. They are “democracy in action,” opportunities for the average citizen to speak up about issues that directly impact their daily lives and those of their neighbors.
Compared to growing disenfranchisement in other states, the government in Vermont is proudly said to be accessible, transparent, and truly representative. When I ran for a three-year term as a representative to RTM last year, I felt a sense of giddy patriotism as I went to vote for myself in our town's one and only polling place.
But the vote to hold RTM in person with no masking or vaccine requirements prohibits participation among those who are immunocompromised or otherwise unable to risk a case of COVID-19. The vote took place after several RTM members stated that they wanted to participate but would be unable to do so if it were fully in person.