 So why do you think voting matters? I come from a background of being an immigrant to the United States and I think with that perspective and not being able to vote for a long time until I became a citizen, it's really important to have your say. It's your voice in your community if you don't like it, shut up and get out or vote. Well, it's democracy, it's how we run the country, the state and the city, so it's important to weigh in. It's the people's voice and it really depends on who we elect and what not and who runs in the future. Things matter, things matter in general, what is happening in our city matters, all these decisions that are being made during this election will affect our lives in a number of different ways. I think that where we can have the most actionable impact is in our community and what's closest to us and then it really fractals out from there. So how are we showing up for the people who are around us and for our community? That should be the place where we start. I think voting is important because the right hasn't always been available for all populations so I think it's a real civic responsibility that we have the right to vote and we can use it and it's a way that every person can have a voice especially in local elections. Individual votes matter, especially in Burlington. And I think it's important because these are the people who form the policies that affect our lives and I also feel like if you don't vote then you shouldn't complain about what's going on in the government, even on a local level. It's not only important, it's a great privilege and right to be a United States citizen and vote. Notice I said United States citizen. Now I see where there's some people who want to allow non-citizens to vote and that to me is wrong. Vote early, vote often as they say. So I always go to the primaries, I always go to the local elections and I go to the November elections every time I get the chance to vote it's a right and a duty so I do it. It's one potential way to sort of level the playing field and ensure everybody has a seat at the table with a say about the community and the laws that govern us here. Because it's part of your community rather than part of being not part of your community and we all need more neighborly rather than this division that we have far too much of. I mean you gotta let your voice be heard, you know, I mean like we live in democratic society right so like not everybody has that privilege or opportunity to like make their voice count and you know have a say in what goes on in their local government. It's my civic duty and I feel like I can't really complain if I don't cast my ballot and vote for the issues. Can you just share why you came out to vote today? Well, partly it's these guys and I was trying to explain to them that it's just taking part in how our community makes decisions and there's cool stickers but beyond that it's democracy in action and all the little decisions that we make create the world we live in so that's mainly it. I always come out to vote, I love voting. Well it's town meeting day, I think Vermont is one of the most unique states in that front that you know we get to decide what happens with our town or cities and just like with our neighbors so I felt like it was appropriate for me to come and decide. Voting is a habit with me. It's important stuff so I voted. I had a long, I came from rural southern Vermont, New England, traditional New England town meeting, I miss it but I certainly gotten a habit of being a participant. It's our civic duty, same reason I attended my first ever town meeting and it was actually the last one until the one we had last night because of COVID and now here I am involved in local governments and I think everybody should reach out, find a position to volunteer for a committee or a commission and be involved in their community. Big thank you to all of our exit voices teams for going out to the polls this morning and braving the cold and talking to the folks in all of our communities around Chittenden County about why they vote and why it's important to them. Well good evening folks and welcome to town meeting TV's annual election night results show. This is the preview show. We'll be back at seven. I'm Emily Brewer and I'm joined by Shay Totten. Thanks for being here tonight. Thanks Emily. Absolutely. And together we'll be bringing you results from six Chittenden County municipalities, Burlington, South Burlington, Winooski, Williston, Essex and Colchester. For each of those towns we'll walk you through the ballot and provide analysis for the elections and issues that are covered on the ballot in each of those towns. We'll also have clips from our coverage and forum series as well as interviews with candidates coming into the studio live throughout the night to talk to us about their elections. Now town meeting is happening around the state and community media centers around the state were there both last night and today covering their meetings, providing hybrid support, live streaming and recording from four municipalities from St. Albans to Brattleboro. I'd also like to give a quick shout out to VCTV, Vermont Community Television for airing tonight's election results program on their statewide channel. You can check that out on Comcast channel 1070. Check them out for more public access content throughout Vermont. And Shay, it's shaping up to be a busy night. What do you think? It is. Well I think, you know, there's a lot of folks who are paying attention to Burlington. Burlington has not just a few contested city council elections which could determine the balance of power on the city council and the balance of power in the city itself. Democrats are hoping to sort of, you know, get a plurality on the council. Progressives are trying to hold ground that they've lost over the past couple of years. There's also going to be new faces on the city council in South Burlington as well as Williston. And you know, I think we're also going to be seeing some interesting ballot items coming out of Winooski, even in Colchester as well. But I mean, but the big story is really going to be, I think, watching Burlington. The charter changes that are being proposed in Burlington that were citizen led, you know, one which would allow for more direct citizen participation to sort of put items on the ballot and get things changed, get the charter changes put forward right that goes right to the legislature as opposed to going through the council as much. But the biggest one is really about a community control board and accountability of the police department. So there's definitely a lot to unpack tonight. And as those results roll in, we'll keep you updated as soon as we get them. We're also going to be hearing from candidates directly in our Studio B, where Bobby Lucia is standing by for live interviews. And right now with him, he has Tyler Barnes, who is running for the two year city council seat in South Burlington, which is a contested race. Bobby. I'll be with you tonight. As Emily mentioned, I'll be here in Studio B interviewing some of the candidates that folks weighed in on their ballots earlier today. And I'm joined right now by Tyler Barnes, who's running for the city council seat in South Burlington. Thanks so much, Tyler, for joining us. And I'm going to share just a little bit about why you ran and what you're hoping to accomplish on the city council. Sure. I mean, briefly, I'm just looking to give back to the city that's given me so much over the course of the last 35 years, first as a student and as a small child growing up, providing a warm, nurturing community that allowed me to thrive and become the person that I am today. And then later as a small business owner, as a parent of kids in the schools, it's been an incredible, incredible place to be a part of and to be able to call home. And with the departure of Thomas Chitenden and Matt Coda off of the city council this year, it just seemed like the right time and a tremendous opportunity. So what did you hear from voters during your campaign? You ran a contested campaign against a couple of other folks. And what did you hear from voters? I heard a lot of things. Fears the wrong word, but apprehension, I think, is fair. There are a lot of folks in South Burlington and throughout Chitenden County who are really struggling right now between inflation, the cost of housing. Folks are really nervous and that trepidation is creeping into their everyday lives. And they wanted to hear more about a lot of the proposals that are being put forth and how that's going to impact them and their everyday lives. And you mentioned the stepping down of Matt Coda and Thomas Chitenden and the opportunity for a couple of new faces to contribute to the work of the city council. What do you think is the opportunity there for some new perspectives to contribute to the work? And what does that mean for South Burlington? Yeah, well, for me personally, I'm a huge fan of Matt and of Thomas. I think they both are exceptional people and I think they've done a tremendous job giving folks in the community who haven't given them a voice and make. So for me, I'm hoping to continue that and I'm hoping to provide the same sort of steady, even keel, really open minded leadership that they've both brought to the table. And so it's less about replacing them and more about continuing the tradition and the hard work that they've put forth. That's what I'm really excited about. Tyler Barnes, candidate for South Burlington City Council. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having me, Bobby. Back to you guys in Studio A. Emily and Shea. Thank you so much, Bobby. We're looking forward to hearing more from you throughout the night. Now, let's take a closer look at what to expect from Burlington and some of the surrounding communities tonight. What are some of the big storylines you're looking out for? Yeah, I mean, aside from Burlington, which I think we talked about, like one of the things I do want to mention is like, I think this has gotten some coverage, but Just Cause Eviction is on the ballot, both in Essex and in Manuski. It's also in Brattleboro too. So statewide, there's three communities looking at this. This is an initiative that passed in Burlington a couple years ago as a charter change. The governor vetoed it and the legislature couldn't override the veto, so it died. The other thing that I'm looking forward to sort of hearing more about too is to sort of see how folks in Burlington vote on the all residents voting, which would allow basically all residents, whether they're U.S. citizens or not to vote. This is something that Manuski and Montpelier have passed as charter changes a couple years ago. Again, those were vetoed by the governor, but the legislature overrode those vetoes later than the Republican National Committee sued those communities, saying it violated the Constitution to let folks who aren't U.S. citizens vote, but the Constitution does allow for that in local elections and even state elections. And so the Vermont Supreme Court upheld those. So, Burlington's on pretty solid ground now to actually have that passed. And there's about 2,700 folks in Burlington who would fit that, you know, who would be potentially eligible to vote in a community election. So for school board budgets and city council races. But speaking of city council, so there's going to be at least three new members tonight on the city council after this election, about eight candidates seeking election. We've got three, there's going to be potentially four, but there's three, all four of the district council seats are up for election. Only one is uncontested. That's Mark Barlow in the New North End, the North District, all the other three districts are contested. Plus, there's a special election for ward eight because Ali House stepped down a while back. And so this is the opportunity to fill that seat. So this is really going to sort of the races themselves are going to really sort of demonstrate like what kind of policies get put forward by the city council. And one of those policies is actually on the ballot as a citizen led initiative, which would create a police accountability board separate and distinct from the police commission. And that actually was approved by the council by a seven to five vote, the mayor then vetoed it. And the progressives who were leading that could not find an eighth vote to override the veto. So that initiative died, but then citizens who were supporting it gathered enough petition signatures to put it on the ballot. And that's where it is now. So that's that's the one that we've seen the most yard signs about the most front porch forum posts about the most heated discussions, you know, at coffee shops and street corners and, you know, NPA meetings. So I think that's going to be the one that I think a lot of people are going to be watching. But Broglie's has also got a number of other things you've got the school, you know, it used to be like the school budget was the thing that everybody focused on. But, you know, with with eight ballot items plus a budget, there's a lot of other things that people are paying attention to. There certainly is. And I when I went to vote today, I was I was surprised by the the the length of my my ballot and over in Ward three, just because there are so many ballot initiatives that folks have to have to vote on. And when it comes to this, particularly article number seven and article number eight, those are both, you mentioned it, citizen created charter changes. Can you tell us a little bit about how that's different from the other articles? Sure. Well, a lot of a lot of the articles that show up in town meetings, either a city council or a select board in other communities can put those on there before voters. And a lot of them times those would be led by discussions are happening on those boards. But just like in other communities, citizens, if you gather, you know, at least five percent of the eligible voters like sign a petition to put something on there, you can petition the city council to put it on there. Now the city council doesn't have to. The city council can also reject it and they can tweak the language if they feel like it violates, you know, legally, it wouldn't be, you know, legit to put it on the ballot. But they can take a review of that. So they just, the council decided to let this go forward to the voters. And so those, and that's the same thing with with the ballot number eight, which is called prop zero, which is known as, which would also be allow for the citizen led charter change initiatives to sort of come right from, you know, to have those happen right from the citizenry. Because and this is not uncommon throughout Vermont, where people can can make changes, you know, sometimes through floor vote, even at sort of old school town meetings to make changes. So this is sort of, this is sort of not too controversial. I mean, I think the main concern there is I could special interest, like we see in California, you know, fund propositions that could change charter or do things. And so I think that's like probably not going to happen here, but I think that's one of the concerns. So then, you know, then it could be, you know, maybe items that don't align with sort of the population, it could potentially be lobbied to be put on. So I think that's some of the concerns. But but those are all because they're put on the ballot by a petition from the, you know, petition gathered from the community, as opposed to sort of the council putting it on there. Gotcha. Well, thank you for that excellent, excuse me, explanation. And so we've talked, we've talked a lot about Burlington, but let's, let's do a quick overview of some of the contested races that we'll see throughout the rest of the communities. Sure. Well, as we saw in Studio B, you know, we've got contested, you know, contested races in South Burlington, as well as at least one school board in Winooski, as well as a select board seat in in Williston. And in fact, I was in preparing for the show as watching the town, the community, the forum you did with the two candidates there. Ellie Beckett and Mark. Mike Isham. Mike, Mike, Mike. That's right. So, yeah, so I was really interested in hearing that because it it senses like they're both coming at the coming out, like what the growth for Winooski or what Williston needs, but it was really sort of like there's slight generational shift, which you can obviously see. But, you know, so that'll be interesting to see how that race shakes shakes out because you have the Isham family, which is a long standing family of Williston. I think, you know, I think as Mike said, like his, his, his family was like one of the founding families of Williston. And Ellie Beckett, I mean, her mom was a long time, you know, town clerk in Williston, deep roots in the community. So, but it'll be so that's going to be an interesting one to watch to sort of see. Doesn't seem like it'll change the dynamics on the select board much, but I think the, you know, the perspective of like the need for housing and still the need for conservation and open space, as well as trying to promote local businesses in Williston as opposed to sort of just being, I think, what people think of Williston as big box stores. Right, exactly, especially now as they're as they continue to develop that Taft Corners area. And that'll be interesting to see how that that election shakes out, considering they're both two well-known names in, in the Williston community. So also in Williston, there's two uncontested races for the select board there. Terry McCague, current select board chair is running uncontested for another, I believe, three years. And Jean Jensen will also be is running uncontested for the Wilson select board. So those are those races there. And let's let's move over to Winooski and chat a little bit about those races. So that contested race there is between is for the school school board, the two-year seat, between Jordan Matt, who ran for state representative in the 2022 general election, and Robert Miller, who was on the school board and city council previously. So there you have like someone who's just been running for office and has like, has like a good network of people, even though they weren't successful in, you know, in the legislative race. But now you have also someone like Robert is has been on multiple part has been in the community for a long time and doing that. So again, it's going to be interesting, interesting to see. But I think, you know, the story out of Winooski, too, will will be just cause eviction to see if that does pass, because I feel like that's that's something that that Winooski with Winooski Essex and Brattleboro, I mean, there's been a lot of, you know, a lot of funded opposition to that, you know, a lot from landlord associations. And so, you know, the governor's not doesn't approve of that, you know, that kind of effort to sort of like keep, give more power to renters to sort of not be especially in this hot housing market, not to be sort of, you know, kicked out of the housing because of exorbitant rent increases, which I think, you know, is really the experience for a lot of folks who are renting has been the case. So aside from that, I think that's going to be something I'm interested to sort of see what does happen in Winooski with with that in particular, given the given the attention from outside the community. Well, we'll definitely be keeping a close eye on that article to see how that see how people in Winooski vote. And we also will be covering the Colchester elections. So in Colchester, there's all the seats there for the school board and select board uncontested. So not very interesting races there. Really, it's the it's the ballot items in Colchester that have people's eye. Right. Right. And I think that the one that is getting the most attention is really the Rec Center, which, you know, will be funded. My understanding is from from the local from local option taxes that are being assessed, so wouldn't be coming sort of out of property taxes. But I think that's fascinating for a community sort of to think about investing and creating a town rec center. It's been on it's been discussed for a long time. It sounds like it's going to have a lot of community rooms and spaces beyond just being a fitness center, like into our walking track and an all purpose gym. So yeah, I mean, good for Colchester. I mean, it's tries to try to promote itself as like a recreation destination being on Mouth Bay. So here's just one more one more reason, I guess, to go and recreate Colchester. Exactly. They're trying to hope for. Yeah. And as you know, as I was doing some research, it is made pretty clear that, you know, no property taxes will be used to build it or run it. And so again, could you maybe tell us a little bit about the local options tax and what what that means? Yeah, well communities, communities can have local option taxes like Broington has its own has has a tax like that. I can't remember how many other communities in Vermont have that, but but it allows them to assess like an extra like in Brogdon, it's an extra sales tax, so an extra portion. So when you go out to eat, you know, you know, sometimes you'll see like, you know, see like, if you look at the itemizing, there'll be like a little bit like Broington tax on there. And that's what it goes to. It's an option. It's an extra option tax that's out there. So I'm not sure I have to look into looking a little bit more. But but for Colchester will have the same thing they can they can levy these extra option these extra fees. And with additional businesses coming in and more activity coming in, you can you hopefully gain extra taxes, taxing come off the new generation of something like this creating more revenue in town for businesses. So you can collect that and then it helps to pay down the bonds. And it seems like growth and building community is definitely a through line and a lot of these ballot items like in particular South Burlington, some of their ballot items, the article number four city centered tax increment financing that tiff bond for really making South Burlington have a downtown city center. That's a big one. It is a big one. Yeah. You know, we talk about the contestor races in South Burlington, but I'm just fascinated by how many bond items and budget items are up in South Burlington, both on the school side and the city side. I mean, there's a there's a lot there's a lot of money there. But I mean, South Burlington is really trying to invest in some of the infrastructure to kind of help continue to grow because it needs to supply more housing and you see more housing going up now. You know, this downtown city center, which has been an idea, you know, for more than a decade, you know, it's finally sort of you can sort of start seeing it take shape now. And so I think, you know, this extra money, I think potentially, you know, because it's through a tiff through a tiff district bond, which is a little bit different than what we were just talking about because it really it's about the growth in the property taxes that come from the new construction in that area that's the tiff district is supposed to then help pay for the infrastructure that goes in. So again, so it doesn't come out of existing tax money. It comes out of like future anticipated new money coming in. All these things that counties come up with. But but but that's sort of that's sort of part of it. But you know, so it'll be interesting to sort of see because I mean, South Burlington has been pretty generous with with trying to create this identity to have in actually creating a city center for itself because it hasn't really had one. It's sort of it's very scattered. So but actually creating a downtown for itself. I think people started to see it take shape. So I feel like it's probably going to get go and be supported. But it'll be interesting to sort of see because you know, as we all know the economy is still touching go for a lot of folks. Inflation has been pretty hard on folks this past year, including what we see what we're seeing in city and school budgets. Inflation is definitely a driving factor. And these increases that we're going to be seeing around town meeting tonight. And let's let's talk a little bit more about that across the board. All of these towns are seeing budget increases. And you know, like we just mentioned with Sel Burlington, it's not just the budget that voters are voting on. That's there's a lot of money here to to be considered. So what do you think voters are going to feel? I think they're going to tell us how they're going to feel. I mean, this is the thing. I mean, I think this is going to be a real indicator for how much capacity. How are people feeling about their own economy and their own sort of situation right now? And how much of that is going to play out? We always think this is the big question every year is like, is this the year when all the school budgets get voted down because people just can't take any more increases. And we generally don't see that pattern. I mean, people tend to tend to be more angry at the federal government for spending than they do for their local governments. Not always. But I mean, that tends to be the general case. So but if you look at the budgets, I mean, most of them are within the inflationary sort of like the inflation for the country. So they're sort of staying within budget. Like they're like they're not going up any more than inflation. There's a couple that there are. And what's driving it is mostly health care costs, inflationary pressure across the board for goods and services that the government has to buy just like we do on labor contracts, you know, cost of living increases for for staff. So certainly a lot for voters in all of the towns to consider here tonight. Before we close our preview show, just maybe just another recap of those contested races or ballot items that you really think are going to be hot hot ticket items tonight. Yeah, I mean, I think top top of mind is really the contested the contested city council races in Burlington along with the ballot item number seven in Burlington, which is the police accountability board. I think those are those are the ones I'm most watching. And after that, I'm really fascinated to sort of see how things go just cause eviction, both in Essex and Winooski, because Essex is not a place you would think that would that would show up and pop up. But so I'm surprised, but I'll be interested to sort of see what happens with Essex as well as what happens in Winooski. But other than that, I mean, I mean, everybody, everyone has I'm sure has a has a favorite ballot item in Burlington. There's plenty to go around. And so, you know, it'll I think it's going to be, you know, a busy night for everybody here. Yeah. And make sure you stay tuned for our results show at 7 p.m. Where we will be bringing you results as soon as we get them from the town clerks, we've got a really dedicated group of volunteers and folks at the polls in our results room, aggregating and putting those results into our modules so that folks can can see who was elected and what ballot items passed as soon as soon as the polls closed. That's right. And if you haven't voted yet, you still have an hour left a little more than an hour. Definitely still go out and vote if you can set polls closed at seven at all the locations. And it'll be, you know, it'll be interesting to see when we get results for particularly Burlington because Burlington did mail all registered voters absentee ballots. And from what we heard from some of the poll workers during our exit voices today is you know, overall numbers are are down, but a lot of those a lot of the votes that were cast were absentee and so it'll it'll take a bit for those to come in, but we'll keep you updated as soon as we get them. That's right. That's right. It's going to it might be it might be a long night to get some of those to get some of those close races tallied. Exactly. But we'll be keeping our eye on it and we'll keep you updated. And so thank you for tuning in to our preview show. We make sure to tune back in at seven o'clock. Shane, I'll be here looking at the results and bringing them to you as soon as we get them. And before we close here, we will take a look at one more exit voices from voters at the polls. Put on a pot of coffee and a pot of coffee. We live in democratic society, right. So like not everybody has that privilege or opportunity to like make their voice count and, you know, have a say in what goes on in their local government. So yeah, I feel like it's my duty as a citizen. It would be a slap in the face of my female ancestors and grandmother who were suffragettes to not come out here and vote. Well, because if you don't want to let your voice be heard, then the citizens that are made, you can't really bitch about. Sorry for the language, but you can't complain. They kick your feet when you're not part of the decision. One of the things I love is just seeing people help make this whole democracy work right here today, doing all this work to make sure we can vote.