 Good evening. Welcome to the Washington County Senate Candidate Forum. This program is part of the series presented by Orca Media and The Bridge to give voters a general, a good idea of what their candidates stand for. I'm Tom McCone, moderator for this evening's program. With redistricting, in addition to all Washington County communities, this Senate district now includes Braintree, Orange and Stowe. Welcome to voters from all communities. These forums are intended to provide candidates with the opportunity to share their views and to explain why they think they should be elected. It is not a debate, so they will not be asking each other questions. Before introducing the candidates, I'll go over the format. We ask the public for questions in advance, and we use that feedback to help us develop a list of questions from which we will draw this evening. The candidates were not given any questions in advance. During this program, we will also take call-in questions. A volunteer will write down those questions and pass them on to me. If you have a question you want to suggest, call us at 802-224-9901. That number will periodically be displayed on the bottom of the screen. We'll ask as many questions as we can fit into 90 minutes. Each candidate will have up to two minutes to introduce themselves, to explain why they are running, and to make opening remarks. After that, candidates will have a minute and a half to answer each question, and at the end, they will get one minute for a closing statement. The moderator has the discretion to make adjustments should any be needed. We have a timer in the studio that will help the candidates to keep track of how much time they have left. For their opening statements, I will call on the candidates in the same order they are listed on the ballot. After that, I will vary the order so that each candidate has the opportunity to go first and last, and so that they do not always go before or after the same people. This district has three senators, so you will be able to vote for up to three candidates. Now, let's meet the candidates. Paul Matthew Bean is a Republican from Northfield. Welcome, Paul. Thank you. Anne Cummings is a Democrat from Montpelier. Welcome, Anne. Thank you. Dexter LeFavor of Middlesex is running as a Republican and Libertarian. Welcome, Dexter. Andrew Purchlick of Marshfield is running as a Democrat and Progressive. Welcome, Andrew. Thank you. And Anne Watson of Montpelier is also running as a Democrat and Progressive. Welcome, Anne. It's good to be here. The sixth candidate on the ballot, Dwayne Tucker, a Republican from Barrie Town, was invited but is not with us this evening. So now we're going to move on to candidates' opening statements. So we will be doing these in the order in which I just introduced the candidates. It will be Paul, Anne Cummings, Dexter, Andrew, and then Anne Watson. So Paul, would you start for us? Sure. So my name is Paul Bean. I'm from Northfield, Vermont. I grew up on a dairy farm that was converted into a Chevy dealership long before I was born. I went to the University of Vermont. I studied public communications. Throughout my schooling there, I sold things online, everything from books to inflatable pools to records, Amazon, eBay, that kind of thing. It was pretty cool. Recently, I've worked for Cardinal Point Screenprinting and Embroidery in Northfield. I worked for Fortune Marketing in Barrie. I've done some painting. I've done some landscaping this summer. I've done all sorts of work. But now I'm stepping in as a young, aspiring political leader, politician, whatever you want to call me. I'm a Republican candidate and I'm running because I think Vermont needs a young voice. I think it's really important that there's a young voice and that young people are represented. I think I know as well as anyone why young people are leaving the state of Vermont in such high numbers. My campaign is about self-sufficient state economy, workforce development, environmental stewardship, and individual responsibility. And I see that the timer is not going. But I am going to go ahead and finish my statement because I think that was about two minutes. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Paul. Ian Cummings. Thank you. Thank you for having us here tonight. I'm Ian Cummings. I am the veteran, I guess, by far. I've been in the Senate for over 20 years. I keep doing this because I believe in democracy. I really like working with people, bringing them together and solving our mutual problems. I think that's very important. I think this year I would like to go back because I think that's more important than ever. This country has been through an immense amount of social change. Democracy is under a threat that it has never been under before. We're even starting to see some of that uncivility filter down into Vermont. I think it's very important that we have a voice in the legislature that is committed to bringing all different people together to treat them with respect and to work out mutual solutions to very serious problems that we're going to be dealing with. We're going to be dealing with climate and the housing crisis and the economy and the national economy and the world and inflation. It's going to be vitally important that we hold together and that we not devolve into fighting. I think it's also important we are seeing a third turnover a third of the legislators in both the House and the Senate are not coming back. We're losing a lot of institutional memory. I've been told this is the biggest turnover since World War II. I think it's important that we get new young voices but I think it's also important that we have some voices of experience there and I would like to be one of those voices. Thank you, Ian. Dexter. Thank you, Tom. My name is Dexter LeFavor. I live in Middlesex. I've been in Vermont since 1981. I grew up outside of Boston and my family would vacation in the mountains. We were tent campers and we traveled throughout northern New England and I became a skier along the way and just really craved a chance to explore life in the mountains. That happened to me in 1981. I was three years out of college and I found a job in the Burlington area. I moved here at the age of 24 and went right to work over the years. I left for a couple of years due to there was a recession and I was faced with either being laid off or relocating to New York so I did that for a couple of years but the time I was gone I just totally wanted to get back. I did make a good start financially in New York and then came back a couple of years later and settled in Middlesex. I've not been there ever since. I've raised four kids there two have been through U32 with you and two others have been through U32 after you so great success with them. Three out of the four of them are still in Vermont and the fourth is living in the Dominican Republic as a yoga instructor and surfer so not a bad lifestyle. I'm running to bring balance to the legislature I think that the imbalance that exists right now could benefit from a shift so I would represent that shift I'm grateful to have the nominations of both the Republican and Libertarian parties although I consider myself an independent and not a member of either party so that's kind of a curious distinction but it's one that I feel strongly about and I feel well aligned with both parties as far as being a fiscal conservative and socially liberal gives me room in both of those groups I've got a lot of friends in all parties D-P-L-R I've got friends all across the spectrum and that's part of what I want to do in the legislature is work with these friends and do the hard work to make the changes that will make Vermont better Thank you Thank you Dexter Andrew Thank you I am a candidate for state senate this year I've been a senator for the last four years and I want to be a candidate again to hope to get re-elected as state senate to serve the people of the district I believe strongly in public service I was a Peace Corps volunteer after college my first job in Vermont was as a VISTA volunteer and when we moved to Marshfield where we raised our three children I was active in that community was on the select board was on the volunteer fire department for many years community organizations and nonprofits in the area and as I said for the last four years as state senator and I want to continue that service for the people of the district specifically I want to work on policies that support and advance the well-being of children and families in the district so that's paid family leave for families that's affordable and accessible childcare and particularly I'm interested in adolescents and after school programs something that I agree with Governor Scott that it's important that we have universal after school programs and that's before school, after school when school is on vacation so those kids have somewhere to go and have mentorship when they're outside of school I really believe in policies to build a strong clean energy economy in the state I think we have huge potentials for building our economy based on clean energy so we can stop exporting our dollars for fossil fuels when we buy fossil fuel 80 cents of every dollar 70 cents of every dollar goes out of state but if we buy renewable energy it's reversed like 70 cents stays in the state and also I believe in democracy a senator Cummings said I'm concerned more on a national scale but I think there's things that we could do here in Vermont as well we can build our civics education and civics involvement and I think for the next presidential primary we have ranked choice voting that'll help all the different parties that we have in the state Thank you Andrew Anne Watson Thank you Yeah so Anne Watson I am currently serving as the mayor of Montpelier I am also a teacher and a coach I'm a union member and I've dedicated the majority of my adult life to public service so as a teacher I have been teaching physics and engineering and math for the past 18 years at Montpelier High School and as a teacher there I have seen kids come through and be very concerned about climate change and so that is actually why I am running I also am very concerned about the climate I think this is an issue that needs government intervention we need to make sure that the government is making it affordable and accessible and easy for folks to make the kind of changes that need to happen and in addition I get to meet folks from all walks of life and so I get to see that a lot of Vermont's economic policies are really not working for a lot of Vermont families and as has been mentioned things like paid family leave would be really helpful we need more housing at all levels but particularly affordable housing we have a workforce crisis right now I'm really interested in working on that and I can also I would like to see us work on childcare especially high quality and affordable childcare as a new mom I am experiencing that right now so I believe our experiences matter and what what we bring to the table is certainly our experience so as a new mom it has been certainly challenging to find childcare so I'm excited to have the conversation tonight okay thank you Ann so for the first question the order will be Dexter Anne Watson, Andrew, Anne Cummings and then Paul and that question is what is the most important issue for your district if you are elected when you are in the state house how are you going to use that role to improve things in your district so as I go around and speak to voters and residents in the district I find that the issue of affordability rings true for everyone everyone knows what that means everyone knows that people are having a hard time making ends meet Vermont is one of the more expensive states and also a state with some of the lowest income and that creates a disparity that's really difficult so my objective would be to close that gap to change things to the extent the government can to make it more affordable for people we need to reduce the tax burden on people we need to help bring in industry that will create more better paying jobs and really just look deeply at some of the policies that we have that really hurt people climate change is a real concern to a lot of people Vermont has done a lot over the decades and bringing renewables into the communities but it's done so in a way that has hurt people financially efficiency for Vermont I think is a good example of a program that puts a 6% tax on everyone's electric bill it's more wealthy people so those are the kinds of things that need to change will promote sensible policy with respect to energy and climate change thank you Dexter yeah thank you so one of the issues that I have been hearing over and over about from folks in the district is the need for housing and we know a lot of folks in the Washington district are renters and are finding their rents and or they're being pushed out you know I have friends where actually their landlords are selling the building and they're being forced to move and they're finding that there's very little if anything available so one of the things that I would love to see us work on is increasing the amount of housing availability in the Washington district and that I think there's a number of ways that I think we can do that is with Act 250 reform some reforms were made previously but I think there's more that we can do particularly to make it easier to build in downtowns I think if we're not intentional about how we build we'll just end up with sprawl I'm actually also from Vermont so I've grown up with Act 250 and seen the good that it has done but I think at this point it needs to be reformed particularly to make it easier to build in our downtowns I'd also like to see spend more on supporting folks that are experiencing homelessness that is also increasingly an issue so yeah okay thank you Ian Ian Drew the reason I brought up children and family in my open statement is that I hear a lot about concerns about our children and to an extension family particularly when I talk to families a lot of them that just new families that have one child are saying it's partially an affordability thing that we're only going to have one child we have an issue with a declining population in the state or barely a flat population and we need I think to support families to encourage those families that want to have more than one child to have a growing population in a vibrant youth population in the state there are things that we can do to support families to have the children that they want to have and to support those families when they exist and that's the childcare that's the after school programs but also I hear a lot of concern just about the state of our adolescents and our high school students and the amount of anxiety and mental health kind of issues we have problems in the state with acute mental health issues with our youth that have a child that goes through a mental health crisis and they get locked in the emergency room for days, weeks, at a time so there's things that we can do for very acute situations with mental health with adolescents but also just the day to day work that we do in our schools and really support our public school system and have strong community schools to build stronger Vermonters for the future Thank you, Andrew Ian Cummings I don't think there's any one issue that you know is focused on on the Washington district I think we're all going to have an issue in how do we integrate the three towns that we picked up how do we reach out to them and hear their specific issues and I think last year we did some town hall meetings over Zoom and that worked well and I think we've all committed to going to do those as we go through the session so that we can hear from places like Braintree are fairly remote and it's a good drive to get down there and not a lot of big events to get to know people I think in this area a lot of the issues we've talked about are really quality of life you know care and paid leave you know good health care affordability are all vitally important I think I chair finance I have for a long time we deal with taxes and a lot of we all know what we need where we hit a wall is how we pay for it all the programs my son lives in Canada pay a much higher percent of their income in taxes and that's going to be a challenge for us okay thank you Ann and Paul I think when I hear from people and when I'm talking with people and what I've gathered is I think the biggest issue overall is definitely affordability I'd like to think of it in two different ways really and looking to represent is you have of course the young people who are in the state they're leaving in droves there's not a lot of housing there's not a lot of economic opportunity that is considered high quality and then there's the second demographic of people and that is the older generation I'm thinking of you know my grandparents for example and they're kind of looking at their lives and where they're at a part-time job driving a bus watching chairs at Sugarbush to make ends meet so I think we have to think about in the legislature what can we do to ensure that things are affordable and that we're not continually piling on costs and also we need to it comes back to workforce development I think we have to be educating our youth on the opportunities that do exist within our state without going to college you can work in all sorts of jobs there's so many construction opportunities for example I just want to point out to the average age of construction worker in the state of Vermont is 54 years old so there's a gap here there's opportunities for people to work in this state and stay here especially younger people coming out of high school okay thank you Paul for the next question the order will be Anne Watson please Paul Bean Dexter LaFavor and this topic has already come up I knew it would before we even got to it but this is about housing so first the context then second the question for the context we are in the midst of a housing crisis in Vermont housing prices are up mortgage rates are up rents are up and there are not enough available units to rent or to buy anecdotally we have heard of teachers and others from out of state accepting jobs here only to back out when they couldn't find a place to live housing is a widespread problem but it is especially hard on low income and moderate income Vermonters the question do you think that the Vermont legislature should do more to support housing and especially to support affordable housing if so what so Anne your first sure thank you so as I mentioned earlier housing is certainly on my radar as an issue that needs to be addressed I think in addition to the act 250 reform that I mentioned earlier that I think would really help with building in already impacted downtowns I would love to see work on a couple of things one is thinking about that a lot of our housing is actually vacant right now we actually have quite a few houses here that are second homes I would love to see a restructure the tax brackets so that there is the possibility of taxing second homes and very large homes at a higher rate because those are folks that we know can probably afford to pay a little more and so I would love to see us be able to alleviate the burden on regular Vermonters and then I think we could potentially use that tax money to go towards more affordable housing second thing I'm very interested in what Burlington has done in terms of the regulating Airbnb and using the money here to go towards affordable housing as well there's more I would love to say but I'm basically out of time lots of thoughts on this thank you Andrew the legislature has worked on this we've done a lot but it takes time is one of the things but I know that it's not a solution in the short term but we put a lot of things in place but it takes time to build these houses and put everything in place to get the money out there on the streets so to speak I do support what Mira Watson said about that 250 reform for downtowns we want to have smart growth we need more housing and the more we can do it in a smart way the better I also support the refurbishment program I can't remember what it's called but as we in our towns and as we drive around the district we see those homes that are vacant but not livable and landlords some that I've talked to that I can't the amount of money that I would take to refurbish this to make it a livable unit I won't be able to recover in the rents it would be too expensive and so that the program that we have that supports landlords to make those houses livable I think is a great program because these are buildings that we want to upgrade anyway and it can happen a lot quicker than it takes somebody to build a new house or build a new apartment building that takes a long time so I think just getting those units on online are a really good way yeah I think that's that's about it thank you Andrew Anne Cummings I think first we need to define what we mean by affordable the state put hundreds of millions of dollars into it's federal money into affordable housing this year but that's generally subsidized housing that those rents are going to have to be subsidized because the people that are in them can't afford to pay the rents that would cover the cost of building them we have another affordable which I think we're talking about now which is worker housing and the basic slab ranch you know the first starter home or the home that older people on fixed incomes could move down to we haven't built enough of those variety of reasons one of them is we've been very reluctant to give up any kind of open space to build more housing those of us that got here and got our house we don't like anyone coming in I think we're going to have to have a serious discussion about that I think the numbers I've heard is that you can't build a house for under 300,000 and the average family can afford 2 to 250 why is that do we do state bulk buying for raw materials you know how often do you get a market demand and the market doesn't fill it so I think we need to have some serious discussions with the people that are building houses and come up with a plan thank you Ian Paul you're never going to believe it but I think we need to look at act 250 I think everybody kind of knows that this is a problem at least from what I've gathered is maybe act 250 reform might be a good idea I think we have to think about how the way that it's structured at least from when I talk to builders and developers they say we're very picky about the projects that we choose to pursue essentially because they're concerned if they work or try to go after a project that's too big it's going to trigger act 250 and going through act 250 can be very expensive it can be very timely it costs a lot of time too and you might never see any of that money back if you can't get the permit so unfortunately I think it makes them very picky about the projects that they choose to pursue and I think what we need to do and what I think I can do as a state senator is get together with local state governments local governments community stakeholders builders, developers, contractors and we're going to build a coalition of people that are concerned with this and how can we take act 250 and look at actual reasonable ways to reform it while keeping in mind that the state is beautiful and we want to keep in mind the environmental impacts of any type of development whether it's commercial or residential so that would be my take on the course. Thank you Tom. Housing is just a really complex issue. There is no one course that we can take to correct the current housing crisis that we have now. I think that one of the real things that's driving the severity of the problem right now it's sort of a perfect storm with our spending and government spending in general we have an influx of money we have a limited ability to build new homes and the money has diverted the workforce from affordable homes or lower cost homes into high cost subsidized housing at a much higher cost much higher standard than a standard residential home and that there's no workforce available to work to build lower cost housing right now. I think that we need to sort of temper government spending to soften the market. The other thing that's happened as a result of COVID and this was happening even before COVID but there's a migration of people from the cities buying land at high prices that's driven up the cost of housing. The regulatory climate that we have is difficult it's complex it's unpredictable that drives up the process and rent subsidies as well someone can afford X amount of rent but suddenly they get a subsidy of X plus 500 the rent goes to X plus 500 all those things drive up the cost of housing and make it difficult for people to find homes Thank you Dexter so as I'm listening to your answers I'm having reactions here I want to add some figures yeah and you know what I appreciate your responses and I imagine people watching that too so thanks for your thoughtful answers for the next question the order will be Ann Cummings Paul, Ann Watson, Dexter and Andrew no surprise on this one that this would come up so this question is about article 22 the proposed personal reproductive liberty amendment to the Vermont Constitution it is the amendment is one sentence written without commas and in legal terminology so I'll read it to you so that an individual's right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one's own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling state interest achieved by the least restrictive means and the question is do you stand on this article so Ann your first I was on the health and welfare committee that drafted and worked on that article I did vote for it Vermont law right now does protect a woman's right to choose but this was done before Roe v. Wade was overturned but there was a lot of concern this puts that general principle into the Vermont Constitution like other constitutional guarantees no right is absolute and before I came tonight I was trying to answer somebody that wanted to know why doesn't it mention women because it also covers men how that works out in this country in our constitutional form is that we can write laws to define it people can do court challenges to it it will go through a court process but it will have to come up against that basic principle of reproductive liberty but no right is absolute we've made some changes to the right to bear arms recently because it was a compelling government interest right now medical ethics does not allow for a late term abortion except in the case of threat to the mother's life or the non viability of the child if that were to change then we could write a law that would specify that at this point it was felt that that wasn't necessary okay thank you Ann Paul so I'll start by saying that I believe in a woman's right to choose I believe in reproductive liberty and I believe in bodily autonomy and I do believe that it is essential human right that our healthcare choices are kept between the patient and the provider and I think that's kind of where I want to leave it I think I've said what needs to be said I support article 22 and I think going forward it's important that people do too thank you Paul Ann thank you so it has a person who has recently been pregnant I feel like I can say pregnancy is certainly a very intimate and personal experience and really does not have any business for the government interfering with it and so I am proudly supporting article 22 I am very supportive of women being able to make the best decisions that they can for their bodies between them and their doctor and their families and what makes sense for them and one of the other things I appreciate about article 22 is that it also addresses forced sterilization Vermont has a terrible history with that and so that is also something that should not ever happen again and so I'm grateful for the reproductive liberty aspect of this that it's inclusive of that idea as well so yeah that's all I think I need to say on that also thank you Dexter I think I agree with most who have spoken I certainly support a woman's right to choose and I just want to read the article 22 again because I see a disconnect between the first part of the language and the second part of the language and I really clearly support the first part of the language the first 28 words that are that an individual's right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one's own life course and shall not be denied or infringed I think that's great the remaining 12 words scare me though and it goes I think to what Anne was talking about about the historic history of forced sterilization in Vermont and these are the final 12 words unless justified by a compelling state interest achieved by the least restrictive means and I just have a real concern that could be opened up to things such as forced sterilization things such as giving a father a right over the reproductive rights of a mother because this is not gender specific so I think there's a lot of concerns with the languages there the bottom line is that the voters are going to decide on article 22 and I support democracy and I support people's opinions and get out there and vote thank you thank you Dexter Andrew thanks Tom I'm a strong supporter of Proposition 5 article 22 like Senator Cummings I voted for it in the legislature we had to vote for it twice you know we voted for in the 1920 biennium and then we had an election after that vote and those people that got re-elected got a vote a chance to vote for it again if they wanted to reconsider it so it passed through two legislative bodies separate legislative bodies and now it's going in front of the people I've already voted for it I think it's important even though we do have the statutory protection of reproductive liberty for women we need to get the third branch of government involved there is a unfortunate trend in other states of people trying to just change the law if we just had a law then it wouldn't be protected by the constitution and just a new legislature could come in and change it so I want to have that protection of the third branch of government to make sure that if any law that gets passed in the future protects that right to choose in that reproductive liberty and I think that's what the language says and that's what will happen and I think it's clear from the intent of the legislature and all the debate that happened in Senator Cummings and throughout the both bodies that it was clear what the intent was and that will be used by the courts in the future ok thank you Andrew for the next question the order will be Andrew Texter, Paul and Watson and Cummings um this question again the context first and then the question so this is about LGBTQ plus protections and I'm going to take that plus in a broad a broad sense as you see many if not most Vermonters say they believe in the equal and equitable treatment of all people however we regularly see examples of black Vermonters other people with darker than white skin or foreign accents or less common religions indigenous Vermonters or members of our LGBTQ plus communities targeted or threatened in the last week in one of these forums in this very studio the sole black candidate seeking to represent Montpelier in the Vermont State House said he does not campaign door to door because of the reaction he expects from 30 to 40 percent of those answering doors we have periodically had incidents of the vandalizing and burning of black lives matter and then the question should the legislature strengthen Vermont's bias and hate crime statutes so Andrew your first I think on the face of it the quick answer would be yes I haven't looked into that so I don't have a specific example about the crime aspect we did pass two laws why I've been in there about panic defense laws that have happened in cases where people have murdered or attacked either gay or trans people and they've said that they just they panicked and that was their defense because they were just so shocked to be approached by somebody like that we took that defense away from them in the court of law so they can't use that anymore so I think things like that we need to pass we did definitely need to make our schools more affirming we've had some examples with people being yelled out by the fans for their racial identity or their sexual identity and I think the school principal's association that monitors sports needs to do a better job of making sure that doesn't continue and that all of our athletes feel safe going out there and playing a sports which I think is a great activity for our school children but they need to be able to do it safely and yeah, we have a problem in Vermont with racism and transphobia and queerphobia and even antisemitism and something that we need to address we did pass a law about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that's just kind of getting its work started but I think part of their work will be to study this and really lay out all the problems some of our history that we can learn from Thank you Andrew Dexter So I appreciate Andrew's input there and pleased to hear that the legislature has taken some actions to tighten the laws around racism and transphobic anything really inequitable towards anyone of any type of minority and I would support more limits where it makes sense again, I do see that racism is a problem in Vermont and I do see that systemic racism exists within our government and I think that this is an area where government can really lead by example I feel that the schools could do better again, I think with systemic racism our government is a bad example we really lack people of minorities all sorts of minorities at all levels in government I'm not talking about elected but I'd be government staff, government employees aren't necessarily representative of the community the schools especially need to do that, so that's an area where the teachers unions are at fault I don't feel that they really accurately represent the population I also think that bullying that goes on at the school level is something that can be corrected and again an opportunity where government can lead by example schools and elsewhere Thank you Paul First off I'd like to say I'm first of all very proud to be from a state where I think overall people are pretty open-minded when it comes to things like race, gender, sexual orientation but I'm not going to pretend that I don't know about some racism or prejudice that exists towards all types of people all types of minorities and I think that's truly upsetting but I would also add that my generation I think overall is pretty open to this stuff too I think that you're not seeing in my generation as much racism or discrimination towards people of different sexual orientation race, gender again and I also appreciate Andrew's input because I don't know much about what's been done in legislature and I think anything going forward where I can help support a fellow human being in their experience in this crazy thing called life doesn't matter how they identify themselves I think it's very important that we take a look especially in a state that is overwhelmingly white that we take a look at how we can help people of color people that are in minority classes what have you I think I'm definitely somebody who is open and willing thank you Paul Ian Watson answer the question pretty directly I would certainly be interested in looking at strengthening Vermont's bias and hate crime laws but I guess I would also in addition to that point at three other things that I think are worth examining because beyond just punishing something it's important to do the work to try to help people understand their own implicit biases and that takes intention and time and digging and so I would love to see the state support implicit bias training across a variety of sectors I would like to see us support positively the teaching of actual history in classrooms making sure that we are teaching everything that it was truly a part of history even if it is embarrassing for white people that is something that we need to be honest about and learn from and then the last thing I would suggest is I think we need to be intentional about examining the systems that our governments had and what we've done in Montpelier is had an equity assessment done and I think that could be beneficial at the state level because our systems really were built for and by wealthy straight white people and actually mostly men I'll throw that in there as well so thank you thank you thanks Anne and Anne Cummings we've done a lot with the law and we have done as much as we can at this point the law tells you what you can't do but what we're really talking about and you're bringing up all my old sociology training is prejudice and bias and how people feel about people who are different than they are the law can tell you how you can act on those feelings but what we're really talking about is how do you change those feelings you know how do you make people understand that the people that don't look like you really are something like you but you know but they also have a different culture and maybe different traditions and to learn to respect those and I think that's where the challenge is I think we can start in the schools but I think you're going to find that the kids yelling epithets at ball games are hearing those words at home how how do you get that kind of a discussion and it takes some courage for the people that are being victimized and to speak out to their classmates or to their fellow citizens about how that works I think that's the really big challenge for us it's not the law it's really how we feel about each other okay thank you Ian for the next question the order will be Paul Anne Cummings, Dexter Andrew and Anne Watson and the question is about the labor shortage the governor and many others frequently said that we need to attract new families and workers to Vermont and do a better job of keeping our own young people here what can the legislature do to attract and keep workers in Vermont Paul you get to start so first off I'd like to point out once again we obviously have a workforce crisis 20,000 jobs workforce participation that's different than unemployment so 20,000 people who are not participating in the workforce less than numbers previous to actually I think it was even before COVID if I'm not mistaken I think what we have to do is we have to get together with where are jobs needed the most right and where I'm hearing from people is there's a lack of tradesmen I don't know if you've tried to get a plumber or an electrician to your house but it sometimes takes a while and I think this comes back to workforce development what are we doing with our youth are we setting them up for success are we setting them up with the skills that they need to be able to stay in this state and take a job whether it's working as busing tables or if you're working as an electrician or if you're working at a ski area for example I think the skills that they need to not only work that job but be able to take the income that they have afford to live here and essentially set themselves up with a life here and I can tell you from experience it's very difficult to do that right now especially as a young person and I think when we look at workforce development we need to think about our youth and solving this workforce crisis by attracting people to also come with these types of skills and I see that at run out of time but I can talk about this all day thank you Paul Ian Cummings point out three of my four children did stay in Vermont and they went to school here because they liked the lifestyle and the fourth would come back if he could make as much money as he makes in Montreal you know I won't even have this discussion about do rich people or kids leave the state for what reasons because some people leave maybe for jobs I know others leave because they would like to see a big city we're a small rural state that how are you going to keep them on the farm after they've seen Paris is a real thing the question is do they go out for a few years and then come back when they're ready to settle down so we need to keep Vermont as a desirable place I think we need to do a better job of marketing Vermont as a desirable place we need to work with our business community to make sure that they make enough profit in order to be able to afford to pay the wages and the benefits that we would like them to pay I think we need again to say okay how do we solve the problem how do we solve it how do we all come together you leave the pat political decisions outside the door and we sit down and we say alright this is it how do we reach that young that portion of young people that are just outside the workforce they just don't work how do we get to them thank you Ann just characterize things very much the same way I do I think that maybe where I have a different approach is in the solution you know historically now for the last 20 plus years we've tried to solve our problems by throwing money at it and that just doesn't work money spending at state level taxing and trying to solve these problems with more spending is driving up the cost of living and affordability is definitely part of the reason that keeps young people out here she's correct and I agree that many people leave Vermont for the city because that's where they want to live and the first to say that Vermont is not right for everyone Vermont is right for me I'm into it deep deep deep and I love it here I can't wait for winter I'm one of those nuts but anyway again I think it's affordability especially you know I think the demographic problem that we have around jobs is really going to be solved with young people we've already got the like Paul said the average age of a construction worker is 54 years old we're not going to bring that down with old people so we need to find a way to attract young people and to keep our young people that want to stay here and realizing that Vermont is not right for everyone but it is that we do have a lifestyle here that's really awesome so marketing that and making it apparent to others is a good way to attract people as well Thank you Dexter Andrew I think it's important just to say something about the question I agree that the workforce situation is a crisis and we have a huge problem with all of our employees finding the workers that they want to find but I don't think it's because youth people are leaving the state the question is like how do we keep workers here I think it's kind of a myth that a lot of young people leave the state a lot of young people do leave the state but a lot of young people leave all the states like if you go to New Hampshire, Maine, New England other states people leave other states it's just something that a lot of young people want to do want to try things do we have a lot of young people that move back to Vermont and so the statistics that I have seen do not show the focus on the wrong solution like trying to keep them here really isn't I think but I agree with what other people said is like how do we encourage them when they do come back or if they decide not to leave find a meaningful career and I agree with Paul that the trades is a great place to expand the workforce not just the traditional trades the construction workers the plumbers and electricians that we need but the digital entrepreneurs and other artistic trades that we could have people go into I think our trade schools are under appreciated and under funded and we could do a lot more to bring more people into those schools and support them but like Paul I could say more but I ran out of time thank you Andrew and Watson yeah thank you so I've got three solutions that I would love to talk about one is child care so just knocking on doors talking to folks about issues on their mind is not uncommon to hear that people are spending twenty to forty thousand dollars on on child care especially if they have multiple children that is a tough burden for anybody and at that scale families are having to have really hard conversations about is it worth it to put a kid in child care or to stay home so where are the workers at least some of them are home taking care of their kids and so I think having a universal pre-k having more high quality affordable child care accessible just across Vermont would be beneficial in bringing back some folks to the workforce second thing we used to have a program maybe we still do I'm not sure about paying folks to move to Vermont I think if we can pay people to move here then I think we can also afford to look at paying to keep people here and one of the forms I'd like us to look at is in the form of debt relief so certainly students leave the state and then come back I was one of those as well and so but being able to provide debt relief is would be I think really attractive to a lot of graduates and the third thing which I am out of time for I will just say Woodstock has an interesting model around potentially looking at housing trusts okay thank you Anne for the next question the order will be Dexter Anne Watson Andrew Anne Cummings and Paul and this question is about climate change as early as the 1970s scientists began warning us that human behaviors were significantly changing the climate with each decade the evidence has gotten stronger and the effects have gotten worse while this is a global problem Vermont and Vermonters contribute to it do you believe Vermont should take additional steps to limit carbon emissions and Dexter you get to go first so the simple short answer is yes I think Vermont should take simple steps and a word that I've used over and over tonight is sensible I think with energy policy that's driven to combat climate change I think that our policies could be more sensible I'm going to bring back the example of efficiency Vermont where we tax all people 6% of their electrical consumption and then take that money and offer it in rebates it also goes to weatherization which is a great cause but basically it takes it's a regressive tax and it takes the money from the people who can afford it the least and gives it to the people who need it the least so we're putting solar panels on wealthy people's houses at the expense of low-income people and that's just not sensible policy but again I mentioned earlier that there are areas where the state can lead by example and I think that this is a good place for the state to lead by example we can take action in state buildings we can educate Vermonters across different sectors about things they can do to change to combat climate change and we can be informative to encourage people to do the right thing most people do want to do the right thing if they can afford it but most of our policies to date are contributing significantly to the affordability here okay thank you Dexter Anne Watson yeah thank you I have a lot of thoughts about this so one of the things that I've been talking a lot about during this campaign is something called the split incentive where renters who are paying for heat paying high prices for oil because they have their landlords have no financial incentive to make energy improvements to the home so with a system that is broken like that I see an opportunity for the government to step in and I would love to see us be able to craft a program for landlords to be able to transition off of fossil fuels and their homes without ideally jacking up the rents so that's going to take some government intervention and I think that will be really important for our renting community which by the way at least in Montpelier is something like 40% of the housing units on other topics there there's I would love to see us have more electric vehicles and charging stations I'm really excited about the federal money that is coming our direction for that would love to see us adopt the clean cars and trucks to initiative that's coming out of California I think we're on track hopefully to do that and one of the reasons that's important is because of storage if we're going to have more solar and wind we need to be able to store it better and so in order to make it equitable it's actually very useful to have that in the form of our cars so more I could say on that but I'll leave it there okay thank you Andrew I've been working on this issue basically my whole professional career in Vermont and that's what I do in my day job as the director of the clean energy development fund and I think it's important for me that we focus on the economics of the issue focusing on the greenhouse gases is important but I think sometimes where we focus too much on the metric tons of carbon and we kind of forget some of the economics as Dexter said like affordability the transition to a clean energy economy has to be affordable and adjust transition but I think that's totally doable I think we also spend a lot of time talking about electricity but from our carbon perspective and energy perspective although it'll grow it's not where our problem lies where we have the biggest problem and the most opportunities is in our thermal or heating our buildings in our homes and in transportation and I'm particularly interested in how we heat and unfortunately we'll be cooling our homes more and more as it gets warmer air conditioning didn't used to be a thing in Vermont but you see it more and more particularly I have a lot of confidence and hope for advanced wood heating Vermont has a rich history of forest products and I want to keep the forest products industry healthy in the state and we can use the wood from our forest products sector to heat to get rid of fossil fuels for our homes and heat in a way that has low emissions and is much more affordable than importing fossil fuels thank you Andrew Ian Cummings okay the committee that I chair regulates utilities so I've been in the weeds in this for a long time when we started there's a balance going on here right now the viable alternative fuel we have is electricity when we started this when I was a freshman not a veteran Vermont had the highest electric rates in the country and in New England and New England has the highest electric rates in the country mostly because we didn't have a whole lot of coal we are now the lowest and a lot of that is efficiency Vermont we get forget the exact name but we get credit and therefore money from the grid because we have cut the need to develop future generation plants because we're using less we're using that money to rise and to help other people I think we're all suddenly focused and we all want to do something here in Vermont to solve what is a global issue and I think and we have limited resources I think we might do better if we kind of focus that and said you know folks that gotta drive home in mud season out of dirt road might not be able to afford an electric up truck so maybe we could focus on the areas the more urban areas that have paved roads and work just keep working through those more concentrated then move out. Thank you Ann and Paul. I think we have to take action to mitigate climate change and there is certainly climate phenomena taking place that is causing so much of our natural disasters for example rain amounts there's certainly been an increase of precipitation within the past few years I think that's something we need to take very seriously should we limit emissions absolutely I think if we're going to be heading further into the future it's obvious to me that electric vehicles are a way that we can do that I think it's awesome that the state of Vermont it produces 100% renewable electricity I think that's something to really be proud of but I think ultimately we have to make sure that when we're plugging in our electric vehicles that we're plugging our electric vehicles into renewable energy sources and we're buying electricity from out of state it's not always renewable electricity because yes the state of Vermont it's 100% of what we produce is renewable but our usage a lot of it comes from out of state and it's not renewable when it comes to renewable energy we have to increase our electrical capacity we need the workforce to increase our electrical capacity right now we don't have that and if we're going to do that it comes back to workforce development it also comes back to environmental stewardship so how can we build our economy going forward and increase our electrical capacity and go the direction that we need to do to create electrical excuse me create electrical infrastructure combined with the needed workforce to get us there so thank you. Thank you Paul for the next question the order will be Anne Watson, Andrew, Anne Cummings Paul and Dexter and this is about education funding and at 46 again context and then the question getting education funding right has been an ongoing topic since before any of us here were born so has been keeping education costs down in recent decades we have also tried to equalize educational opportunities so students in less affluent communities can have schooling experiences on par with those in wealthier communities we love our local often small schools but they can be expensive to run has among the highest per capita education costs in the nation Act 46 tried to encourage in our coordinated approach that would increase efficiencies it was one of the goals so the question do we need to change Act 46 or anything else about the way we fund or manage education for our young Vermonters and Anne you get to go first yeah sure thank you so Act 46 I think was pretty problematic for a lot of communities I understand the problem and the reason why it was appealing it seemed like a good idea I agree that our education funding is very expensive but I think that there are potentially other solutions so I think the idea of forcing school districts to merge that was pretty tough and I would actually like to see that there might be a pathway for districts that merge that maybe it was actually logical for them to merge a pathway for them to unmerge if that seems fit to both communities so that's one thing and then in terms of an alternative because our small schools are expensive to fund I would love to see us explore the possibility of income-based funding instead of property tax-based funding to support our education system and I know that that would be a major overhaul but I think it warrants examination and I think has a lot of potential so yeah thank you thank you again Andrew thanks I've been in the last four years been on the education committee and got a lot of education I still can't explain the education funding formula but even folks that have been chair of the education committees can't explain it so it's one of the things I would like to do is figure out how to make it a little simpler because I like a lot of Vermonters I like our small local schools and I like that we have local votes and local control over the schools but I understand the difficulties that makes when you're trying to control spending we passed bills last year that did find a way to lay that away for schools to separate if they want to because when act was written it didn't really explain exactly how that goes and that hasn't gone well we also set up a committee to look at the income-based funding both center Cummings and I are on that summer committee all this turning into a fall committee we're doing just from now till the next session studying how we could move more towards income or totally to an income-based education fund instead of a property tax we already have income sensitivity to the property tax but this would make it even more so and more equitable last year we did the pupil waiting that is going to make it more equitable statewide and we've done like you said we've tried many things over the years to keep tinkering with it I think some of the folks including the teachers and schools they like just take a break quit changing things every year but one specific thing I think we can do to help a little bit is spend the excess spending threshold that schools is one of the ways that we could govern too much spending at the local level but we suspended that for a couple years because of some of the act 46 things so we should make sure that that gets back in place thank you Andrew and Cummings I'm going to have to plead guilty I chaired education when we did act 46 finance is I deep in one of our areas is the education fund and the property tax and I am co-chairing the committee that is looking into going more to to income I think what we're seeing in Vermont is that we have a tradition of small very small local schools we like our local schools we like our local school boards having control over them but we had a situation where those small local schools frequently in poor communities could not afford to give their children an adequate education we have some real problems in just the conditions of school buildings because communities are poor and act 60 has done what it was most do a penny on the tax rate raises the same amount in every town but we do still have a question as to how do we adequately fund those how do we protect you know what we like but at the same time provide the education that students need to survive in the 21st century I mean you got to have computers you should all have classes in robotics you know if you don't know what's out there for jobs how do we get you there and I think we should alter any law that as we get experience dealing with it Thank you Ann Paul So having not been too far removed from the school systems in the state of Vermont I could just tell you a little bit about my experience with this I remember when I was going through middle school I had some friends who decided going into high school you know I'm actually going to school choice elsewhere I'm going to go to U32 or I'm going to go to Spaulding or even down to Randolph at the tech center and then as we got further into my high school experience the sports teams unified for Williamstown and Northfield which was awful it wasn't actually but it was kind of a rivalry we were thinking well where is this going is this going to be continue to be a theme and then the districts merged and then you know I remember while I was in school we I remember asking teachers a friend of mine specifically asked a teacher you know if we're going to merge these two districts does that not mean that we're going to have half the amount of teachers half the amount of people working in the schools and still the same amount of students to take care of and I guess where I'm going with this is I think we need to look at what has been done in the past and I think sure you know maybe it's a little bit romantic but I love the idea of especially in the elementary schools these small little schoolhouses and publicly funded you know and you have small community schools cooperative people families going to school together and then as we get further heading into high school you do have the opportunity to send students to schools like Spaulding and Randolph and U32 where there are more options you know Northfield as you may know it was not exactly full of vibrant extracurricular activities from sports to some of the classes that were taught and more of them were slashed and cut away as I got further into high school and I think that was problematic and even now they're still cutting so that would be my take on that. Okay thank you Paul and Dexter Yeah so the focus of the question was on funding and there are some issues I think with the current funding program I think in a lot of ways it is an income tax that's disguised as as a property tax because of the income sensitivity at lower income levels right until you reach 100 or 150 thousand dollars a year family income you only have to pay 10% max of property tax so I think it's partly already an income tax but disguised as something else but I think the real issue is funding and I like what Paul mentioned about the and what you mentioned as well about the feel good aspects of the small school house and I think that Vermont needs to reinvent the education system I think the most sacred connection in school is that between a teacher and a student and as much as the decisions can be made about how to proceed are made at that level the better off we will be 250 years of centralization and in the last few years centralization on steroids has hurt the education system it sort of breeds the bullying and the bad experiences that minorities feel in these large institutions and I think if it just went backwards to smaller schools community based one teacher one room school houses I think you get a great educational experience home schooling is putting out some awesome children and all that should be embraced there's no one size fits all for education and the system needs to be more flexible Thank you Dexter this has been the hardest question for me to not jump in on having worked in Vermont schools for over 30 years and while I was at U32 as an English teacher then as assistant principal had two of Dexter's children two different experiences and then later on when I was principal at Norfield High School Paul was in the middle school so that's and in another district I worked down school mergers so it's all wonderful very interesting and challenging stuff it's really wonderful so we have time for one more question then closing statements so what we're going to do now is some of you have regularly run over a little bit and some others have always been under so we're going to even it out we'll skip one no we won't skip anyway but everybody will be really good we're short on time now the last question is about federal COVID money so as quickly as you can and then we'll get to closing statements during the COVID pandemic Vermont has received much more federal money than usual it is a temporary influx of cash how will Vermont adjust when those extra federal dollars dry up and it can be Anne Cummings, Paul, Anne Watson Dexter, and Andrew so Anne Cummings first I chaired the joint fiscal committee which has to approve all grants and that federal money was a grant so we set it up so that there were emergency funds immediately available and then a second tranche we had to get permission but the bulk of that money went through the regular budgeting process some of it's not being used and coming back so it'll work its way through we have tried and I think fairly successfully not to put that money into ongoing expenses we've tried it's one-time money we tried to do it as one-time expense we put money aside for PCB cleanup in the schools because we had a surplus in the ed fund due to federal money that's not we don't have enough to clean it all up we don't think but it's a nest egg it's something that's there I think the big challenge will be getting the interest groups in the public to kind of focus back that we are not we're not going to have that kind of influx going on going back to what we fondly call the alligator which is our expenses just slightly exceed our income and that's not if we have a recession so that's going to be the big challenge thank you Ann Paul I think when it comes to COVID money and the money that has been brought into the state of Vermont it's incredibly important that we are spending that money on things that are going to last for our projects especially with climate change we need to think about wastewater systems drainage systems I think we need to spend money on our electrical capacity our ability to produce electricity and I think if we're going to first I would like to also just shout out to our great legislators down in Washington D.C. Peer Welch Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy for doing such a great job but that is how I think our money is best spent thank you Paul Ian Watson thank you I would say that as much as we can within the boundaries the strings attached to that money I would like to see us set ourselves up to be able to save ourselves money in the future as well as invest in opportunities that Vermont is going to reap rewards from on into the future that is things like again setting up child care folks may not think of child care as infrastructure but I think it absolutely is but beyond that once the money has run out really it's a question of where are we getting our tax dollars from and so I would like to point out that I think we ought to bring back the fifth tax bracket to tax the wealthiest Vermonters at a higher rate they can afford it and similarly as I mentioned previously I would love to see us be able to tax second homes and mansions at a different rate at a higher rate so that again we have enough money to fund the projects and needs of our everyday systems okay thank you Ian Dexter I want to first commend Phil Scott really for the budgeting process and the legislature I think they've done a good job in trying to use the ARPA funds wisely one time expenditures and not setting ourselves up for budget failures in the future hopefully when the funds dry up that is indeed the case I really think that the effort to fund broadband to all corners of the state is really a wonderful thing I think that will go a long ways to building the economy making Vermont more affordable from the standpoint of allowing people to work from home perhaps at a higher income rate and without the cost of transportation that will also have the benefit of helping the climate so I think that broadband investment is really really a critical thing that being said I have electricity at my farm thanks to the REA which is now probably 80 years old electrical infrastructure and it looks at Washington Co-op has had a hard time keeping up with its infrastructure I have a condemned poll that my transformer sits on so that creates some interesting hurdles so we do end up with infrastructure that is difficult to afford so we need to I think the state can take a lead in educating working with communities and utilities to help ensure that we've got infrastructure that lasts Thank you Dexter and Andrew I think we did a good job addressing the immediate COVID needs of those that had lost their jobs and couldn't pay rent, couldn't pay their electric bill and that was essential to fix that economic harm but as other people have said what I think the legislature and the governor did was focus on those one time expenditures that build the infrastructure that will make it more affordable in the future one thing that I'm working on in my job the state is using COVID money or ARPA money to improve schools ventilation systems and their heating systems and their efficiency of their HVAC systems because HVAC is tied to ventilation it was eligible for COVID money but we can do a lot within the whole HVAC system that's eligible that's going to make it not only better for the students and the teachers that are working in those buildings but cheaper to run and I think that's an example of how we're using this money to make our lives better but also will help us in the future to make it cheaper, more economical. Thank you Andrew. So in a moment we'll get to closing statements there'll be one minute on those and the order will be Andrew, Dexter, Paul Anne Watson and Anne Cummings and the wonderful folks here at ORCA have suggested if you would like to address the audience here speak to the camera in the center or you can look at me, whichever you would like to do so that's the camera and Andrew you get to go first. Yeah, well thanks first to ORCA this is really important that these kind of events happen there's not a lot of them so I just thank ORCA for doing it also I want to thank the candidates it's really important that we have candidates there are senate districts in the state that do not have competitive races they're just like the two incumbents or something like that I think it's really a testament to the democracy here in the Washington district that at least all the times that I've been a candidate there's been a strong showing of candidates and I really want to take some time to say that and just thanks to those that have viewed and that are taking this election seriously looking at the candidates I hope you give me one of your three votes I'm very eager to continue to serve the district for another two years and I look forward to communicating with voters in any which way you want to communicate whether that be text or phone or social media or email or walking down the driveway and having a discussion and I hope to do more of that in the next two years thank you Andrew Dexter thank you I want to thank ORCA and the bridge for sponsoring this event and all the candidates for coming out I want to thank everyone who's watching this video either live or later thank you for your interest I really encourage voters to get informed you can get more information about my position on all these issues I got a video probably on each of them already at Dexter4VT.com I did want to focus a little bit on reaching out to the people of the district I'm in the process of visiting each select board and city council in the district I've got nine more to go out of 23 and it's been it's been fun a little bit of a road trip now and then but I appreciate getting out and trying to reach people I've been to Braintree I've even been to Braintree and I got a warm response there Stowe I keep missing they list their meetings as Monday night but they actually meet on Tuesday so that's been a challenge but I thank again everybody who's been involved in this for participating and ask you to make informed decisions do the research and vote your will thank you thank you Dexter Paul certainly just want to thank everyone for having me thank you Orchimedia thank the candidates so I think we talked about a little bit earlier that maybe it's not so true that some of our biggest issues in the state is our demographic issues particularly when it comes to young people but I can tell you anecdotally that we need more young people here I can also tell you with statistics that we need more young people here there's recently a article that came out in a post talking about brain drain and how Vermont actually exports the most amount of college graduates more than any other state in the country and we're talking about people that we've attracted to the state and now we are losing them to opportunities elsewhere around the country I think it's really important that we set our youth up in the state for successful life here I think that we need to teach people how to immerse themselves within their home base and they launch pad and also how can we get people in this state to interact with the entire world and compete at a global level and I think that I'm running for office because I want to represent Washington County and I want to represent all of Washington County and we can't continue to elect only Democrats and progressives if we are to do that so I hope that you'll give me one of your votes possibly Dexter one of your votes and that would be wonderful so thank you very very much thank you Paul Ian Watson yeah thank you I also want to thank the bridge in Orca media for hosting this and thank you Tom for mediating thank you also all to all the candidates and I just want to as a part of my closing statements here just recognize that one of the issues that has come up a lot in conversation that we hadn't chatted about tonight was healthcare and so I just want to recognize that our healthcare system is in many ways and particularly folks access to vision dental hearing and mental health so that's also something that I'm really looking forward to advocating for and working on as a state senator as the mayor of Montpelier I've got a lot of experience helping to craft policy and while we've been able to make a lot of progress with the city of Montpelier if we're going to make a bigger change I need a different seat so I'm looking forward to working on all of these issues at the state level and if folks are interested my website is an Watson for vtsennet.com and I hope that I have one of your three votes thank you so much thank you Ian and we haven't even gotten halfway through the questions we have listed we got lots of suggestions from people we consolidated suggestions and did the best we could and there's still a lot of important issues so thank you for raising that so Ian Cummings okay thank you and thank you to Orca and to the bridge it is important that people get to see the candidates and see and hear different views everything else we send out we write it might be a little biased this lets you see us in person and actually see our faces and hear our voices and that's important I think you've heard tonight that there are really challenging issues we didn't get to half of them they are challenging and they do require that we work and we work together I have over 20 years of knowledge and experience I would like to bring that back to help us work on these problems and help us find the solutions that work for everyone and a lot of them is how do we pay for the things we know we need and would like and as chair of the tax committee I get to deal with that a lot thank you Ian so thank you again to all of our candidates Paul Bean and next to the favor Ian Watson, Ian Cummings and Andrew Perchlick and thank you for joining us this evening by now you should have received your mail in ballot or your ballot in the mail actually you don't have to mail it back you can deliver it if you haven't you should contact your city or town clerk to find out why the best thing you can do to protect democracy is to vote and we encourage you to do so good night