IRV "might be overkill for Brattleboro," says Town Clerk

Fair Vote tries to spread instant runoff voting to another small town. The Town Clerk Annette Cappy says "It just seems with the expense and the complexity, it might be overkill for Brattleboro,"
Brattleboro should learn from the lessons learned from Aspen,Colorado's May 5 IRV election and Burlington Vermont's pathology ridden IRV Mayoral election.

Public reviews charter changes
By CHRIS GAROFOLO

BRATTLEBORO -- Talk of instant runoff voting dominated the first public meeting of the Brattleboro Town Charter Revision Commission.

In the initial citizens’ forum held Thursday evening, about a dozen residents joined the charter review commission to discuss the pros and cons of having an instant runoff voting (IRV) system in town.

...Most locations with IRV have larger populations, where Brattleboro only has about 9,000 voters and rarely sees numerous candidates for local government positions, said Cappy.

"It just seems with the expense and the complexity, it might be overkill for Brattleboro," she said.

There has been 40 open Selectboard seats in the last 14 years, and only 38 candidates have run. Sixteen ran only once and never again. Five times candidates ran uncontested.

Instant runoff would almost be more than what is needed in town, said Cappy. "I’m not sure this would benefit the voters of Brattleboro."

...Thursday’s meeting was the first in a series of future public meetings the commission will hold to discuss the aforementioned topics.

Chris Garofolo can be reached at cgarofolo@reformer.com or 802-254-2311 ext. 275.

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