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RANGELEY — Voters will soon have the opportunity to voice their opinion on the town meeting process through a non-binding straw poll. The poll, seeking input on different formats used for town meetings will be available to voters during the annual town meeting Tuesday, June 10. The Board of Selectmen can take the results into consideration when deciding whether to continue holding town meetings by secret ballot or switch to bifurcated, or two-part, town meetings. Selectmen approved the poll during their meeting Tuesday, April 22.

During the annual town meeting in June 2016, townspeople voted 64-34 to change the voting method from open forum to secret ballot at the polls. The process went into effect for the 2017 town meeting.

Secret ballot town meetings are held at the polls. Individuals can vote in person on the date of the meeting from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. People also have the option of voting by absentee ballot beginning 30 days prior to the town meeting date.

With a bifurcated meeting, secret ballot election of officials is coupled in the same warrant with an open meeting for other business. Election of officials is held on one day with the open meeting portion being held on another day. During the open meeting, articles are able to be debated by attendees and voted on by either show of hand or written ballot from the floor. There is no absentee voting for open meeting articles.

A petition was presented to the board earlier this year asking that the format of town meetings to revert back to open meeting format. The board rejected the petition in March after receiving a legal opinion from PretiFlaherty that stated, “Our opinion is that the Select Board should exercise its discretion to reasonably refuse this petition, because only the Select Board, and not the town meeting, has the authority to determine whether a particular business article is considered by an open meeting or by secret ballot.”

The poll will be available to voters separately from the town meeting ballot, likely as voters exit the polls, Town Manager Joe Roach explained Monday. The poll will also be made available to those voting by absentee ballot.

According to Administrative Assistant Traci Lavoie, an average of 80 voters participated in the annual town meetings between 2005 and 2016. Since 2017, there has been a yearly average of 317 voters casting their ballots at annual town meetings.

Absentee ballots for the annual town meeting are expected to be available starting Monday, May 12.

Dee Menear is an award-winning journalist and photographer with over a decade of experience in community news. She is the editor and staff writer for The Rangeley Highlander. She has worked for the Franklin...