Vermont Town Meeting Day, 2013, Pic #1

Today is Town Meeting Day in Vermont, but Bristol holds their Town Meeting the night before, so this is a picture taken last night in Holley Hall. Voting is today.
It's a day when citizens in each town in Vermont turn out to make their opinions heard - on everything from the road budget, to property taxes, to (sometimes) international topics.
It can get VERY contentious!
Probably one of my favorite votes was when Brattleboro and some of the surrounding towns in southern Vermont voted "yes" on a resolution to declare George W. Bush a war criminal, and to arrest him for war crimes if he crossed the Vermont border.
It's often more mundane than that, though.
This year there is a lot of controversy and bad feeling over two main issues in Bristol - although the dialogue was mostly respectful - we have a very good town moderator.
One, is a bond vote for a new firehouse. (It's complicated.)
Two, there is a lot of strong feeling about a selectboard race between two candidates.
Democracy in action!