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Sudbury will have two town meetings this May: Annual Town Meeting that begins May 4 and a Special Town Meeting, called in response to a citizen’s petition, on May 20. When Sudbury’s Annual Town Meeting begins Monday, May 4, at 7 p.m. in the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School auditorium, here’s how it will work.
Only Sudbury registered voters are eligible to vote at town meeting. The deadline to register to vote for the May 4 Annual Town Meeting is Friday, April 24. Check your voter registration status or register to vote here.
You must be present at town meeting to vote. There is no remote or absentee voting. The Town website notes that: “Absentee voting is possible during elections, which use ballots as the voting mechanism. There are no ballots at a Town Meeting as Motions are made on the floor of Town Meeting and may differ from the Article presented in the warrant. Thus, Town Meeting votes must be taken in person.”
The high school is at 390 Lincoln Rd. To get to the auditorium, park in the lot east of the school and follow the walkway down the small hill. Enter the building through the doors directly in front of you.
Voter check-in is in the hallway as you enter the building. Votes are taken at town meeting using an electronic handheld clicker. You must check in to receive the clicker that will allow your vote to be recorded.
The clicker has two buttons: one for a “yes” vote and one for a “no” vote. All votes taken at town meeting will be “yes” or “no” votes in favor of or against the approval of each article.
Check-in staff can demonstrate how to use the clicker, and the moderator will review the voting procedures and offer a practice question with the clicker prior to the start of article voting. You can find additional information about the clickers on page xi of the town meeting warrant.
Every household in Sudbury should have received a paper copy of the Annual Town Meeting Warrant by U. S. mail, and a digital copy is available here. The moderator will follow the order of the warrant. Each article will be debated and voted on in turn, with the exception of articles on the consent calendar. The articles on the consent calendar are ones “that appear to raise no controversy,” according to the warrant. Articles on the consent calendar, found on page x of the warrant, will be voted on as a group as the first order of business, without debate. Any article may be removed from the consent calendar at the request of at least seven voters.
Among the issues that will be decided at town meeting are town and school budgets, creation of a vocational education stabilization fund, transportation programs funding, hiring a consultant for Sewataro planning, amending the Lincoln-Sudbury high school regional agreement, rail trail parking, and installation of solar canopies in parking lots at Curtis Middle School, Haskell Field and the police station.
The Annual Town Meeting will be broadcast live on SudburyTV. The internet livestream can be viewed on a computer, smartphone, or other device at sudburytv.org. A cable subscription is not needed to view the livestream. Cable TV subscribers can tune in on Comcast channels 8 and 1074 and Verizon channels 31 and 2130.
Information about accessibility accommodations for Annual Town Meeting can be found on the Town website and on pages v-vi of the warrant.
This year’s Annual Town Meeting begins Monday, May 4, at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, 390 Lincoln Rd., and is expected to run to at least 10:30 p.m. Town meeting is likely to continue Tuesday, May 5, and may continue Wednesday, May 6, and Monday, May 11, if necessary. Basic information about Annual Town Meeting is available on pages vii-ix of the warrant. You can learn more about town meetings in the Citizen’s Guide to Town Meeting and here.
The warrant for the May 20 Special Town Meeting is not yet available. The May 20 Special Town Meeting will start at 7 p.m. in the gymnasium of Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School. Additional information on that meeting will be posted on the town website when it is available.
