Header image of people raising their hands at a town meeting.

Belvidere

Belvidere is a town in Lamoille County, Vermont that boasts a population of 348 people. Based on data collected by an inter-collegial team of students, here are our findings regarding its Town Meeting process. 

2018 Town Meeting 

Summary of Findings

In Belvidere the meeting mostly covered the usual financial and electoral issues. The issue that took up the most time was whether or not the town should install a light fixture at the town gravel pit. Since Belvidere is such a small community, people were more likely to participate at the meeting as they mostly knew each other. As well, more women attended and participated than men (attendance: 54%, participation 57%). These factors have led to Belvidere achieving the highest “Real Democracy Score” both overall in the long term data for the 1980 meeting in Dr. Bryan’s database, in the data we collected in 2018. They also had the highest participation rate of the 35 towns we collected data on this year (71.79%, just barely below the 72.1% in the 1980 town meeting).

Major Data Points

Year Peak Attendance Attendance Rate* Participation Rate Real Democracy Score** Population Meeting Duration
2018 39 16.67% 71.79% 88.46 348 2:23
2010 45 23.44% 55.56% 88.91 192 3:36
2006 36 17.31% 58.33% 99.26 208 1:51
2003 40 22.10% 82.50% 96.64 181 4:08
2002 75 41.90% 33.33% 78.00 179 3:41
2000 64 36.99% 45.31% 109.85 173 6:02
1999 38 21.97% 73.68% 99.47 173 5:07
1998 55 32.54% 56.36% 89.39 169 3:54
1995 42 25.45% 73.81% 103.82 165 2:28
1994 39 24.84% 71.79% 111.33 157 3:46
1991 55 36.18% 41.82% 97.78 152 5:55
1990 47 31.13% 78.72% 115.07 151 4:07
1987 35 25.18% 74.29% 113.71 139 6:05
1986 30 22.73% 66.67% 121.94 132 3:27
1984 33 22.00% 81.82% 127.74 150 3:02
1983 50 33.33% 78.00% 88.91 150 3:17
1982 35 23.49% 74.29% 99.26 149 4:15
1981 64 44.76% 70.31% 96.64 96.64 4:10
1980 61 44.85% 68.85% 78.00 136 3:15
1978 45 37.50% 84.44% 109.85 120 4:48
1974 40 37.74% 90.00% 99.47 106 5:55

*Attendance Rates are calculated using the number of registered voters and peak attendance numbers.

**Real Democracy scores are calculated using attendance and participation numbers. For more infomation on them see the Data Overview Page 

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For more information contact:

Richard Watts, Director of the Center for Research on Vermont

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