GUILFORD, CT — Guilford voters approved the town charter revision on Tuesday's ballot, 5,680 to 3,627, by the Guilford Democratic Town Committee's unofficial count, which Patch reported Wednesday. The committee said those figures did not include absentee ballots.
The single question carried six changes, which the Board of Selectmen sent to voters 4-1 at a special meeting in August:
- A candidate who loses the race for first selectman no longer gets a board seat through those votes.
- Each voter may now pick as many board candidates as there are open seats.
- On the Board of Finance and the Board of Education, a party may nominate up to the number of members the charter's minority representation rules let it elect.
- The Annual Budget Meeting turns into a briefing: residents can comment but can no longer vote to trim the budget before the referendum.
- The charter spells out more clearly what a Town Meeting is.
- The Board of Selectmen is renamed the Select Board, and the First Selectman the First Selectperson.
The Post's October preview covers the debate over the changes at Town Hall.
Legislative and Local Races
Patch's Guilford totals come from the secretary of the state's preliminary figures and count Guilford voters only. The numbers below add each candidate's party lines together.