In the comments section of the Exit Voices posts, answer these two questions:
1. What motivates you to go to your town meeting or polling station and vote?
2. If you could add a comment on your Ballot for your elected officials to read, what would you say?
Alternately, tell us what you said at your Town Meeting, why you refused to vote, or what makes you crazy about our system of democracy.
You may comment anonymously or give your name. You can wear your politics on your sleeve or remain impartial.
The floor is yours.
History…
In November of 2006, Vermont Community Access Media and the CCTV Center for Media and Democracy joined forces to create an online public forum where Vermonters could discuss the issues and candidates on the ballot in that election cycle. The result was Exit Voices, a moderated community blog specifically designed to be a sounding board for voters who had more to say than just speaking with their votes. The blog featured posts by prominent Vermont bloggers, video interviews with voters exiting their polling places and comments by anyone who cared to participate.
For Town Meeting Day 2007, Exit Voices expanded its geographic scope and featured guest posts from bloggers in the Northeast Kingdom, southern Vermont and central Vermont as well. Despite being a relatively quiet election (no major statewide or national candidates running), the Exit Voices blog was quite active, with dozens of commenters participating in the discussions from all over Vermont.
March 4, 2008 is likely to be a big day in Vermont. Along with the usual excitement of Town Meeting Day, it’s the Vermont presidential primary as well. With the looming possibility of a brokered Democratic convention, Vermont’s 15 delegates could actually make a difference in helping to pick the Democratic nominee. Voter turnout is likely to be higher than average and hopefully that excitement will spill over to the Exit Voices blog.
On the evening of the 4th, CCTV (Comcast and Burlington Telecom channel 17 in the greater Burlington area) will include comments and video posts from the blog in its live election night coverage. CCTV’s coverage will also be streamed live online at cctv.org.