“I think before we proceed, we need to have some confidence that the runway is not a very long runway, but a runway that actually is a genuine question that people should put thought to and make a decision,”

— Councilor Mike Scanlan

(from the Mat 22, 2025 The Other Paper article “South Burlington city hits pause on voting for all residents”)

All resident voting would allow all the city’s legal residents, including those who are noncitizens, to vote in local elections and other supplementary school or city votes. The idea was first brought to the city council by the city’s Democratic committee last September with the hopes of having it placed on this year’s Town Meeting Day ballot. Since this would require a charter change, the city must bring the question to the voters for approval.

While the committee at the time said it needed more time to study the issue, its final report recommended against moving forward at this time.

Even the charter committee’s own members were split 4-3 on the decision. Committee members opposed to the expansion said, given the tense political climate, enabling people to put their names on a public list of legal non-citizens could make those people targets of federal retaliation, they said.

Read the entire article here.