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The town has already collected $4 million of a possible $13 million in extra money hidden from the budget process.
News & Commentary
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Original Reports
A Contrast in Ballots
I took it as evidence that double-checking work is very important when, while creating a sample ballot to hand out at the polls, I marked the circle for the wrong budget at this year's financial town referendum (FTR). I was tired and rushed, and it was natural to fill in the oval directly under Budget #2. Of course, it took only a moment to realize the mistake and correct the error. However, standing outside the high school on Saturday, members of Tiverton Taxpayers Association (TTA) were actually surprised at the number of comments supporters made about how confusing the ballot was. Those comments continued after the results were announced, with people writing by email and Facebook message, even stopping us on the street. As one email put it, "there was an automatic inclination to approve [Budget 2] right after reading Budget 2, but it was really approving Budget 1!" Another supporter told us that she had started to mark the wrong circle and then had to argue with a poll worker to receive a blank ballot in order to correct it. To be clear, while we agree that the ballot was badly designed, we doubt that confusion in filling it out changed the outcome. Out of the 2,770 people who voted on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, 156 would have had to make this error — and not catch themselves — for it to have made the difference; that would have been 6% of voters. Still, it's reasonable to think that the ballots…
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Resources
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Resources
Documents
Links to documents relevant to town government that may or may not be available elsewhere.
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