Amherst, Mass., Residents Vote To End Town Meeting Governance

New England Public Media | By Jill Kaufman

Published March 28, 2018 at 12:44 PM EDT

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At town hall in Amherst, Mass., elections officials says the unofficial result is that a measure to change how the town is governed was approved Tuesday by voters

John Phelan / Creative Commons / commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/:Faolin42

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Full election results from March 27, 2018 , posted on Town of Amherst webpage.

Town of Amherst, Mass. / https://www.amherstma.gov/650/-and-Past-Election-Information

The majority of residents in Amherst, Massachusetts, voted Tuesday to to put an end to their centuries-old Town Meeting and adopt a new form of government.

The Amherst Town Clerk posted the unofficial election results online from the March 27 Amherst annual election, which included a vote on a new charter.

Results are posted by precinct and town wide.

Defenders of Town Meeting saw it as a necessary bulwark against the corruptive forces of “big money” and pro-development interests.

Before the election, John Fox, a long-time member and er of Town Meeting, said that with 240 elected from 10 different precincts, it had done a good job representing the town. He and others saw what will now be a 13-member town council as "an authoritarian body.”