2023 Upcoming Elections

Since we shared our response to a recent opinion piece, we've received a lot of interest in Stand Up for Norwich and the Selectboard seats up for election this coming March. We started Stand Up for Norwich in 2022 to address the collapse of our police and DPW departments. Our goal was to bring attention to the actions of the Selectboard. In the process, we found ourselves in a unique position to help fix the lack of civil discourse that has led us to the current crisis in town.

For some time now, it’s been thought that the only way to get anything done in Norwich is to run for office and push your agenda. The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t address the core issue behind our dysfunctional government: an environment that drives away those who support common-sense solutions and healthy civil discourse. When voters are disengaged from representative democracy, those in positions of power are free to impose agendas that do not reflect what a majority of us support.

Stand Up for Norwich is a non-partisan community group that has attracted residents with a wide range of views. We encourage this diversity of opinions and are committed to creating an environment where our neighbors feel safe voicing their views. We welcome and encourage everyone to join this discourse. Since its founding, Stand Up for Norwich has hosted meetings and social gatherings open to the entire Norwich community.

Over the past few weeks, folks across town have encouraged us to run for two of the open Selectboard seats in the upcoming elections. We believe our mission, creating an environment in which neighbors can have productive conversations and find common ground about how to tackle different issues, is the most valuable service we can give our beloved town. For that reason, we are not planning to run. If we were elected to the Selectboard, we would be unable to continue our advocacy through Stand Up for Norwich. Our roles would quickly alienate us from those who may not agree with us on a wide range of issues not related to public safety and community services. Those issues cannot be addressed until we create a safe environment in which they can be debated.

Our promise to you is this: if you believe in our core mission of restoring public safety and community services, while strengthening civil discourse and representative democracy, you can count on our support.

Below you’ll find the list of town offices that will be voted on in March. We encourage anyone who is interested in volunteering their time to speak with people who are currently holding these positions, with our Town Clerk Bonnie, or with any of us at SUFN.