Abstract
Over one million people in New England live in communities with representative town meeting governments. Like open town meeting, all residents can participate in debate at representative town meetings, but only elected representatives may vote. Past research suggests these communities moved from open to representative town meeting because they believed it would make more informed decisions and better represent the general public. These qualities assume voters in these elections are more informed and more representative. This study examines these assumptions using data from an exit poll in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Our findings suggest there may be a tension between the representativeness of the town meeting electorate and its level of information. Voters are fairly well informed and connected to town politics, but they do not appear to be representative of the town population. These findings raise important questions about the quality of representation in representative town meeting communities in New England.