Voters in Strafford and Sharon opted to keep the status quo in how they make decisions at Town Meeting.

Strafford voted overwhelmingly to keep voting by Australian ballot, as it has done since last year.

And Sharon residents, who rejected Australian ballot voting last year, voted this year not to move their meeting to the Saturday before Town Meeting Day.

“The vote absolutely affirmed for us that we’re headed in the right direction,” Strafford Selectboard Chairwoman Toni Pippy said Wednesday.

As has been the case since Strafford first started using Australian balloting — in which polls are open for voting for up to 12 hours — nearly half of the town’s 988 registered voters cast ballots on Tuesday. Around 400 people voted against the three articles calling for a return to a traditional floor meeting, where all articles are discussed and voted on in person. Only 100 or so voted in favor.

A fourth article, asking to move the annual meeting to the Saturday before Town Meeting Day, failed by a count of 302-182.

Sharon also opted not to move its floor meeting to Saturday after talking about it at Town Meeting on Tuesday.

“It just reiterates that people are happy with the way things are,” Sharon Selectboard Chairman Kevin Gish said Wednesday.

Data presented Tuesday showed that a Saturday meeting doesn’t provide much of an increase in attendance over Town Meeting Day, Gish said.

The format of annual town and school district meetings remains a subject of debate after the coronavirus pandemic instituted Australian balloting, a method more conducive to social distancing. Voters raised the issue at the annual White River Valley Unified District meeting on Monday evening, and voters in the Rivendell Interstate School District will consider moving to Australian ballot for budget votes at their annual meeting on Saturday, March 15.

Alex Hanson can be reached at ahanson@vnews.com or 603-727-3207.