Dateline: Election Day, Mar. 10, 2026

It was a fine day for an election as temps went to almost 70° under mostly sunny skies. The gym at the old elementary school (AES) was opened to the public for the first time in years. Access was through a door on the right side of the building.

Upcoming renovations to the gym will include new exterior double doors on the side wall (currently boarded up) for direct access, two new bathrooms inside the front wall, and access the kitchen for public events.

Side entrance used on Election Day

Inside the gym, a registration table was set up for new (Oops, I'm not registered!) voters. Three ballot stations were set up for registered voters and booths were set up in the back for voters to sit and work their way through pages of ballots.

According to some poll workers, voting was sometimes very slow, as in the morning and then steadier later. They noted that attendance picked up mostly around the last couple of hours prior to polls closing. Overall it was called a decent turnout and a much better one than last year's town election.

The Supervisor of the Checklist reported that there are 3,036 registered voters, but only 572 voters came to the polls. You can't blame that on the good weather. That works out to 18% attendance, possibly putting it in the category of the tail wagging the dog.

Voting tables and booths inside the gym

Voters were faced with nine long pages of double-sided, small print describing candidates and warrant articles. The town ballot filled six pages due to all the amendments to the Zoning Ordinance that were in response to state mandated zoning changes.

Lots of candidates and warrant articles to vote on

Thanks from the New Selectman

After contacting and congratulating Mr. Fowler the next day, he offered the following words of thanks to Allenstown voters.

The Good News and Bad News

The good news:

• A new selectman, Kris Fowler, was elected. See below.
• Two new school board members, Veronica Anaya and Kris Fowler, were elected.
• Four write-in candidates were elected to school district positions.
• The sewer dept. budget passed without voters making a stink about it.
• Article 23 - Funding for solid waste disposal was overwhelmingly approved by 412 to 161.
• Article 24 - A new recycling fund was strongly approved by 320 to 229.

The bad news:

• Article 18 - the town operating budget failed by only 38 votes (302 to 264) and $47,875.
• The two articles for school district raises did not pass.
• The two articles for trust funds for school employee health benefits failed.
• Article 11: Open Enrollment - narrowly passed by 292 to 271.
• After much consideration, Kris Fowler decided to decline his election to the school board.

What You Can Do

Once again the selectmen will have to do some number crunching with department heads to figure out where to make cuts so they can stay within the limits of the 2026 Default Budget.

To counter the Default Budget, consider this outside-the-box idea.

Would any of the YES voters be willing to organize a GoFundMe fundraising site to make up for the 0.87% budget shortfall? If you take $47,875 and divide by the YES vote of 264, the result is $181.00 per YES voter. That would probably be too much to ask of those voters. But if enough people (not just Allenstown residents) chipped into the GoFundMe site, it could reduce or eliminate the budget shortfall.

Next question: what would be easier to accomplish: getting the funding via a GoFundMe site or getting a local billionaire to make the donation? As the American duo Dale and Grace sang back in 1963, "I'm Leaving It Up to You."