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WESTON, Conn. Weston residents approved the town and school operating budgets for 2012-13 in a low voter turnout that one town official characterized as "total apathy."
The polls closed at 8 p.m. Thursday, and the votes were quickly counted. The town budget passed, 270-94, and the Board of Education budget passed, 256-108. That represents a total of 364 ballots cast.
Weston has 6,385 registered voters. The low voter turnout denotes "total apathy," said Bob Gardener, the town's Zoning Board of Appeals chairman and a vote checker.
The old way of counting votes, by raising hands at annual town budget meetings, was more efficient than the voting machines, which have been used for the last elections, Gardener said. It cost the town $4,000 to operate the voting machines, which he said was costly and didn't yield any more information than the town had via the budget meeting votes.
The town operating budget for 2012-13 totals $11,314,602, a 1.17 percent increase over the current budget. The school board budget is $45,587,192, a 0.93 percent increase over this year.
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