Live Updates: Nantucket's Annual Town Meeting 2026

We are live from Nantucket High School's Mary P. Walker Auditorium, where voters have gathered for Nantucket's 2026 Annual Town Meeting. 

The Current will be sharing live updates from Town Meeting floor as votes are taken: 

Article 7, Personnel Compensation, 5:57 p.m. | Voters backed an amendment to Article 7, increasing the Select Board’s pay from $4,500 to $14,500 annually on a 903-238 vote, and then voted through Article 7 990-141. The overwhelming support for the amendment dramatically increases the Select Board’s pay. Mary Longacre, who proposed the amendment, said it was designed to allow more people to run for Select Board by increasing the job's financial compensation.

Notable Articles Passed on Consent, 5:48 p.m. | A number of high-profile articles just passed on consent, meaning no one objected to the motions printed in the warrant. One of those is Article 8, the town’s $170 million operating budget, which is the largest in Nantucket’s history. Other proposals passed on consent include $8 million for the second phase of debris cleanup at Tom Nevers in Article 16 and an effort to restrict development on certain pre-existing non-conforming lots that does not comply with current zoning in Article 63. Voters also allowed Article 17 to pass on consent. Article 17 sought $1.2 million in design funding for a new Department of Public Works building at 1 Shadbush Road. Voters rejected the proposal last year, but the town was able to guide the request across the finish line by changing the funding source to free cash, which allows the project to go forward without borrowing and lowers the threshold for passage from two-thirds to a simple majority.

Call of the Articles, 5:42 p.m. | We’ve just wrapped up the call of the articles, which determines which of the proposals in the warrant will be discussed over the course of Town Meeting. The following articles have been called: 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 35, 36, 37, 39, 41, 44, 45, 51, 68, 72, and 73. All other articles will be disposed of per the Finance Committee’s recommendations.

Young Voters, 5:23 p.m. | One more note on turnout as we work our way through technical amendments to the warrant: it’s anecdotal, but there appear to be more young people in attendance tonight than there usually are at Town Meeting. Some high school students have registered to vote in recent months to weigh in on a controversial proposal to install a turf field at Vito Capizzo Stadium. Most students seem to support the proposal. “I think it’s a really big opportunity to be able to voice my opinion,” high school senior Sadie Paterson told the Current. “Especially on something that I’ve been personally affected by.”

Test Vote, 5:07 p.m. | In a test vote, Town Meeting has opined 576-432 that the Red Sox will not “pull it together and have a halfway decent season.” The good news for the Red Sox is that this is a non-binding vote. While turnout may rise slightly as the night goes, we’re looking at something in the range of 10.1 percent of Nantucket’s registered voters in attendance. That’s a decrease from the 13.6 percent turnout at the STM last November, but up from the 7.8 percent turnout at Nantucket’s last ATM.

Meeting Start 4:38 p.m. | We are officially underway at the Mary P. Walker auditorium, with some voters in the Nantucket High School gymnasium. Unlike last fall’s Special Town Meeting, this Town Meeting will be contained in just two rooms—and won’t feature any proposals related to short-term rentals.