Bayfield voters approved - in preliminary results announced Wednesday morning - a request by the Bayfield Town Board to publish only the titles of legal notices in the local newspaper, then the text of the notices on the town website.
The owners and staff of the Times had urged Bayfield residents to vote no on both ballot questions, known as 2D and 2E.
Wednesday morning's final tallies showed 596 voters, or 54 percent, voting yes on 2D, which allows the town to publish legal notices using only their headlines in the Pine River Times, with 508 voters saying no. That equated to 46 percent of the voters who cast their ballots on thie issue.
Ballot question 2E, which then permits the town to publish its legal notices on the town website, 2E had a far wider separation of votes, with 360 voters saying no, and 765 voting yes. That broke down to 68 percent voting yes and 32 percent voting no.
In October, the Times publisher asked readers for a no vote.
"Legals in print is about ease (and completeness) of access," said Richard Ballantine, chairman of the board of Ballantine Communications Inc., which has published the Times since 2014.
"When you hold the paper, legals are right there in front of you to be scanned quickly, or slowly, to see if they're of interest, and how important they are, such as marijuana sales and taxes."
