Vermont voters sent a clear message to the world of high-speed Internet Tuesday: We want in.

Voters in at least 19 towns approved nonbinding resolutions to join in a regional effort to bring high-speed Internet via fiber-optic to their homes during town meetings held early this week and over the weekend.

In all on Tuesday, at least 13 towns approved the resolution to join the East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network and organizers of the effort anticipate a full sweep of the more than 20 towns that had the item on their agenda once all the results were in.

Stan Williams, the chair of ValleyNet's Board of Directors, a non-profit ISP company from White River Junction that is assisting the effort, said he wasn't surprised at the number of towns supporting the effort, including some that didn't even have the issue on their agenda this week.

"What did surprise me was the number of towns that voted for this unanimously in voice votes," Williams said. "It's clear why towns would be interested in this, but we saw 100 percent support in several towns."

According to a town meeting results on the Fiber Network's Web site, at least nine of the towns approved the resolution via voice votes from the floor with no dissent. In Norwich, it was approved on the ballot in a vote of 1315-128.

In the town of Bethel, voters easily and quickly approved the measure in a voice vote from the floor shortly at about 1 p.m. Tuesday, before the meeting ended and residents went home from lunch. The question was the 23rd that morning on the ballot, second-to-last and right before the perennial final question inquiring if there is any other business to come before the time, which is always seen as being the ringing bell that ends sessions.

"So far we have heard of about four people in all the towns who voted nay," said Tim Nulty, the founder of Burlington Telecom, who left that position last year to lead this grassroots effort for ValleyNet. "We seem to be getting a lot of unanimous voice votes."

The effort, led by Internet-starved residents from more than 20 towns and ValleyNet, would set up a subscriber-funded system that offers Internet, telephone and cable television opportunities in central and southern Vermont.

"I'm convinced this is the only way we in Vermont are going to get access to this high-speed stuff," said Jerry Drugonis of Pittsfield, one of the "surprise" towns that took up the issue Tuesday. "We've been at the tail end of the dog for a long time." ValleyNet officials hope to use pre-registered households in those communities to leverage investors to fund the infrastructure of the system, which they say will be faster and cheaper than the offerings by the major telecommunication companies here in the state. The financial plan of the system calls for it to become sustainable through memberships after several years.

Outside of Montpelier, (results for that city —the largest among the towns voting on the issue Tuesday —were not available Tuesday night), voters said access to high-speed Internet has become a necessity in this age.

Liisa Bradley of Calais, which did not vote on the issue Tuesday, said she is stuck with only dial-up at her home. Holding a sign for Sen. Barack Obama, her pick for president, she said she would like to watch some videos of him speaking at campaign rallies, but the videos load too slowly.

"I don't have that kind of patience," she said.

Joan Stander of Montpelier supported the fiber-optic question when she voted Tuesday. Access to high-speed Internet has become essential for economic and social reasons. She warned that Vermont was behind the curve in using and viewing all the material available on the Web.

"We really need access for all people," she said.

In the town of Tunbridge, voters approved the measure from the floor with only a single nay vote, according to Janet Zug, who serves on an committee organizing outreach for the network. She began working with a local committee investigating wireless Internet opportunities which recently folded into the fiber-optic network organization.

"We were looking at wireless before we heard about this fiber to the home option," she said. "That's the pot of gold."

High-speed Internet is only available in a few spots in Tunbridge —but not anywhere near Zug's home, where she runs a glass-blowing business. Her 26k dial-up Internet makes it a hassle to update her Web site and conduct other vital business, she said. "I do a lot of shipping and it takes about four minutes to load an item I need on the UPS Web site," she said. "It's outrageous."

Organizers of the effort will probably meet tonight to take a look at which towns expressed interest in the network and where to go from here, Williams said. With the already large amount of towns coming on board, he said some of the project may need to occur over several phases.

He encouraged residents in interested towns to begin pre-registering, which increases the chances their community is seen as a viable to launch the project.

"The more towns that pre-register, the easier it will be raise the money," Williams said.

Towns that voted for the network are Randolph, Sharon, Strafford, Vershire, Pittsfield, Brookfield, Pomfret, Stockbridge, Barnard, Bethel, Norwich, Royalton, Tunbridge, Hartford, Rochester, Thetford, West Fairlee, Woodstock and Reading.