Dover voters spoke strongly and clearly at Tuesday’s special election to fill a vacant selectboard seat. They wanted change, and with Colby Dix winning the seat by a clear majority, they will be getting that change.

Dix, a newcomer to local politics and town government, garnered over 51% of the vote. That was enough to take the three-way election, easily defeating the other two candidates. Those candidates, William “Buzzy” Buswell and John Abel, were both perceived as viable candidates with strong track records of community service in the town. Buswell has served on a variety of town boards and committees and narrowly lost a bid for the same seat in March to incumbent Magnus Thorsson, whose resignation was the reason for the special election. Abel is chief of the East Dover Volunteer Fire Department who also has a long history of service to the community, and his wife is a former selectboard member. There was no shortage of reasons to vote for any of the candidates.

So what did Dix offer that was so appealing to voters? We can only guess that it was the desire for a fresh face, since we weren’t in the voting booths during the election. Dix, after all, has little government experience. It’s more of the intangibles, the “right stuff” for a new direction for the board and the town. Dover, after all, has been out in front in economic development efforts, and Dix could be the poster child for the type of person that effort can attract: an educated, young entrepreneur who has settled into the town, started a high-tech service business, and become a contributor to the community.

Of course, we must admit that Dix is certainly known in the community. Aside from his computer service and Internet business, he writes a high-tech column for this newspaper and is a popular entertainer and musician. While these not qualities that will generally translate into being a good political leader, they certainly can help with name recognition. Dix also appears to have energized young voters in the community. Bringing young adults into the political process always pays long-term dividents for a community, as it can develop a new pool of citizens to serve on town committees and boards or volunteer for community service organizations.

Getting back to Tuesday’s vote and the message the results appear to send, we can only conclude that Dix’s win continues what citizens have been saying in their recent Town Meeting votes. The town should continue with economic development efforts, continue to encourage creative thinking, explore new ideas, look to the future, and not settle for a business-as-usual way of running the town. Dix alone can’t do all of those things, but his campaign messages of youthful enthusiasm and open communication obviously rang true with the majority of voters.