Poll: Vermonters overwhelmingly support voter ID, distrust voting by absentee ballot

A recent poll on Vermont’s voting preferences reveals a range of attitudes that run counter to election policies in the state — most notably, voters overwhelmingly think an ID should be required for casting a vote, and more than half say election officials can’t verify who is filling out absentee ballots.

The interactive voice response poll, conducted March 23, asked individuals on Vermont’s registered voter list to answer a series of questions about voting polices in the state. Eighty three percent of respondents said they “definitely” will be voting in the November election, and another 5 percent said they “probably” will do so.

When asked if some form of ID should be presented in order to vote, 71 percent of Vermonters said yes. Nine percent said they were not sure, and 20 percent said no. Vermont does not currently require voter ID.

Michael Bielawski/TNR

ELECTION INTEGRITY IN DOUBT: Vermonters are split over whether voter fraud is a major issue for the state, but more than 70 percent think some type of voter ID should be required to vote.

The poll also found that voters lack confidence in absentee voting. Fifty-three percent of respondents said officials don’t have the ability to verify the identity of persons filling out absentee ballots. Less than three in 10 thought election officials can know who is filling them out, and 20 percent said they weren’t sure.

Also on absentee voting, 41 percent of Vermonters think using absentee ballots increases the likelihood of election fraud. Thirty-three percent said it does not, and another 11 percent are not sure.

Another reveal of the poll is that 46 percent of Vermonters have concerns about allowing same-day voter registration, a policy in Vermont. Forty percent did not find the practice concerning.

When it comes to letting college students vote, 55 percent of respondents said students from out of state should demonstrate an intention to become a permanent resident to be allowed to vote.

On Vermont’s 45 day early voting period, exactly a third of voters, 33 percent, think the period is too long. Forty-seven percent said it was just right.

Asked how much of an issue it is to not purge the voter checklists soon after a voter dies or moves away, 53 percent said it’s a significant problem. Another 31 percent responded that they don’t see it as a serious problem.

Finally, 30 percent of Vermonters believe voter fraud occurs in Vermont “to a significant degree.” About 44 percent said it does occur, but not to a significant degree. Just 16 percent said they don’t think voter fraud occurs in the state. Six percent said the potential for voter fraud would discourage them from going to the polls.

High-profile ballot-tampering cases have been widely reported in the past election. In North Carolina, the discovery of ballot tampering in a congressional election caused an election to be overturned. Political operatives in the case were charged with illegal possession of absentee ballots, perjury, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

America’s trust in voting by mail is increasingly important this year as election officials in various states are considering by-mail-only elections as a way to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“In terms of the elections, I think that we’ll probably be moving to vote by mail,” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi recently said on MSNBC.

In Kansas, the state legislature successfully changed the law to have mail-in-voting only for the state’s May 2 presidential primary.

In Vermont, Secretary of State Jim Condos said this year’s election will increasingly rely on mail-in voting.

“Our 2020 elections will rely on a significant increase in by-mail voting. Whether that means having a ballot sent to every registered voter or pushing a much greater number of voters to request a ballot by mail through our existing election procedures, we will need to take the steps necessary to heavily reduce in-person voting at the polls on Election Day,” Condos wrote in an op-ed earlier this month.

The poll was conducted by Imperium Advisors via telephone. The questions were presented in multiple-choice format. In all, there were 374 respondents to the survey. The margin of error is plus or minus 5 percent.

Michael Bielawski is a reporter for True North. Send him news tips at bielawski82@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TrueNorthMikeB.

Images courtesy of Bruce Parker/TNR and Michael Bielawski/TNR

32 thoughts on “Poll: Vermonters overwhelmingly support voter ID, distrust voting by absentee ballot

  1. All of you Conservatives and Republicans that have been afraid to speak-out, DO YOU SEE HOW MANY OF US THERE ACTUALLY ARE … NOW…..?
    It is time for all of the Conservatives and Republicans; the REAL ONES, NOT SCOTT CLONES, to start speaking our minds, and telling the people that started INVADING Vermont in the early 70’s that we do NOT believe in their BS Communism/Social BS Justice, or their BS, “liberal,” republican, government.
    It is time to, “TAKE BACK VERMONT,” from the people that end-ran the Vermont Constitution to get what they wanted with, “Civil Unions,” and all the people that agreed with changing the Vermont Constitution over something that belonged on a ballot, NOT is a COURT. I honestly believe that if you had JUST ASKED, marriage would have been put on a ballot; RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING, and been PASSED by Vermonters. All you flat-lander’s missed one HUGE POINT about VERMONTERS; WE BELIEVE IN MINDING OUT OWN BUSINESS, unless you need help, and if you don’t want the help, we will respect that too, and not help you.
    There is SO much more that I could say about all of this…….

  2. Now listen up, the people have SPOKEN!!!! Of course Condos is stone deaf, all he wants is a ballot box stuffed with Dem/Lib/Prog voters. Make no difference if a huge chunk are fraudulent.

    • Which is precisely what Scott and Donovan also want. The elite of the Republican Party has made an agreement with the Demo0crat Party long ago.

  3. These prigs in Montpelier know if they can’t cheat with mail in ballots they will be finished.

  4. I suppose my mother will receive a ballot by mail, after all she just received a $1200 “stimulus” check form the feds. She died in 2018.

    My sister and Dad used to live in Rutland, they are still on the voter list , I’m sure. Sis passed in 2018, Dad in 2005. Vote on!

  5. No mail in voting in this fine Red state, if you want to vote you need to go to the polls AND have a valid sate photo ID. Seems to work just perfectly. Not to mention far MORE minorities at our voting booths then I ever witnessed in VT.

  6. Dem/Progs never let a good crisis go to waste.

    Mail-in voting is part of their national platform

    Mr. Condos has been scare-mongering and agitating for mail-in ballots,
    “We have got to do this, and that, and do it NOW.”

    Holcombe, Zuckerman, VPIRG, and assorted Dem/Progs, chimed in as well.

    They are oh so concerned about health and safety.
    The Republicans are not?

    Condos has to use some common sense:

    If people have been going to grocery stores ALL OVER THE STATE (even in Burlington), in APRIL and MAY, they can physically show up to IDENTIFY THEMSELVES, and then vote in NOVEMBER.

    That approach would lead to MINIMAL FRAUD AND MAXIMAL TRUST.

    If China could build TWO 1000-bed hospitals in 2 weeks, Condos should have plenty of time to set up infrastructures and print ballots for a PARTIAL MAIL-IN vote in NOVEMBER, IF NECESSARY.

    If the virus episode has not subsided by November, FREE MASKS SHOULD BE AVAILABLE AT THE POLLING STATIONS.

    Only authorized/official people should hand them out.

    Condos should stop the fake handwringing and prevaricating and the scare-mongering.
    There is no way Vermonters would agree to mass-mailing of ballots to every Tom, Dick, and Harry.
    Vermonters do not dive a d… that mail-in voting is practiced elsewhere.
    Vermonters LIKE to go to the voting booths.

  7. Just move the polls to Walmart. Problem solved. Polling places won’t be COVID-19 safe, but Walmart is.

  8. Why are all the politicians afraid of voterID ? You need ID for just about everything else. Maybe that are afraid they will not have the votes of people who passed away or people who vote multiple times.

  9. Michael, I can’t believe you report results from this IVR poll to only land lines without any mention about how unreliable those are, not to mention only 374 response to a survey population of over 16,000 for a 2.5% response rate. Shame on you and anyone who buys the conclusions he draws from it.

  10. Perhaps someone should do actual unbiased research the last 30 or 40 years of vote tallies for election to the VT legislature. Factually without bias, list all races decided by less than 5 votes. It would raise an eyebrow or two. I did 5 year worth a couple of decades ago. More than a few elections are won with less than 5 votes. Think about it.

  11. My mom is 93 with dementia and she has not recognized me for 3 years, is confined to a wheel chair and cannot feed herself and they think they can send her a ballot and she can vote????? Be real. Someone at the facility will fill it in because they know what she would want. Give ma an Fing break.

  12. Voter ID is an absolute must to protect us against rampant voter fraud. Mail-ins are ripe for cheating and all advocating for it know this. Don’t be fooled, Vermonters—DEMAND VOTER ID or your votes are wasted.

  13. Can someone provide a link to the poll? I’ve done an internet search and haven’t turned anything up.

  14. The United Nations does not approve of this Voter Id, thereby the majority in control will not vote for it, doesn’t matter what the peasants of Vermont wish for or desire.

    The Marxist/Progressive wing will keep all members of the party in line and they will vote as told to do. They will not be swayed.

    This is no longer a Republic of Vermont, because the people of Vermont sold out, did nothing, let those who wanted a democracy take over. And since our children and children’s children were not taught any civics within our state, nobody knew the difference.

    The United Nations asks, “What are you going to do about it?”

  15. Condos is clever and articulate when he sells his spiel about by-mail voting is safe, fair, and therefore valid.

    He says these spiels, because his handlers expect him to say that.

    He was chosen because he is good at devising such “easy to understand/all is well” rationales.

    Not one single peep is heard In opposition to by-mail voting from any Dem/Prog, in or out of the legislature, because they know how to make the system work in their favor.

    Preparations should be made, but no decision regarding the by-mail approach until the first week of October.

    By then the virus hoo hah will have subsided.
    Chicken-little people would NOT BE AFRAID to go to the polls as usual; unless CONDOS, and his ilk, continue to scare-monger them.

    That would give plenty of time to go the preferred standard way of voting, plus, if absolutely necessary, also go the “hold-your-nose” by- mail way, but only if a person REQUESTS a ballot be mailed to him/her by the Town Clerk.

    THERE MUST NOT BE ANY INDISCRIMINATE MASS MAILING OF BALLOTS

  16. It’s all classic Saul Alinsky tactics….voter fraud. Bernie Sandesr sknew Alinsky. Hillary Clinton did her thesis on him. Obama followed him in Chicago. Basically, alinsky rules are that alnost anything goes, if it achieves the end….winning elections via vote fraud incuded.

    OFF TOPIC….has anyone else noticed that the censorship on VT DIGGER has increased SUBSTANTIALLY? Digger is now censoring and refusing about 70% of what I try to reply/post, all just facts and figures (nothing angry)…. They need to be reported to tax authorities…because they claim that are “non profit”, so they do not pay taxes as an entity. However, it’s pretty obvious – if you have half a brain – that they are nothing but a tax avoiding “LIBERAL Political Action Committee”. In other words…they are a fraud…..and should register themselvs as a PAC and that goes for their RICH LIBERAL WEALTHY DONORS to be exposed too!

    • Yes, my comments had been removed by VTDigger, even thought I purposely kept them quite tame for that publication.

      Not only that, but notice how the video of the California doctors was removed by YouTube, and earlier a video that showed a very quiet Elmhurst hospital after the cameras left had been removed. Now we hear that Keel University sent back a $15,000 check from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in support of the work of Christopher Exley, who has done extensive research on aluminum in vaccines. Then before this we had the muzzling and firing of Peter Ridd, who presented evidence that refuted that the Great Barrier Reef was dying (it is not.)

      Outright and blatant censorship will be next if this trajectory continues, and the justification for this will be to protect us from misinformation. But, this is the purpose of a free press anyhow.

    • Yes, I have noticed an increase in censorship and I think I know why. Most of the libs that used to run off on there have been much quieter lately. The response to the articles and commentaries have been from conservatives who are sick of the way things are and are expressing it. Digger has to protect it’s contributor base so they block us from being heard. I keep most of my comments in a reject file if I ever need to prove anything I said. Now also look at the age and backgrounds of their indoctrinated so called reporters. Most of them wouldn’t know an investigative reporter if they tripped over one. The older reporters have spent their careers at liberal publications or organizations. If anyone does bring a case against them, I have a file full of rejected “Footnotes” if anyone needs to see them for proof. The one other thing that really bothers me is the constant TDS from Danziger. Has political drawings are juvenile, not funny and quite frankly they show his ignorance from only watching the fake news on the alphabet liberal channels. I wish we could “Footnote” those!

  17. Turning the discussion into a partisan “progressive conspiracy” is not appropriate- note that the North Carolina fraud was perpetrated by a GOP operative. Mail in ballots not perfect but there are certainly measures that can be implemented to guard against fraud. I have no problem with requiring ID to vote, but can’t then put rules around acceptable ID that exclude some Vermonters. As an Independent running for office I definitely want the process to be fair!

  18. As has been noted many, many times, one can not board an airplane without valid ID, one can not cash a check without a valid ID. Question – why should a serious privledge such as voting be any different or less important????? You want to vote, bring identification!!!! This is one way to keep cemetery residents from voting.

    • Vermonters are smart. They remember stories of bussloads being trucked from poll to poll in Chicago,
      to vote as many times as possible. They remember the voter rolls being mined for folks who don’t vote,,
      or died, and all their absentee ballot requests all going to one street address, the Dem/prog. HQ>

      We do not need Chicago’s Alinsky method, Rules for Revolution, practiced by Ocassio, Sanders and Obama.
      Neither does our small town need paper ID, we have human face recognition – something not possible
      even in Essex Jct (any more!)

  19. It would make sense for each state to do its own census every 10 years just like the government. Each town should have to provide that all check lists be made public showing all deletions and additions that have made since it was last published.

    • excellent idea, but towns with limited budgets would squawk at the cost, unless the JP’s would be willing to donate their time to do this.

  20. Voting is one of the greatest privileges we have, to ensure the one person one vote,
    Identification should be mandatory !!

    You know that this mail-in boondoggle being promoted is an opening for all sorts of
    ” voter fraud ” Liberals are hoping just for that, using the Wuhan Virus as a reason
    is there opening ” pandora’s box ” …… by hook or by crook !!

    Puppet Condos, what a joke…………….

  21. Voter ID is not 100% effective but it sure beats the Progressive BS Jim Condos is trying to pass off as “safe” voting practices. Condos and his destructive Progressive agenda needs to go.

  22. Condos is a partisan hack. He’d be in favor of any policy, no matter how vulnerable to fraud as long as if favored the democrat party.

    • Condos will be told to just ignore the poll.
      Full steam ahead with mail-in voting, because the Dem/Prog elites demand it.
      If Condos wants to hold onto his cushy job, he damn well jump when we tell him

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