A recent Vermont secretary of state report on mail-in voting determined that using this system for primaries and municipalities would be unworkable and costly.

The report also undertook an extensive analysis of using signature verification as a way to shield against possible vote fraud, recommending that Vermont needn’t impose any voting security safeguards to protect voting integrity despite shifting to a permanent mail-in voting process for all general elections.

While a report released by the Secretary of State’s office in January discourages expansion of mail-in voting to municipal elections and statewide primaries, it invests a great deal of consideration to the use of voting identity verification to prevent voter fraud, and concludes that no safeguards are required.

The January 2023 report was mandated in 2021 by Act 60, which made mail-in voting permanent in Vermont general elections. Section 21a of Act 60 directed the secretary of state to produce a report with its findings on issues related to universal vote by mail for municipal and primary elections. It included a look at impacts vote by mail would have on access to voting, public satisfaction with the voting process, and the administration of elections. The report also discusses “implementing a voter verification system that will not disenfranchise voters and that will verify that ballots have been voted by registered voters.”

The report from the Secretary of State’s office supports universal mail-in voting, but not for statewide party primaries or municipal elections, and claims there is almost no risk of voter fraud — and thus no need for expensive signature or other verification of ballot integrity.

The reasons for the SOS position on mail-in voting for municipal elections, including school voting, are persuasive. The report concludes that “if the “vote-by-mail” system were to be made mandatory for all local elections, the traditional floor vote Town Meeting as we know it in Vermont would be no more.”

Current law permits larger municipalities to opt for mail-in voting, and the SOS affirms that is the best course:

It is the opinion of the SOS that the current scope of municipalities that are allowed to opt to mail a ballot to all voters is the appropriate one. Under the current law, the legislative body of a town, city, or village may vote to mail a ballot proactively to all their voters. School districts are also allowed to do so for annual meetings only, but only after receiving the approval of all the legislative bodies from the towns or cities within the district.

The report was more negative regarding the use of mail-in ballots for Vermont primary elections. The SOS states these are not actually elections, but “nominating processes” for the three major parties. The current system is wasteful in part because the state pays to provide ballots for all three parties, and voters only use one — the other two unused ballots are discarded. The report states:

For example, in preparing for the 2024 Primary, based on the Democratic party turnout numbers from 2022, the office would likely print at least 130,000 ballots for each of the three parties. What this means is that 130,000 Progressive and Republican party Primary ballots will be printed, while only 610 of those ballots were ultimately cast in 2022 in the Progressive Primary, and only 30,560 were cast in the Republican Primary.

It is unclear why the State prints 130,000 Progressive voting ballots when fewer than 1,000 voters use one each election (just 941 Progressive ballots were cast in the 2020 election).

Neither is it explained why 130,000 Republican ballots need to be printed when there were only 58,626 Republican primary votes in 2020, and 30,560 in 2022.

The report argues that expanding this scheme would amplify that waste dramatically:

The substance of this report is simply whether a vote-by-mail system should be applied to the Primary as it is currently operated. If that were the case, the SOS would be required to print a ballot for each major party, for every active registered voter in Vermont – somewhere around 450,000 ballots for each major party. This would enable all three ballots to be sent to every active registered voter. … That would essentially mean more than three times the printed but unused ballots that are currently required. Additionally, the necessity to send all three ballots, and for the voter to return those that are unused, means the printing of 450,000 additional envelopes, the “unused ballot envelopes” for those voters to return their unused ballots. It also means additional postage costs due to the added weight in the mailing of three ballots instead of one, and an additional return envelope.

The report estimates this would drain taxpayers an additional $1,171,229 in new costs. One solution would be for Vermonters to select party affiliation, so that each voter would only get a ballot for their designated party — for instance, the state would not need to distribute 450,000 Progressive ballots if there were only 1,000 registered progressives.

While the report discourages expansion of mail-in voting to municipal elections and statewide primaries absent other required changes, it invests a great deal of consideration to the use in any of these election processes of voting identity verification to prevent voting fraud, and concludes that no safeguards are required.

John Klar is an attorney and farmer residing in Brookfield. © Copyright True North Reports 2023. All rights reserved.