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The Vermont Secretary of State’s Office is considering a dramatic expansion of the state’s mail-in ballot system for upcoming elections in August and November, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The office is floating a plan to send every registered voter a mail-in ballot, to discourage people from voting in person at the polls. Under current law, Vermont voters can send in their ballots through the mail, but they need to request them ahead of time.
Will Senning, Vermont’s director of elections, told the Senate Government Operations Committee Thursday that sending ballots to all registered voters could encourage as much as 80% of those who vote to do so by mail.
While it’s unclear when Covid-19 pandemic will subside, with the state’s August primary just four months away, state elections officials are under pressure to make plans soon.
“We need to make the fundamental decisions about August and November within this month, if not within the next few weeks,” Senning said.
Senning noted that sending absentee ballots out to all voters would be a “huge administrative undertaking” and that the state is also considering a plan to encourage Vermonters to request ballots ahead of time, without sending them out automatically.
Last month, Gov. Phil Scott signed legislation that gives the Secretary of State’s Office the power to change election procedures during the pandemic, as long as the new measures receive approval from the governor.
That legislation also eliminated a requirement for those seeking public office to collect petition signatures this year.
Since the pandemic hit, many states have postponed presidential primary elections to prevent the spread of the virus.
In a ruling this week, the Wisconsin Supreme Court determined that the state’s governor did not have the authority to postpone Tuesday’s presidential primary, sending voters to the polls during the outbreak, and drawing widespread criticism.
Senning said that while the Secretary of State’s Office could encourage voters to mail in ballots, it couldn’t do away with in-person voting completely.
There are some voters, including college students, low income residents and the homeless, who don’t have fixed addresses, he noted.
“You could never rely entirely on a mail system,” Senning said.
Xusana Davis, Vermont’s executive director of racial equity, said she supported expanding the state’s mail-in ballot system because Covid-19 will impact on voters’ ability to get to the polls, “which is already extremely strained for communities of color.”
“On our best days as a nation, voting rights in different states are already under assault, so when you add a pandemic into it, it really does create an added layer of chaos,” Davis said.
But she recommended that the state come up with a backup plan for distributing and collecting ballots from voters in the event that the U.S. Postal Service in the event its operations are “delayed or halted” because of the pandemic.
Lawmakers floated the idea of requiring local officials, or even members of the National Guard to distribute or collect ballots if necessary.
