Vermont communities could mail Town Meeting Day ballots to all registered voters or postpone the date that local elections take place, under a bill approved Tuesday by the Vermont House.
The measure is intended to protect voters amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
With Town Meeting Day scheduled for March 2, less than two months away, House and Senate lawmakers have said they wanted to give towns, school districts, water districts and other local governments additional options for conducting elections this year.
“The most fundamental intent and purpose here is that we are trying to protect the health and safety of Vermonters during the pandemic,” said Rep. Sarah Copeland Hanzas, D-Bradford, the chair of the House Government Operations Committee, who introduced the bill, H.48, on the virtual House floor.
“And the intention here is to give that flexibility for towns to be able to either move their date of their annual meeting, or to decide to mail ballots to voters, if that is what they intend to do,” she said.
The legislation passed 142-2 Tuesday afternoon. The Senate is expected to take up the bill in the coming days, and it could be in Gov. Phil Scott’s hands by the end of the week.
The Town Meeting Day option follows Vermont’s successful move to expand its vote-by-mail system during the November 2020 general election.
During that temporary expansion, the Secretary of State’s Office mailed a ballot to every registered voter in the state ahead of the election to help cut down on in-person traffic at the polls on Nov. 3. The move also drove record turnout.
Last week, lawmakers secured $2 million to help municipalities cover the cost of mailing ballots. Even if ballots are sent to every voter though, communities must still accommodate in-person voting by ballot on Town Meeting Day.
Under the bill, municipalities also could opt to delay elections scheduled for March 2. Lawmakers want to give municipalities the authority to push back elections until spring, when it may be possible to hold in-person, socially distanced meetings outdoors.
Carol Dawes, the city clerk in Barre who advised the Legislature on the proposal, said it’s important to give municipalities several options for modifying their elections, since various municipalities handle their elections differently.
“It isn’t one size fits all,” Dawes said. “Since each municipality is different with regards to how they do their annual meetings, you can’t give just one option; you have to give multiple options, which is what the proposed legislation does.”
While some towns conduct elections at in-person meetings, others, like Barre City, already do so entirely by ballot.
She expects the Town Meeting Day elections will be a “mixed bag.”
Local governments don’t receive ballots until 20 days before local elections, which could make it a challenge to ensure all voters are mailed ballots in time.
“To do a mass mailing to thousands of people in that time frame is extremely difficult,” she said.
In Barre City, Dawes has proposed sending postcards to voters, letting them know they can request absentee ballots by mail, instead of sending them out automatically.
“My guess is that we’ll have more than half of people vote by mail and we’ll have something in the neighborhood of 300 to 400 come to the polls, which is certainly doable under Covid restrictions,” Dawes said.
With Town Meeting Day deadlines fast approaching — petitions for ballot items end this week — the Legislature is acting rapidly to send the legislation to Scott’s desk. The governor has said he supports expanding the vote-by-mail system for this year’s Town Meeting Day.
