[T]he Legislature passed a bill this week that would increase protections for Vermont’s voter rolls after a federal commission created by the Trump administration sought data from the state’s voter rolls last year.
The bill, H.624, would prevent the state from releasing the voter checklist to a federal agency or foreign government, or making it public.
It passed the House Monday after being voted out of the Senate last month.
Rep. Dylan Giambatista, D-Essex Junction, who sponsored the legislation, said that after the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity was unveiled last year, he heard from constituents who feared for the security of their personal information.
“They were concerned about even staying enrolled to vote,” Giambatista said. “When you have people self-removing from the voter checklist and you have people withdrawing their constitutional right to vote, we have a problem that we need to address.”
The short-lived commission sought information including names, addresses, party affiliations, voting histories, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers from voter checklists in all 50 states.
Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos lauded the effort to combat such requests.
“We think that this helps provide us solid legal ground to deny any future requests that might come from the federal government,” he said in an interview on Tuesday.
Condos noted Vermont was one of 44 states to push back against the federal commission’s request for voter roll data last year. He said the commission was essentially tasked with “voter suppression” and purging voter checklists.
“Frankly I was proud and honored to stand up to the Trump administration and protect Vermonters’ personal information,” he said.
President Donald Trump created the commission after making repeated, unsubstantiated claims that widespread voter fraud took place during the 2016 election.
He has alleged that fraud explains how he won in the Electoral College, but lost popular vote to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by about 3 million votes.
The commission disbanded in January.
The bill passed Thursday also includes a provision that would give the secretary of state’s office the flexibility to declare an emergency hand-count of ballots, if deemed necessary.
This could come into play if unforeseen circumstances like a power outage occur, or voting machines aren’t functioning properly.
The bill now heads to Gov. Phil Scott’s desk.
Rebecca Kelley, a spokesperson for the governor, said he expects to sign it into law.
