Vermont Statutes Title 17 Sec. 2546b
Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 17 Sec. 2546b
- Board of civil authority: means , unless otherwise provided by municipal charter, in the case of a town, the selectboard and town clerk and the justices residing therein; in the case of a city, the mayor, aldermen, city clerk, and justices residing therein; in the case of a village, the trustees, village clerk, and the justices residing therein; and, in any case, such suitable member or members of unrepresented or insufficiently represented political parties as may be appointed members of the board of civil authority under the provisions of section 2143 of this title. See
- Early or absentee voter: means any voter of the State who has requested an early voter absentee ballot as provided in chapter 51, subchapter 6 of this title. See
- Election: means the procedure whereby the voters of this State, or any of its political subdivisions, select persons to fill public offices or act on public questions. See
- Person: means any individual, business entity, labor organization, public interest group, or other organization, incorporated or unincorporated. See
- seal: shall include an impression of the official seal made upon paper alone or by means of a wafer or wax affixed thereto. See
- Secretary: means the Secretary of State. See
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States may apply to the District of Columbia and any territory and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See
- Town: includes "city. See
- Town clerk: means a town officer elected pursuant to section 2646 of this title or otherwise elected or appointed by law and performing those duties prescribed by 24 Vt. See
- Vote tabulator: means a machine that registers and counts paper ballots and includes optical scan tabulators. See
- Voter: means an individual who is qualified to vote in an election in this State or a political subdivision of this State, and whose name is registered on the checklist of a political subdivision of the State. See
§ 2546b. Early voting in town clerk’s office; deposit into vote tabulator
(a)(1) A board of civil authority may vote to permit its town’s registered early or absentee voters to vote in the town clerk‘s office in the same manner as those voting on election day by marking their early voter absentee ballots and depositing them into a vote tabulator or secure ballot box.
(2) If a board of civil authority votes to permit early voting as described in subdivision (1) of this subsection, the town’s process for conducting this early voting shall conform to the provisions of this section and to procedures that the Secretary of State shall adopt for this purpose.
(b)(1) During business hours in the town clerk’s office, the secure ballot box or vote tabulator and ballot bin shall be in a secured area accessible only to election officials and voters. The vote tabulator unit shall be secured with an identifiable seal and the ballot box containing voted ballots shall remain locked at all times and secured with an identifiable seal. Neither seal shall be broken prior to the time of closing the polls on election day.
(2) Once early voting has commenced in the town clerk’s office, the town clerk or designee shall certify each day in a record prepared for this purpose that the seals on the vote tabulator and secure ballot box are intact.
(3) When an election official is not present or at times other than business hours, the secure ballot box or sealed vote tabulator and ballot bin shall be secured in the town clerk’s office vault.
(4) The town clerk shall maintain a record of each early or absentee voter who voted in person in accordance with this section and shall mark these voters as having voted early in the clerk’s office in the online election management system.
(c) On the day of the election:
(1) The secure ballot box or sealed vote tabulator and ballot bin shall be transferred to the polling place on election day by two election officials and shall not be opened until the polls have closed on election day.
(2) When the vote tabulator is turned on at the polling place, the town clerk shall verify that the number of ballots that the vote tabulator displays as having been counted matches the number of voters who deposited their early voter absentee ballots in the vote tabulator in accordance with this section and any early voter absentee ballots that were processed and deposited in the vote tabulator under section 2546a of this subchapter.
(3) All early voter absentee ballots shall be commingled with those voted at the polls on election day prior to being examined for the purpose of identifying write-in votes. (Added 2019, No. 67, § 14, eff. July 1, 2020; amended 2021, No. 60, § 15, eff. June 7, 2021.)