Senate passes H.474 with tighter write‑in rules, new deadlines and campaign‑finance reporting changes

The Vermont Senate voted to pass H.474, an act making miscellaneous changes to election law, advancing the bill through all remaining stages and messaging the Senate’s actions to the House.

The bill was presented to the Senate as a narrowed “must‑have” version of a larger elections package. Senator from Rutland, the bill reporter, said, “What you have on page 3,300 reflects those changes,” and walked senators through the first dozen sections before yielding to colleagues from Windsor County.

The bill’s provisions include several changes aimed at clarifying administrative deadlines and strengthening transparency. Key changes include: requiring write‑in candidates to file a consent/registration form no later than 5 p.m. on the Thursday preceding an election for their write‑in votes to count; permitting town clerks and boards of civil authority (BCAs) to open ballots beginning 45 days before election day; auditing voter checklists in municipalities that contain multiple legislative districts and requiring clerks to report audit summaries to the Secretary of State with a…