Vermont Senate committee keeps ranked‑choice study, debates lowering PAC reporting threshold to match candidates

The Vermont Senate Committee on Government Operations voted to retain a study provision on ranked‑choice voting in a broad elections bill and spent the meeting debating campaign‑finance reporting thresholds for political committees and independent expenditure groups.

Committee members said the House version of the bill removed the $500 candidate reporting threshold so that registered candidates must file campaign‑finance reports regardless of whether they have raised or received $500; the committee discussed whether to lower the $1,000 threshold for political committees and independent‑expenditure entities to $500 or to match the House’s change to a $0 threshold.

The discussion centered on what triggers reporting. Tim Deppler, legislative counsel, told the committee that statute already requires a report to the secretary of state for a mass‑media activity if a person “makes expenditures for any one mass media activity, total of $500 or more,…