Senate Government Operations reviews S.98: new 'democracy certificate' public-financing plan, automatic registration expansion and voting leave

The Senate Committee on Government Operations on May 9, 2025, reviewed S.98, a multipart bill that would overhaul Vermont’s public campaign-financing system, expand automatic voter registration for recipients of certain social services, create a preregistration option for 16-year-olds and require employer-provided voting time off. Tucker Anderson, legislative counsel, told the committee S.98 “expands automatic voter registration within a few programs, and then it is going to tee up potential future expansion after some reports from state agencies.”

Why it matters: S.98 would create a new public-financing mechanism that allows registered voters to assign small packets of public campaign funds to candidates, change who must file campaign finance reports, create criminal and administrative penalties for falsified filings, and add workplace protections and paid time-off rules intended to reduce barriers to voting.

The bill’s central public-finance proposal is a so-called “democracy certificate” program. Under the draft the committee reviewed, the secretary of state would issue four certificates worth $25 each to every voter who opts into the program; voters could assign those certificates to eligible state-office candidates. Certificates would be issued for primaries and general elections (on or before the first business day in March for primaries and the first business day in September for general elections), and town clerks or the secretary of state would verify and process returned certificates. The bill bars sale or transfer of certificates for cash or other consideration and makes forging, altering, buying or selling certificates a violation subject to the same penalties used for other election-law violations.

The draft includes administrative controls…