Vermont state archivist warns sealing, expungement law will strain legacy records and technology

Tanya Marshall, the state archivist and chief records officer for the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration (a division of the Secretary of State’s Office), told the Legislature on May 7 that sealing and expungement work under S.112 will require substantial records-management work across agencies.

Marshall said the archives can offer management guidance and functional analyses but cautioned that many records remain in legacy formats and that some technology systems lack the retention and access controls needed to implement sealing and expungement reliably.

Marshall described the archives’ role and the law that created it: “I’m Tanya Marshall. I’m the chief records officer and the state archivist and the director of the Vermont State Archives and Records Administration. We’re a division of the Secretary of State’s Office.” She said the office’s statutory program—created in Act 1 of 2003—establishes statewide records and information management and maintains record schedules that control retention, disposition and security coding.

Why it matters: Marshall told the committee that sealing (making a record inaccessible to public search) and expungement (destruction of records) are technically possible in many cases but often impractical without changes to agency processes, clearer legal definitions and better technology. She emphasized that some records are held as paper, on microfilm or as audio recordings that cannot be surgically redacted or removed without destroying larger, historically significant materials.

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