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Secretary of State urges study before expanding universal vote-by-mail to August primary
Summary
Deputy Secretary Lauren Hibbert and Elections Director Sean Sheehan told the House Government Operations & Military Affairs Committee the office supports universal vote-by-mail but urged a fiscal note and further study because Vermont’s three-party primary would substantially raise costs and logistics burdens.
Deputy Secretary of State Lauren Hibbert and Elections Director Sean Sheehan told the House Committee on Government Operations & Military Affairs on March 12 that the Secretary of State’s Office supports universal vote-by-mail but urged the committee not to move the section expanding it to the August primary this year without a fiscal note and further study.
Hibbert said the office has seen “our highest participation ever” in general elections conducted by universal mail voting and that the practice ‘‘gives voters the opportunity to get really engaged.’’ She and Sheehan flagged two major complications for Vermont: the cost of mailing and the state’s three major-party primary system, which would require mailing three different primary ballots to many households.
The nut graf: expanding universal mail voting to the August primary would make August elections administratively consistent with November, officials said, but it would also add substantial cost and operational complexity because Vermont’s Republican, Democratic and Progressive parties would each require separate primary ballots unless the state changes party-registration or primary structure.
Officials gave committee members concrete financial context: Sheehan estimated the cost of conducting universal mail voting in November for roughly 450,000 voters at about $1.5 million for mailing alone; the Secretary of State’s Office said the additional cost for an August mail election would likely exceed that figure. Hibbert added that printing costs exist regardless of universal mail voting and that the $1.5 million figure chiefly reflects postage and shipping.
Committee members raised logistical concerns from municipal clerks. Representative Morgan and others relayed town clerks’ worries about tracking and curing defective ballots when multiple party ballots go to a household, and about the additional workload of contacting voters whose ballots would be marked defective. Hibbert warned that receiving three ballots could increase the rate of defective ballots and the associated cure workload for town clerks.
The office proposed several policy options the legislature could consider to reduce cost and confusion: adopting party registration so voters automatically receive only their party’s primary ballot (as Oregon does); raising the threshold for what constitutes a ‘‘major party’’ so fewer parties trigger separate ballots; or moving to a nonpartisan or top-two primary format. Hibbert said these are “huge policy decisions” that would have fiscal impacts and therefore merit study before enactment.
Sheehan and Hibbert asked the committee for a fiscal note this session and proposed moving any implementation to a non-election year (committee members discussed 2027 as a possible session for action), so clerks and the state could prepare. Representative Hango and others supported further study and more analysis before acting.
Ending: Committee members agreed to continue the discussion and to consider a fiscal note and additional research before deciding whether to advance an August universal vote-by-mail provision.
