Vermont lawmaker reintroduces bill to raise write-in primary thresholds, limit post-primary party nominations

Representative Robin Shai of Middlebury introduced H.66 on Feb. 11, a bill that would change how write-in candidates qualify in primary elections and restrict when a party committee may place a candidate on a general-election ballot.

Shai told the House Government Operations & Military Affairs committee the bill has two parts. "I introduced a bill very similar to this, the last biennium, and it was well received by everybody and got caught up in a larger elections bill that foundered somewhere in [the] Senate. Okay. So here I am again. But I did add one more thing to this," she said. The first change would require a write-in candidate in a primary to receive the same number of write-in votes as the petition-signature threshold required to appear on the primary ballot. Shai said that under current law a write-in candidate need only receive half the number of petition signatures required for ballot access; for example, a candidate who would need 50 signatures to appear on the primary ballot only needs 25 write-in votes to qualify.

The bill's second change would limit the circumstances in which a three-person party committee may nominate a candidate to appear on the general-election ballot. "If there are zero candidates you don't get to after a primary, say, 'oh, three of us can get together and nominate somebody and put them on a general election ballot,'" Shai said. Under H.66, that committee nomination would remain available only when a candidate who had been on the primary ballot withdraws or dies, not simply because no candidate appeared in the primary.

A member of the committee asked a clarification question: "So just to be clear that if there were a death or some other reason why the person had to withdraw, then the committee of three will be acceptable for you," a committee member said. "Yes. Yes. They could do that," Shai replied.

A town clerk who identified herself as Representative Hissnault Dorset and said she also serves as a town clerk urged adding a filing deadline for write-in campaigns so local clerks would not need to review every ballot looking for write-in names. "If the candidate is doing a write-in campaign, file the paper with the town clerk saying 'I'm doing a write-in campaign'...that way, if nobody files for a write-in campaign, we don't have to look at the write-in campaigns," she said. Shai called the suggestion "a very worthy footnote" to the bill and said the committee would develop the language.

Committee members and the chair also used the bill-introduction period to urge consolidation of related ideas into broader elections legislation. A committee member said the panel is hearing many election-related proposals and that ideas relevant to larger bills should be folded into those measures rather than handled piecemeal.

No vote or formal committee action on H.66 was recorded during the meeting; the bill was presented for discussion and early feedback. The committee signaled interest in refining the proposal and in considering clerks' operational suggestions as they draft bill language.

Looking ahead, committee members said the session will receive additional election and public-safety bills and that staff will continue to sort and consolidate proposals for further committee work.