Municipal clerks tell Senate committee ranked-choice rollout, mail-ballot consistency and records access remain top priorities

Tim Arsenault, co-chair of the Vermont Municipal Clerk and Treasurer Association, told the Senate Government Operations Committee on Friday, Jan. 24, that the association's top legislative priorities include ensuring any move to ranked-choice voting is accompanied by comprehensive community education and election- worker training, and finding a consistent approach to mail balloting across election types.

Arsenault said the association supports doing ranked-choice voting “right” and suggested the 2028 presidential primary has been discussed as a possible target for a phased transition, but he emphasized the need for a long ramp-up in public education and training for clerks and election workers.

The association identified inconsistency in mail-ballot practices as a persistent problem for voters and clerks. Witnesses and committee members discussed differences between general-election and primary-ballot mailings and the administrative costs of universal mail balloting. Arsenault said municipal practices vary and urged lawmakers to seek solutions that balance access with administrative feasibility.

Arsenault also raised records-access issues outside elections: he recommended a centralized database for rabies certificates so municipal clerks and animal-control officers could more easily find vaccination records, noting that some veterinarians do not consistently send rabies certificates to clerks and that lost or inaccessible veterinary records can complicate local animal-control work.

The association also reported that municipal clerk duties have expanded, requiring more training and new responsibilities: clerks now routinely receive training on active-shooter response and use of naloxone (Narcan), and many offices are modernizing from paper records to state-hosted databases and local servers for audiovisual archives. Chelsea, co-chair from Orange (full name not specified in testimony), told the committee she will take over Arsenault's duties when he retires in March.

Committee members and witnesses discussed a package of related election provisions under consideration, including provisions to allow municipalities to use Australian ballot procedures for some offices and proposals intended to reduce burdens from hand-count write-ins. Committee leadership invited the clerks' association to return to testify when a house bill addressing split Australian-ballot elections is ready for the Senate committee's review.

No formal action or votes were recorded during the presentation; committee members asked the association to continue coordinating with the secretary of state's office on technical and implementation details.