Secretary of State briefs Senate commission on voter tools, licensing reforms and civic outreach

The Secretary of State and Deputy Secretary of State updated the Senate Commission on Government Operations on Jan. 16 on a range of office initiatives, from new election and business IT systems to licensing reforms and a statewide civic health effort.

The presentation covered four core areas: technology upgrades to business and elections systems, Office of Professional Regulation (OPR) work on licensure and sunrise reviews, civic-engagement programming including a Civic Health Index, and municipal assistance and records work. The secretary said the office aims to modernize services while protecting the public and supporting transparency.

The secretary told the commission that the office has launched three upgraded IT systems — business services, campaign finance and lobbying — and expects the Vermont Election Management System (VEMS), used by local clerks to maintain voter checklists and enter results, to go live in April. “We replaced and upgraded four critical IT systems,” the secretary said. The business services upgrade went live in December ahead of January renewals and is intended to produce automated reminders for filings.

On voter information, the office said Vermont implemented its first universal voter guide in 2024 and that the online guide drew more than 50,000 Vermonters. The office reported candidate participation rates of about 68% among Republican candidates and roughly 90% among Democratic and Progressive candidates in the first edition; staff said they expect higher compliance in future cycles.

The secretary described work to improve campaign finance transparency and compliance. The office is proposing, in a miscellaneous elections bill that started in the House, a requirement that all candidates register in the campaign finance system and file reports regardless of whether they meet the current $500 receipts/spending threshold; the change is intended to produce attestations and enable automated reminders.

The Office of Professional Regulation update reviewed recent sunrise reports and a large mental-health study released Dec. 15, 2024. The secretary said the mental-health review recommends consolidating many mental-health professions into a single allied mental-health board, but that staff will not bring a bill this session because of the study’s scope and the need for 6–9 months of stakeholder work. The OPR recommended voluntary certification for community-based doulas and recommended a three-tier licensure approach for early childhood educators; the early-childhood report was described as imminent.

OPR staff said they recently began a “positive reporting” system to track staff time by profession in order to estimate the cost of investigations, licensing, policy work and related activities. The office told senators that OPR has operated at a deficit in recent years and that it will ask for general-fund support for early-childhood educator licensure work (with implementation not expected until 2027) when the work generates little or no direct fee revenue.

The secretary described other crosscutting items: a Safe at Home address-confidentiality portal expanded in 2023 to include certain protected-health-care providers and recipients; the transfer of the statewide Biz Portal leadership to the Agency of Digital Services (with a target to have a live portal by July); and a landmark settlement handled by OPR involving Walgreens.

On civic engagement, the office launched a Civic Health Index and said it will run community outreach sessions across the state (locations cited included Brattleboro, South Burlington, St. Johnsbury, Rutland and Barre) and host recorded sessions online. The Civic Health Index measures voting, volunteering, neighbor-helping and public-meeting participation; the office said public outreach will “ground truth” the survey findings and that the Brattleboro launch drew about 40 attendees.

Senators asked about campaign finance compliance, OPR funding, how the mental-health recommendations will proceed, and how the civic work will reach under-resourced communities. Office staff described concrete steps: integrating candidate lists with campaign-finance accounts to require registration on nomination, instituting automatic reminders in the new systems, conducting two years of OPR time-tracking to capture a full renewal cycle, and conducting extensive stakeholder engagement before proposing major licensure changes.

The presentation closed with an outline of municipal assistance and archive services provided by the Secretary of State’s office, and an offer to follow up with senators on specific items including the civic engagement schedule and the OPR positive-reporting details.

What’s next: the office will activate VEMS in April, continue stakeholder engagement on OPR recommendations (mental health, doulas, early childhood), and pursue legislative changes in the miscellaneous elections bill and in OPR-related budget requests.