Secretary of State lays out elections operations, new voting and reporting systems to go live this year

Deputy Secretary of State Lauren Hibbert told the House Committee on Government Operations & Military Affairs that the Elections Division’s core job is to “preserve the integrity of campaigns and elections” while supporting local clerks who administer Vermont’s elections.

Hibbert said the Secretary of State’s office has about 84 total staff and that the Elections Division itself is a staff of six. She described three major technical projects: a new election management system scheduled to go live at the end of April after town meeting; a campaign finance system that launched Jan. 6; and a new lobbying system that launched Jan. 2. Hibbert said those systems are intended to modernize reporting and ease public access to filings.

The division provides a central election procedure guide, a statewide voter registration checklist, an election management system that clerks use to track absentee ballots and defective ballots, and a calendar and bulletins for clerk deadlines. Hibbert described the division as a support agency that coordinates with town, city and county clerks who run elections locally.

Hibbert named the vendors used for the new systems in questions from committee members: Reframe Solutions for the election management and campaign finance systems, and Stonewall for the lobbying system. She said the office purposely timed the election management system launch after town meeting “because changing the horse in the middle of the race is not a prudent thing to do.”

Hibbert also detailed how federal laws shape state practice: the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE Act) affect how ballots are mailed, how provisional ballots are handled and how voting systems support accessibility. She said federal grants tied to HAVA supplement general fund spending for some activities.

Hibbert provided operational numbers: the state mailed about 450,000 ballots for the universal vote-by-mail general election and reported a record 372,885 voters in 2024, with turnout above 70% for the second time (2020 and 2024). She said clerks enter unofficial results on election night and the office receives official returns 48 hours later to allow cleanup of write-ins.

Committee members asked for follow-up data on clerk turnover and other operational metrics; Hibbert said the office would provide additional numbers to the committee. She also offered contact information and the elections division website for further questions.