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Senate committee hears bill to create Vermont Voting Rights Act, adds language assistance and new election-interference offenses
Summary
The Senate Government Operations Committee reviewed S.298, the Vermont Voting Rights Act, which would add language-access requirements, protections for older and disabled voters, preclearance for certain electoral changes, a voter-education fund, new criminal and civil election-interference offenses, and a rule to count incarcerated people at their last known address for redistricting; witnesses from RepresentWomen, FairVote Action, and Harvard’s Election Law Clinic urged passage and amendments.
The Senate Government Operations Committee on Friday took an initial, detailed look at S.298, the Vermont Voting Rights Act, a broad bill that would add statewide voting-rights protections and new enforcement tools.
Legislative counsel Tim Devlin, who walked the committee through the draft, said the bill is organized into six areas: language assistance; assistance for voters 65 and older and voters with disabilities; limits and procedures for changes to electoral systems and district boundaries; creation of a voter-education and outreach fund; new criminal and civil measures to address election interference; and provisions for how incarcerated people are counted in reapportionment.
"First would be language assistance for voters," Devlin said while summarizing the bill’s structure, and he later described the bill’s enforcement mechanism: residents who believe required language services were not provided could bring a civil action in superior court.
Why it matters: supporters told the committee the bill aims to prevent "vote dilution"—a situation in which voters can cast ballots but election structures consistently prevent particular groups from translating votes into representation. The draft pairs preventive procedures (notice, review, and the option to seek an attorney general certification) with both criminal and civil enforcement tools.
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