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Local district meeting approves memo after voter‑sample audit
Summary
At a short meeting, the chair said a sample check required by recent legislation found no errors in assignments across two districts; members voted to transmit a memo to the Secretary of State confirming the review.
A local multi‑town district held a brief meeting to review results of a legally required audit of its district assignments and voted to transmit a memo to the Secretary of State’s office confirming that a spot‑check of voter records found no errors.
The chair opened the meeting at 6:00 p.m. and said the session’s purpose was to comply with new legislation passed in July that requires multi‑town districts to audit whether residents are assigned to the correct district. “So the point of this meeting is from some new legislation that passed in, July that any multi town district has to do, an audit of their 2 districts to make sure people are falling in the right place,” the chair said. She added that reapportionment follows every 10 years after the U.S. Census and that the district’s 2020 population of 10,103 prompted creation of a second district and an additional representative.
Members reviewed a sample list of roughly 30 voters chosen to test addresses on streets that straddle boundary lines, including Oak Hill, Old Creamery and parts of South Brownell. The chair said she tried to pick addresses where a single incorrect number or formatting error might place a household in one district rather than the other.
A committee member raised three concerns about the sample checklist: a duplicated surname entry where a first name was missing, a misspelling of Stefan Parker (rendered “Steffen” in the sample), and difficulty locating a voter with the surname O’Brien due to search behavior when an apostrophe is entered. The chair confirmed the spelling issue and said she would correct entries where needed and verify the missing record cited on page 17 of the CHI 8 listing.
The group discussed administrative overlaps with neighboring jurisdictions. The chair noted South Burlington clerks will run similar checks and observed that Burlington manages multiple districts, while this district is limited to two, which the chair called “fortunate.”
A motion to “confirm no errors were found in the voter sample taken of both districts and to approve the memo transmittal to the Secretary of State’s office” was introduced, moved by Terry and seconded by Tony. The chair called for a voice vote; members answered “aye,” the chair said she heard no opposition, and she declared the motion carried.
The meeting adjourned at about 6:07 p.m.
What happens next: the memo will be transmitted to the Secretary of State’s office as approved; the district noted this audit is required only once between now and 2032. The district also flagged a small number of clerical corrections to the sample list that staff said they would fix before transmittal.
