At a recent naturalization ceremony at the Vermont Statehouse, the League of Women Voters of Vermont met a crowd of brand new citizens outside the doors to the Vermont House chamber. The women handed out clipboards with voter registration forms and pamphlets in different languages, all about voting.
Fabian Baugh started coming to Vermont in 2015 from Jamaica as an H2-B worker at a hotel in Stowe. Now, he lives in Morrisville, and he’s among the town’s newest voters.
“It actually feels great,” Baugh said, after handing over his registration form. “I’ve never voted anywhere before. So it will be the first time I’ll be actually voting.”
Nearby, Vermont’s Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas watched new Vermonters fill out registration forms. Of the 49 people naturalized that day, 19 of them registered to vote on the spot.
This was exciting news to Copeland Hanzas, whose office recently created videos about how to vote in 14 languages, with new citizens like Baugh in mind. Some Vermont jurisdictions also offer translated sample ballots for statewide and local elections.
Copeland Hanzas, along with her predecessor Jim Condos and other state officials, has championed efforts to remove barriers to voting in Vermont.
After a series of changes, many over the last decade, Vermont has become one of the easiest places to vote in the country, vaulting to the top of measures like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Elections Performance Index — and, according to officials, even influencing voter turnout.
Most states have made it easier to vote, not harder, according to a recent study by the Center for Election Innovation and Research.
“So overall, just in kind of little ways, as the entire nation has improved with election administration, Vermont has been able to improve even more,” said Charles Stewart III, a professor of political science at MIT who helped develop and now leads work on the Elections Performance Index.
However, it’s not perfect. Some marginalized communities face extra barriers that haven’t fully been resolved. And changing rules and inconsistencies have left some Vermonters confused about the process.
Easier voting, high turnout
In Vermont, accessible voting begins at registration.
In 2015, then-Secretary of State Jim Condos introduced online voter registration so that Vermonters could register to vote “whenever it’s most convenient for them,” he said at the time.
In 2016, Vermont enacted its version of the National Voter Registration Act, allowing people to simultaneously register to vote when applying for or renewing a driver’s license or ID card at a Department of Motor Vehicles office. That entryway to registration became dominant after 2016, but other methods, such as registration drives like the ones the League of Women Voters facilitate at every naturalization ceremony, still play an important role.
Vermont has also made strides in smaller ways, such as reworking its voter registration forms to make them more understandable for voters who may not be able to read well.
Vermont began allowing people to register to vote on the same day as the election in 2017. Since then, thousands of people in Vermont have used that option to register and vote in general elections, according to data from the Election Assistance Commission’s Election Administration and Voting Survey.
Town clerks, like Sara Haskins of Morristown, say same-day registration is an important tool that helps prevent potential voters from getting turned away. And it can be a relief, not just for the people who come in wanting to vote, but also for Haskins and other town clerks.
“It was really hard before as a clerk for me, personally, when somebody would come in and they said, ‘Well, I know I signed up at the DMV,’ but the DMV hadn't forwarded the paperwork to us so they couldn't vote. So now it's become a lot easier for people with same-day voter registration,” she said.
What’s the future for voter registration in Vermont? Copeland Hanzas said she wants social services programs, such as the Department for Children and Families, to play a similar role to the DMV in automatically registering voters. A handful of other states, like Maryland and Massachusetts, have already implemented this in some of their agencies.
Casting a ballot in Vermont has also become easier than ever.
Vermont is unique in that incarcerated people can vote here; it’s one of two states and the District of Columbia that allows this.
After the 2020 election, Vermont made universal mail-in voting — which means all registered voters are automatically mailed a ballot — the norm for all general elections.
Vermont tried universal mail-in voting in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. That timing coincides with a jump in general election participation, from about 63% in 2016 to 73% in 2020.
Vermont’s culture and political campaigns influence turnout, too.
Voter turnout in Vermont is among the highest in the nation — though Vermont is not a battleground state, like its neighbor New Hampshire.
Recent studies have shown that more engagement from parties and candidates can boost turnout, and that accessibility — removing barriers — only plays part of the role of actually getting people to vote.
The fact that Vermont’s turnout is so high, according to Director of Elections and Campaign Finance Seán Sheehan, not only speaks to increased accessibility, but also Vermont’s community-centric culture, which can be seen in traditions like Town Meeting Day.
“In Vermont, I think it's a real testament to the community of Vermont, the community fabric, everyone reminding each other,” Sheehan said, “and also the way the laws have changed to make voting more accessible for people to come out.”
Vermont scores low on disability access
Many of the accessibility challenges that remain in Vermont’s elections affect people with disabilities — a large, diverse group with a wide range of varying needs.
MIT’s Elections Performance Index gives Vermont a very low score for disability access: It ranks No. 49 in the United States, just ahead of New Hampshire and Tennessee. Stewart said the measurement that led to that low score could be, in part, accentuated by Vermont’s high turnout rate. He also said New England’s architecture, some of it the oldest in the country, can present more challenges to people who may have mobility issues. While there may be accessibility measures, like ramps, they may not be located at the main entrance. And, in many towns, Stewart said, “You'll still have to drive if you want to vote in person. That's going to be a challenge.”
Indeed, some Vermont towns have municipal buildings that are more than 100 years old, and they may be in historic districts without a lot of parking.
Disability Rights Vermont conducts an ongoing survey of polling places around the state for accessibility and ADA compliance. So far, they’ve found that many of the polling places they surveyed didn’t have ADA-compliant accessible parking. Lindsey Owen, executive director of Disability Rights Vermont, said towns are happy to work with her organization to improve accessibility.
“Really it's a learning opportunity, because … there are some things that people may not realize are a barrier,” Owen said. “So, for example, like the threshold to get into a building. You know, 2 inches may not seem like a lot, but … for an older person who uses a walker, like, that could be a barrier to just getting in the building. A mom with a baby stroller — like anything, really.”
Getting to the polls
Transportation is another big barrier.
Vermont is one of the most rural U.S. states, and towns are spread out. There are public transport options available in more populated areas of the state, and there are nonprofits trying to fill gaps in more rural areas. But the issue can still deter potential voters, even in more populous areas, like Winooski, where a primary day voter named Mary Cain said she had older neighbors who couldn’t make it to the polls that day because they had no mode of transport.
“I know there’s a ton of people in the neighborhood that aren’t voting because they don’t have a way to get to the voting polls,” she said. “Now, they could’ve asked for an absentee [ballot], but they weren’t inclined to do so. So, we’re missing a whole virtual population, in this particular case, of seniors.”
Owen said transportation access comes up often for the folks her organization serves. And, it can be a big factor in whether someone is ultimately able to vote.
“For Vermont, if you don't have access to your own vehicle, your ability to engage in services, or, you know, voting, I mean, it just is severely impacted,” Owen said. “So public transportation, or some way to provide better transportation options on election days, would be incredible.”
An accessible option no one uses
Vermont has an accessible voting system, called the Omniballot system, that allows any voters who use it to fill out their ballots privately.
For in-person voters, the Omniballot tablet can be used in several ways. The user can fill out their ballot using the touchscreen, or they can choose between a navigation pad — which can be helpful for people with low or no vision — or a three-button tool that can be helpful for people with fine motor challenges. The user can hear audio instructions with a pair of headphones. There is also an online option that voters can access from home.
“It's pretty easy to use, and it is absolutely, really, really useful, like, for folks that have particular types of disabilities, or just anyone can use it,” Owen said.
However, very few, if any, voters actually ask to use it, according to Copeland Hanzas and town clerks.
Hilary Francis, the town clerk in Brattleboro, said she’s had one voter ask to use it. She then asked two more voters to use it during that election to ensure their vote was private.
“But beyond that, that voter never used it again,” Francis said. “The voters who we asked to use it never used it again. Nobody has ever requested it. We have signage up, if somebody comes into the polls and they need assistance, most of the time, they would rather have a friend or family member or two justices of the peace come and help them.”
There are efforts to increase its use, including training for town clerks, who, along with poll workers, are responsible for facilitating use of the machines.
Owen said there may be some intimidation among voters about the technology, and that there could be room for more promotion of the Omniballot system as a tool not just for people with disabilities, but for any voter.
“I think there's a lot of stigma around identifying as someone who has a disability, which isn't to say that that's warranted, but I think it's just the reality of the situation,” Owen said. “But I think promoting it and providing more education, that this is an option for anybody who wants to utilize it.”
Nationally, there is a turnout gap between voters who report having a disability and voters who don’t. Copeland Hanzas said mail-in voting is one policy that can help address that in Vermont.
According to a report looking at national data from the Election Assistance Commission and Rutgers, 61% of voters with disabilities voted through mail or early in-person methods in 2022. And while a small percentage of people with disabilities (6% in 2022) reported problems voting by mail, 20% reported difficulties voting in-person. Still, nearly half of people with disabilities who were surveyed said they would prefer to vote in-person in the next election.
It's different to go to the polling place and see other community members voting alongside you and feeling like you are really a part of that community, versus voting from the living room.Lindsey Owen, executive director of Disability Rights Vermont
But advocates say that, while mail-in voting is an important option for folks to have, it’s not a fallback for a lack of accessible polling places.
“It's different to go to the polling place and see other community members voting alongside you and feeling like you are really a part of that community, versus voting from the living room because you don't have the services necessary to get you to the polling place, or you don't have the money necessary to have a vehicle, and you don't have public transportation access,” Owen said.
Disability Rights Vermont conducted focus groups about voting in 2020. Aside from physical barriers, not understanding the voting system and the candidates, as well as a lack of empowerment around voting, can keep people in the disability community from participating, Owen said.
“It could be a literal matter of not having the ability to get there, not understanding the process, or understanding what the candidates represent. And I think, yeah, access to the polling places — now that Vermont sends out the ballots, I think that's helpful that that's there. It's still intimidating. There are many, many steps to the process, and so you know, that can be a barrier in and of itself,” Owen said.
Voting while incarcerated
Technically, it’s always been legal for incarcerated Vermonters to vote in their state.
However, a 2022 study showed that incarcerated people in Vermont voted in very low numbers in past elections. In the 2016 election, the researchers estimated a 13% turnout rate among incarcerated people in Vermont.
More from Vermont Public: Vermont allows people who are incarcerated to vote. Data shows they don't
The League of Women Voters of Vermont and Disability Rights Vermont, both of which facilitate registration drives inside of correctional facilities, are trying to improve this. The organizations, and Chris Barton, the restorative systems administrator with the Vermont Department of Corrections, said there seems to be more interest ahead of the upcoming general election in registering to vote at the six correctional facilities in Vermont. (The DOC doesn’t keep data on incarcerated voter turnout.)
Incarcerated people in Vermont face more barriers to casting their ballot by nature of their situation. And in some cases, they may not even be aware that they have the right to vote in Vermont. But the biggest hurdle they face is codified in Vermont law.
People incarcerated in Vermont who want to vote cannot use their correctional facility as their residence. They must register in their last place of residence. This can raise a host of issues.
Some people may have been incarcerated so long they don’t remember their last address. If they were experiencing homelessness before getting incarcerated, they may not have a specific town that they considered their residence. If they are able to pinpoint a town and address, the clerk in that town must verify it.
Sheehan, Vermont’s director of elections, said the state and advocacy organizations try to work in concert with town clerks and advocates to make sure potential voters are able to clear this barrier.
“If you lived in Vermont as your last place of residence prior to being incarcerated, you have the right to vote and to register in that community,” Sheehan said. “So the same thing, kind of working with, between the clerks and the advocates, saying, ‘We're trying to register somebody. Their last address may have been 15, may have been 20 years ago, but it was in this community.’ We want to help them get registered.”
Once they do become registered, a ballot won’t get automatically mailed to the correctional facility where they’re incarcerated. They must request an absentee ballot be sent there.
Nationally, people with disabilities are overrepresented in correctional facilities. And when it comes time to vote, they may have fewer resources. The Omniballot machine has never been used in a Vermont correctional facility, and there’s not an avenue to make it available. If someone needs help filling out a ballot, they can write a request to their facility’s volunteer coordinator, ask their caseworker or contact an advocate from an organization like Disability Rights Vermont. These options may help with some barriers that have to do with a disability or literacy gaps.
But when it comes to voting in a correctional facility, time is of the essence.
Even one delay in the process can throw things off course, Owen said. For example, if they forgot to request an absentee ballot, and a ballot was sent to their last address, they’d have to fill out an affidavit to get a new ballot mailed to them.
“Because it takes time to receive your ballot and send it back, because everything kind of goes through the mail system, and so I think building in enough time and letting people know about their right to vote and the upcoming election, I mean, is really critical to letting these individuals vote,” Owen said.
That’s why, Barton said, DOC volunteer coordinators post voting and election information in each facility 90 days ahead of Election Day. But whether people in the facility register and request their ballots with ample time depends on the individual.
So accessible, it’s confusing
Before any election in Vermont, in any community, you’ll find a town clerk fielding questions from confused voters.
There are perennial issues, said Morristown Town Clerk Sara Haskins, like when voters who may work in one town but live in another try to vote at the polling place nearest to where they work — not where they live.
At some point you almost come full circle, where you accessibilitize yourself out of accessibility, because it becomes so confusing and so inconsistent.Hilary Francis, Brattleboro town clerk
But there’s also a new type of confusion, borne of inconsistencies in policies like mail-in voting. Haskins said voters can get confused about which ballots are mailed to them and which aren’t, because universal mail-in voting is only for general elections, not primaries in August or March. To add to that, towns’ select boards can decide whether or not to mail ballots for local elections.
“I just got off the phone, actually, with a voter this morning that said, ‘All right, are you mailing me my ballots this time?’ Because we've been mailing them for all of our local elections. We had so many extra local elections because of all of the budgets failing two years in a row,” Haskins said. “So the voters in my community are used to having their ballots mailed, and then in August, the state did not mail the primary ballots, and so that really confused them that there wasn't that consistency. So now I'm getting the phone calls of, ‘Are you going to mail me my November one? Because you didn't mail me my August one.’”
Hilary Francis, the Brattleboro town clerk, fields similar questions, though her jurisdiction does not mail out ballots for local elections.
“It's one of the challenging things is, you know, we try to make it so accessible, where we meet everybody's needs, that there is that lack of consistency, and at some point you almost come full circle, where you accessibilitize yourself out of accessibility, because it becomes so confusing and so inconsistent,” Francis said.
This patchwork of inconsistencies can cost voters time. And time, according to Owen of Disability Rights Vermont, can make or break whether someone — especially someone with extra barriers to voting — is actually able to cast their ballot.
Charles Stewart, with MIT’s Elections Performance Index, said it could be beneficial for the state to step back, pause on any new changes, and smooth out those pinch points.
Corey Dockser assisted with the data analysis and visualizations for this story.
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