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Vote Tabulators

V.S.A. tit. 17, ch. 51, subch. 3
in effect

17 V.S.A. § 2491 Political subdivision; vote tabulators

2491. Political subdivision; vote tabulators (a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, a board of civil authority may, at a meeting held not less than 60 days prior to an election and warned pursuant to 24 V.S.A. § 801, vote to require the political subdivision for which it is elected to use vote tabulators for the registering and counting of votes in subsequent local, primary, or general elections, or any combination of those. (b) A town with 1,000 or more registered voters as of December 31 in an even-numbered year shall use vote tabulators for the registering and counting of votes in subsequent general elections. (c)(1) The Office of the Secretary of State shall pay the following costs associated with this section by using federal Help America Vote Act funds, as available: (A) full purchase and warranty cost of vote tabulators, ballot boxes, and two memory cards for each tabulator; (B) annual maintenance costs of vote tabulators for each town; and (C) the first $500.00 of the first pair of a vote tabulator’s memory cards’ configuration costs for each primary and general election. (2) A town shall pay the remainder of any cost not covered by subdivision (1) of this subsection. (d)(1) Notwithstanding a town’s use of vote tabulators under this section or any other provision of law, the Secretary of State may suspend the use of vote tabulators and require the hand count of votes in an election if the Secretary determines there are reasonable grounds to believe that the vote tabulators to be used in that election may have been rendered inoperable. (2) Upon such a determination, the Secretary shall alert the clerks of the affected municipalities of his or her decision as soon as practicable. Added 1977, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 1979, No. 200 (Adj. Sess.), § 49; 2003, No. 59, § 20; 2013, No. 161 (Adj. Sess.), § 27; 2015, No. 30, § 11; 2017, No. 50, § 22; 2017, No. 128 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. May 16, 2018.

17 V.S.A. § 2493 Rules for use of vote tabulators; audits

2493. Rules for use of vote tabulators; audits (a) The Secretary of State shall adopt rules governing the use and the selection of any vote tabulator in the State. These rules shall include requirements that: (1) All municipalities that have voted to use a vote tabulator shall use a uniform vote tabulator approved by the Secretary of State. (2) The Secretary of State shall provide for the security of vote tabulators at all times. Vote tabulators, not including the ballot box portion, shall be locked in a vault or a secure location at all times when not in use. (3)(A) The Secretary of State shall conduct a random postelection audit of any polling place election results for a general election within 30 days of the election. (B) If the Secretary determines that a random audit shall be conducted of the election results in a town or city, the town clerk shall direct two members of the board of civil authority to transport the ballot bags to the office of the Secretary not later than 10:00 a.m. on the morning when the Secretary has scheduled the audit. (C) The Secretary shall open the ballot bags and conduct the audit in the same manner as ballots are counted under sections 2581 through 2588 of this chapter. The Secretary shall publicly announce the results of the audit as well as the results from the original return of the vote. (D) If the Secretary finds that the audit indicates that there was possible fraud in the count or return of votes, he or she shall refer the results to the Attorney General for possible prosecution. (4)(A) All vote tabulators shall be set to reject a ballot that contains an overvote and the voter shall be provided the opportunity to obtain another ballot and correct the overvote. If an early voter absentee ballot contains an overvote, the elections official shall override the vote tabulator and count all races except any race that contains an overvote. (B) All vote tabulators shall be set not to reject undervotes. (5) Establish a process for municipalities using vote tabulators, whereby markings on ballots that are unreadable by a vote tabulator may be transferred by a pair of election officials, who are not members of the same political party, to ballots that are readable by the vote tabulator. (6) Establish a process for using vote tabulators in recounts. (b) Each vote tabulator shall be tested using official ballots that are marked clearly as “test ballots” at least 10 days prior to an election. This test shall be open to the public. (c) The same vote tabulator or vote tabulator memory card used in any local, primary, or general election shall not be used in a recount of that election. (d) A vote tabulator shall be a stand-alone device that shall not be connected to any other device or connections such as wireless connections, cable connections, cellular telephones, or telephone lines. (e) A municipality only may use a vote tabulator as provided in this title that registers and counts votes cast on paper ballots and that otherwise meets the requirements of this title. A municipality shall not use any type of voting machine on which a voter casts his or her vote. Added 1977, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 1979, No. 200 (Adj. Sess.), § 51; 2001, No. 5, § 5; 2003, No. 59, § 22; 2003, No. 94 (Adj. Sess.), § 2; 2007, No. 54, § 8; 2015, No. 30, § 12, eff. May 26, 2015; 2017, No. 50, § 23.

17 V.S.A. § 2494 Construction with other laws

2494. Construction with other laws (a) Except as this subchapter affects the method of registering votes and ascertaining the result, the laws of this State pertaining to elections shall be applicable. The laws pertaining to early or absentee voters shall in no way be affected by this subchapter, and votes cast by early or absentee voters shall be counted with votes counted on vote tabulators. (b) In towns using vote tabulators, the board of civil authority may vote to open polling places at 5:00 a.m., provided that at least three elections officials are present, two of whom are from different parties. If all early voter absentee ballots have not been deposited into the vote tabulators before the closing of the polls at 7:00 p.m., the elections officials shall continue to deposit ballots using the same procedure as provided in subsection 2561(b) of this title, treating each ballot as a voter waiting to cast his or her ballot at the close of the polls. Added 1977, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 2001, No. 6, § 2, eff. April 10, 2001; 2003, No. 59, § 23; 2007, No. 121 (Adj. Sess.), § 9; 2013, No. 161 (Adj. Sess.), § 27.

17 V.S.A. § 2499 Transfer of paper ballots from vote tabulators

2499. Transfer of paper ballots from vote tabulators The presiding officer, with the assistance of at least two election officials, may transfer voted ballots from the box attached to the vote tabulator to another secure ballot box or secured ballot bag whenever necessary during election day in order to allow the vote tabulator to continue to function properly. Added 1979, No. 200 (Adj. Sess.), § 55; amended 1985, No. 203 (Adj. Sess.), § 3; 2001, No. 5, § 7; 2001, No. 6, § 12(a), eff. April 10, 2001; 2003, No. 59, § 24; 2013, No. 161 (Adj. Sess.), § 27.
Source: Vermont General Assembly (legislature.vermont.gov)URL: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/chapter/17/051Fetched: 10/21/2026

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