MIDDLESEX, Vt. (WCAX) – With one week until Election Day, top state officials say everyone should make a plan to vote. Over 150,000 Vermonters — or about one-third of registered voters have already cast their ballots.
At the Middlesex Town Hall, town clerk Sarah Merriman is already weeks into collecting ballots from some 1,400 registered voters in town.
“It needs to be completed with your signature, your name printed, and the date,” she explained, showing one of the ballots returned early in a sealed envelope.
Merriman then enters the voters’ ballot into a statewide system, preventing them from also casting a ballot in person on Election Day. Then, I take the ballot — still in its signature envelope, still sealed — I take it into our vault and I deposit it into a locked ballot box,” she said.
The ballots will stay there until they are tabulated and reported. “That will print a complete report showing the zero report, starting off as zero, then we have the counts for all the races,” Merriman said.
If you haven’t put your ballot in the mail, it’s too late to send it in. Instead, you’ll need to put it in a drop box at your local town hall or bring it to the polls on Election Day.
“If you are voting on election day, BYOB — bring your own ballot,” said Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas. And if you don’t bring it, you’ll have to sign a sworn affidavit pledging you have not yet voted.
State election officials are also raising concerns about a growing trend of threatening behavior and violence toward poll workers and election officials that they say even Vermont is not immune from. In an attempt to bring down the political temperature, Republican Governor Phil Scott and Copeland Hanzas, a Democrat, on Tuesday urged Vermonters to put partisan politics aside and engage with each other and their community.
“By giving back, we can turn the tide, rebuild our sense of community, feel more connected to our neighbors, and feel part of something bigger than ourselves,” Scott said. He says state police are preparing for a number of possible scenarios on Election Day, from power outages to violence at the polls.
Back in Middlesex, Merriman says they will run absentee ballots through on Monday before a busy day on Tuesday. “Your neighbors and elected officials are running this process. No one has an agenda, we just want an efficient and accurate election,” she said.
Voters can also track the progress of thier ballots on the Secrtary of State’s My Voter Page.
