Student Voting Guide | Vermont
Registration
http://vermont-elections.org/elections1/voters.html (registration form available online)
In Vermont, registering to vote is known as having your name placed on the “checklist.” Your application to have your name placed on the checklist must be received by the town clerk by 5 p.m. on the Wednesday before the election.[1] A mail application is considered received if it is postmarked by the deadline.[2] If you are not eligible to register before the voter registration deadline (if, for example, you would turn 18 between the deadline and the election), you may file a written notice of intention to apply before the registration deadline.[3] Then, once you become eligible, the town clerk must accept your application if you file it before the polls close on Election Day.[4]
You may register to vote[5] and vote in a primary election[6] if you will be 18 by the next election.
Residency
Vermont’s constitution provides that “all voters, having a sufficient, evident, common interest with, and attachment to, the community” have a right to vote.[7] Vermont statutes require voters to be residents of the state[8], and “residence” is defined as domicile.[9] Vermont law also includes a gain or loss provision stating that students shall not “gain or lose a residence solely” because of presence in or absence from the state while a student.[10] While Vermont law requires that voters have the intent to remain “indefinitely,”[11] Vermont courts have explicitly held that a student who “has no definite plans to leave” and only intends to “possibly leave” his college town after graduation still has indefinite intent to remain.[12]
Vermont courts have stated that students “should be permitted to vote in their school communities” if they are genuine residents of those communities and “are more closely tied to these communities than they are to the communities in which their parents live.”[13] The Secretary of State’s office acknowledges that people may have two residences, and says that because the law creates a subjective standard for determining residency, a voter “must decide which [residence] is his or her ‘principal’ dwelling place.”[14] The Secretary of State’s office strongly encourages all students to vote where they wish.[15]
At School. Students attending school in Vermont have the explicit right to choose to vote in their school communities if they are genuine residents of those communities. While Vermont law requires an intent to remain “indefinitely,” Vermont courts have made clear that students can fulfill that requirement even if they have uncertain post-college plans, so establishing residency in Vermont as a student should not be a problem.
At Home. Students who lived in Vermont before moving elsewhere to attend school, and who wish to establish or keep their Vermont voting residency (i.e., at their parents’ Vermont address), should have no problem doing so unless they have already registered to vote in another state. Like all states, Vermont allows students to keep their voting residency even if they move out of the district to attend school, and the only way you will lose this residency is by establishing residency in a new state. While registering to vote in another state is not automatically considered an abandonment of your Vermont residency, some judges or officials might view it as such.
Challenges to Residency. If the town clerk questions your eligibility to vote when you first apply, they will refer your application to the local elections board.[16] The board reviews your application and can examine you under oath. If they find that you are ineligible to vote in Vermont, the board must notify you and state their reason in writing.[17] Vermont courts have noted that in determining your residency, the board must “bear in mind that election laws are to be liberally construed and that a very heavy burden of proof must be met if persons are to be disenfranchised.”[18] If the elections board denies your application, you can appeal to a superior or district judge in your county through an informal process (which means that no filing fee or lawyer is required).[19] The appeal must be completed with sufficient speed in order to enable you to vote in the upcoming election. At the hearing, anyone, including the applicant, may present evidence.[20] Once you are on the checklist for a particular election, your eligibility to vote cannot be challenged at the polls.[21]
Identification
Vermont’s only voter identification requirement is for first-time voters who register by mail. These voters must either mail in a copy of their ID with their registration application, or must show ID at the polls when they vote for the first time. Voters who register through registration drives are considered to have registered in person and are not subject to the requirement. If you did not provide proper identification with your registration, you must show one of the following forms of identification at the polls on Election Day: a valid photo ID; a copy of a current utility bill; a copy of a current bank statement; or a copy of any government document that shows the current name and address of the voter.[22] Student IDs, cellular telephone bills, student housing bills, and online printouts of bills will all be accepted.[23] If you cannot show ID, you will be allowed to vote after completing an affirmation at the polls.[24]
Absentee Voting
http://vermont-elections.org/elections1/2010VTAbsenteeRequestForm.pdf
In Vermont, any voter—including first-time voters—can vote absentee, without providing a reason for doing so.
A mail-in application to vote absentee is available on the Secretary of State’s web site at the link above. Your application must be received by the town clerk by the day before the election.[25] Your absentee ballot must be received by the close of polls on Election Day.[26] Neither your application nor your ballot must be witnessed. First-time voters who registered by mail should send the town clerk a copy of their identification in order to vote absentee.
Early Voting
As a convenience to voters, Vermont has early voting which begins 45 days before the election and ends on Election Day.[27] At early voting sites, you can vote any precinct’s ballot for that county. If you do not consider your school address to be your permanent address, or if you have not changed your residence yet, then early voting provides an opportunity to vote a ballot at the residence from which you are absent.
Last Updated in April 2010
[1] Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17, § 2144(a) (2010).
[2] Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17 § 2144(a).
[3] Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17, § 2144(b).
[4] Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17, § 2144(b).
[5] Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17, § 2121.
[6] FairVote “Voting Age and Registration,” available at http://www.fairvote.org/youth-preregistration-fact-sheet.
[7] Vt. Const. ch. 1, art. 8.
[8] Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17, § 2121.
[9] See Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17, 17, § 2103(30).
[10] Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17, § 2122.
[11] Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17, § 2103(30).
[12] Shivelhood v. Davis, 336 F. Supp. 1111, 1114 (D. Vt. 1971).
[13] Id. at 1116.
[14] Vermont Secretary of State, Register to Vote: Frequently Asked Questions, http://vermont-elections.org/elections1/register_faq.html (last visited on April 26, 2010).
[15] Interview with Kathy DeWolf, Director of Elections and Campaign Finance, Vermont Secretary of State’s Office (July 11, 2008).
[16] Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17, § 2144b(c).
[17] Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17, § 2146(b).
[18] Shivelhood, 363 F. Supp. at 1114.
[19] Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17, § 2148(a).
[20] Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17, § 2148(b).
[21] Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17, § 2148(c).
[22] Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17, § 2563.
[23] Interview with Kathy DeWolf, Director of Elections and Campaign Finance, Vermont Secretary of State’s Office (July 11, 2008).
[24] Interview with Kathy DeWolf, Director of Elections and Campaign Finance, Vermont Secretary of State’s Office (July 16, 2008).
[25] Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17, § 2531(a) (2010).
[26] Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17, § 2543.
[27] Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 17 § 2537; see also Vermont Secretary of State, Voting By Early or Absentee Ballot available at http://vermont-elections.org/elections1/absentee_overview.html.
