Widespread voter fraud does not exist. Those who claim voter fraud happens on any large scale fail to provide evidence to back up the claim.

Instead, numerous non-partisan studies and official audits have shown voter fraud to be a non-factor on the results of an election.

A Loyola Law School review, for example, found 31 potential cases of voter fraud out of more than 1 billion votes cast over a 14-year period of elections at the local, state, and federal levels.

Voter fraud is rare because most people take their civic duty seriously, and affecting a single vote is a highly ineffective way to influence an election. If someone tries to cheat the system, the odds of getting caught are high, and when they are caught, the penalties are severe.

In the 2020 election, Vermonters cast 370,968 ballots. In that election, we referred 7 cases of potential voter fraud to the Attorney General’s office, and only 1 was found to be actionable. That’s a “voter fraud rate” of 0.0003% – less than 1/1000th of a percent.

From the federal to the state to the local level, voter checklists are regularly vetted for accuracy. National and statewide databases help Vermont’s local Boards of Civil Authority (BCAs) and town/city clerks maintain their voter checklists, with a focus on ensuring no eligible voter is denied their Constitutional right to vote.

Every voter checklist in the country contains some outdated voter information, but the Secretary of State’s goal is for Vermont’s voter checklist to be as up-to-date as possible. The presence of outdated registrations alone is not an indication of fraud. Unfortunately, voters do not always notify us or their clerks when they move, and we have yet to get a call from beyond the grave from a voter letting us know they’ve passed.

The process of removing voters from the voter checklist is strictly defined by state statute and federal requirements that must be met, and is carried out by the local BCAs and the town or city clerks. BCAs are required by law to meet and use a variety of information at their disposal to challenge voters they believe are no longer eligible to vote in that town. Those voters are issued a challenge letter, and their status as a voter is changed from “active” to “challenged.” This process is mandated by federal law before removing a person from the checklist due to a change of residency.

Additionally, automatic voter registration through our partnership with the Department of Motor Vehicles provides updated address information from voters who have moved. Vermont’s My Voter Page and Online Voter Registration System enable voters to maintain their voter registration records. This increases the accuracy and quality of Vermont’s voter rolls. Additionally, our election management system notifies town clerks that a voter may be removed from their checklist if that voter moves and registers to vote in a different Vermont town.

Vermont is also a member of a multi-state consortium called the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). This system compares voter data between states and provides reports used by the clerks and BCAs to identify voters who may have moved or died and should be challenged.

First of all, to vote by mail, a person must be registered to vote and verified with the State of Vermont. To cast another person’s ballot, a fraudster would need to identify someone who is registered, get a ballot on behalf of that voter, commit perjury to sign that ballot envelope, and get the ballot back in the hands of the clerk. All of this would need to happen while being certain the victim won’t vote, the clerk or election workers won’t become suspicious, and the action can’t be traced back to them.

This is lot of effort to change a single vote and, as with any kind of voter fraud, odds of getting caught are high and the consequence in this case would be many years in prison and/or thousands of dollars in fines. Plus, coordinating or replicating this process on a mass scale would be nearly impossible.

Vermont’s town/city clerks are committed to ensuring the integrity of the elections they oversee. They carefully track absentee/mail-in ballots, and State law requires that at least two election officials be present when processing ballots received by mail. This level of scrutiny ensures strong security throughout the process.

The Supreme Court has ruled that college students may register to vote where they go to school (see Symm v. U.S. (1979)), so college students who consider Vermont their primary residence may vote here in the same manner as any other registered voter. They may vote in person early, on Election Day, or absentee by mail.

Under Vermont law, voting residence is connected to domicile, which is determined by physical presence at some point and an intent to make that place home as demonstrated by acts consistent with that intent. So, if a student considers their college community as their primary residence, they are entitled to register to vote in that community.

The student doesn’t need to be certain about where they’ll live after graduation, so long as they have no present intention of permanently returning to their former residence. A dorm or college address can be an acceptable residential address and does not disqualify a student from voting.

Conversely, out-of-state students who go to college in Vermont can vote absentee in their home state if they are unsure about remaining in Vermont or intend to return to their home state once they finish school.

A student may not claim registration in two states or vote more than once in the same election.

Vote-counting machines, known as tabulators, are securely built. Tabulators are unable to connect to the internet or other systems – a practice known as air gapping. Not only are tabulators secure, but the machines are consistently more accurate than hand counting, which is why all Vermont polling places that serve 1,000 or more voters use them. The machines are rigorously checked and tested: clerks must test the machines at least ten days before an election for “logic and accuracy.” This ensures the tabulator is reading ballots correctly.

Clerks must also ensure that all election officials follow strict protocols when handling the tabulator memory cards and any paper ballots. They sign out and sign back in the memory cards, and carefully monitor when ballots are handled in any way. Just like for nearly every other election-related duty, at least two election officials must be present to run a tabulator. When not in use, tabulators must be locked in a vault or a secure location at all times.

But even with those protocols in place, we still don’t just take the machine’s word for it. Every vote cast in Vermont elections is done on a paper ballot; paper ballots from Federal elections are securely stored for 22 months following the election to ensure accurate results.

After each election, results from the stand-alone tabulators are printed out on a register tape. Election officials enter these results through a secure online portal into the statewide election management system on election night as unofficial results. The number of ballots counted is compared to the number of voters checked off the checklist as having voted, and those two numbers need to match. Once everything has been checked to make sure it’s correct, the official results are reported to the Secretary of State’s office. This report has to be done within 48 hours of polls closing.

Vermont’s statewide results are certified as official a week after the election by a canvassing committee, made up of the Secretary of State and a member of each major party (Democratic, Progressive, and Republican).

Finally, thirty days after every general election, the Secretary of State’s office conducts a post-election audit. We gather in December in a public, live-streamed event, where we select a random group of cities and towns - some of which are hand count towns - to confirm the results reported match the ballots. The results reported by the clerk are compared to the paper ballots themselves, to make sure that there are no discrepancies. The results of these audits are then posted on our website.

Changes in vote totals between the unofficial election night reporting and official certification of election results are a normal part of the election process.

Unofficial results are provided on election night for the convenience of voters, candidates, and the media. Clerks then have 48 hours to complete a rigorous process that includes analyzing write-in votes and double-checking entrance checklists to ensure all votes are accounted for. As a result, there may be some differences between preliminary, unofficial results on election night, and the official, certified results that have undergone diligent verification. This is not an indicator of fraud and demonstrates the detail paid to the careful process of results certification.

Vermont’s statewide results are certified as official a week after the election by a canvassing committee, made up of the Secretary of State and a member of each major party (Democratic, Progressive, and Republican).