Secretary of State Announces Press Conference, Delay of Statewide and Federal Primary Results Canvass

August 16 2022

Today the Vermont Secretary of State’s office announced that the 2022 Statewide and Federal Primary Election Canvass will be delayed. The office’s priority is ensuring all vote reports certified as official precisely match the official return of votes as submitted by the Town and City Clerks. To date, the state’s contractor has been unable to resolve an administrative technology issue impacting the office’s ability to generate reports based on the official return of votes submitted by Town and City Clerks. The canvassing was scheduled for 10am today.

At 1pm today the Secretary of State will hold a press conference to discuss details, answer questions and provide an update on the status of the office’s ability to generate the reports necessary for the County and Statewide canvassing committees.

The press conference will be held at the Secretary of State’s office, located at 128 State Street in Montpelier.

Office staff continue to work around the clock with the state’s software contractor to identify a solution and produce reports based on the official return of votes submitted by the Clerks.

It is important to note that this process is separate and distinct from the official counting of ballots and the local certification of official results by the Town Clerks. The Secretary of State’s office wants to assure the public that these administrative delays do not impact the 100% confidence we have in the accuracy of the vote totals for all candidates as reported by the Town Clerks.

The Secretary of State’s mission is to provide a secure and accurate election. The office will always default to a delay to ensure integrity and confidence of the results when they are certified.

The canvassing process is a careful and deliberate process defined in statute. There are numerous checks to ensure that the canvassed results accurately match the will of Vermont voters as reported by the Town Clerks.