Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas Announces One-Day Delay of Statewide Primary Election Canvass

August 20 2024

Montpelier, VT - Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas announced that the Statewide Canvass of Vermont 2024 Primary Election results will be delayed until tomorrow. The Canvass Committee Meeting originally scheduled for today will be held at 9AM on Wednesday, August 21 at the Secretary of State’s office at 128 State Street in Montpelier.

The reason for the postponement was an issue with the election management system’s report-generation function. This issue was caught as staff performed checks while printing the official reports. To ensure that all reports precisely match the official return of votes submitted by clerks, the agency will delay the canvass committee and continue to work with its technology vendor and clerks to resolve the issue.

Secretary Copeland Hanzas made clear that the report-generating process is separate and distinct from the official counting of ballots and the local certification of results by town and city clerks.

“I want assure the public that this delay does not impact the 100% confidence we have in the accuracy of the vote totals submitted by Vermont’s town and city clerks,” said Secretary Copeland Hanzas. “The report function did not operate correctly this morning, and our built-in checks caught the issue. My team carefully cross-checks all statewide tallies. We work on a tight timeline but will always prioritize accuracy over expediency to ensure the integrity and confidence of the results that end up being certified.”