By Eric Blaisdell
Staff Writer
MONTPELIER, Vt. — Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos does not expect any delay for unofficial results in Tuesday’s election.
Condos held a media briefing over Zoom Wednesday to talk about the election next week.
Because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, ballots were sent to every registered active voter in the state. This was done to help stop the spread of the virus by reducing the number of people who will show up at the polls next week.
Condos said as of Wednesday morning, 221,246 of those ballots have been filled out and returned. The secretary said that’s nearly 70% of the total number of votes cast in 2016.
“The numbers speak for themselves, but the bulk of the credit does not go to my office, to the Legislature or to the town clerks. It goes to Vermonters in every city and town across the state who I would like to thank for overwhelmingly embracing the safe, secure voting options available to them during these challenging times,” Condos said.
He said Vermont could break previous voter turnout records with more ballots being cast this week and in-person voting taking place Tuesday.
The secretary said his office does not expect any delays in reporting unofficial results on election night. That’s because even though there’s been a drastic increase in mailed ballots, Condos said town clerks have been allowed to process those ballots starting 30 days before the election. He said the voting tabulator town clerks use does not display how many votes have been cast for a candidate, it only displays how many ballots have been counted. He said results won’t be known until town clerks run a report produced by the machine which takes place after polls close at 7 p.m.
Like every prior election, Condos said results won’t be official until seven days after the election. If a recount is needed, the secretary said the results of that race won’t be known until the recount has been resolved.
Ballots were also mailed to voters during the state primary in August. Condos said about 3% of those ballots were “spoiled,” or not counted, because there was something wrong with the ballot.
The secretary said voters were sent three ballots for the primary, one each for the state’s three major political parties. Voters were required to fill out one ballot and then return all three, but the secretary said some didn’t return all the ballots or filled out ballots for multiple parties.
With only one ballot to fill out and return for the general election, Condos said he expected the number of spoiled ballots to be reduced to about 1% which is typical for the state.
eric.blaisdell @timesargus.com
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