6 Comments

Agree with the thrust of Rob’s article, where having no interest in the legal casting/counting of ballots creates cynicism of the outcomes and a breeding ground for conspiracy theories that unfortunately gain traction. But for Vt due to the predominance of low information voters, one can confidently predict that Harris will get 70% of the votes and Trump will get 30% so ballot irregularities are irrelevant when the vote is so lopsided.. The problem comes in down ballot races where counts can be much closer and the problems Rob discusses will have real impacts sure to cause a lot of acrimony.

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Yes, I always cite the late David Ainsworth who lost his seat by one vote, and then won it back four years later... by one vote.

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In 1998 our son decided to return to college for an advanced degree. He needed 21 hours of higher math. He found he could, as a New York State resident, get the relevant courses at State University of NY at Albany for many thousands of dollars less than at UVM. He moved to Schenectady and followed all instruction to qualify for NY instate tuition. He rented an apartment, registered his car in NY, had his auto insurance reissued for a NY address, registered in Schenectady County to vote, obtained a Schenectady telephone number, and filed a preliminary NY income tax. We informed our town clerk here in Lamoille County. But his name was still on the checklist that Fall. I wrote a note: I was informed by the Board of Civil Authority that a name would only be removed when the County Registrar in New York filed a notarized certificate of his registration in New York. Since the Post Office and the NY Registrar all charge actual cash for those transactions, nothing was done. My town clerk told me not to worry, his name would be purged after five years of not casting a ballot. Knowing how many students get added to checklists at college registration drives, knowing that all those ghost names will hang on for 5 years was not comforting.

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According to the SOS, as of Oct 1st, Vermont has 505,549 registered voters.(The highest recorded number.) We have 647,818 residents. So based on this, there are 142,269 non registered humans in the state. The number of residents in VT under age 18 is 118,889 as of last year. That means VT has one of the highest, if not THE highest number of citizens registered to vote. If you take out Jehovas Witnesses which is less than 1% or less than 6,478 (they don't vote) that leaves 16,942 unregisterd voters. That is AMAZING (read sarcastically).

A quick internet search reveals a recent lawsuit by RITE for Morin and Roswell that was lost then lost again on appeal stating that the Vermont Constitution states VT voters must be a US citizen. So if the court can't uphold the constitutionality how will this ever be rectified? It will need to come from the legislation. We're back to the super majority...again.

This is a travesty. And it mocks the laws of the land...and holds Vermonters hostage to a criminal, at the least, or traitorous at worst.

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same experience here.

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Please keep records!

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