Their Names Weren’t on Voter Registration Rolls. This City Let Them Cast a Ballot Anyway.
Bruce Parker /
Previously unpublished data from the last big election in Burlington, Vt., reveals a significant number of votes were cast by individuals whose names were not on the statewide checklist.
In the 2012 presidential election, 17,383 votes were cast in Burlington, according to city-published data. According to data not published by the city, but made available to a reporter, 639 of those votes, or 3.7 percent, came from election day walk-in voters whose names were not on the voter rolls and whose registration status was unknown.
As previously reported, votes by individuals whose names don’t appear on the checklist count whether or not the voters can be verified as having registered with the state.
The unpublished data sheds light on elections in Burlington after citizen poll watchers exposed a need for greater scrutiny in the city, and after city officials on Monday halted early voting when Republican candidates for justice of the peace were found missing from the ballot. Reprinted ballots will cost the city $10,000.
Often in Burlington, hundreds of people absent from voter rolls show up to vote. Instead of being turned away or given provisional ballots, the individuals fill out voter affirmation forms, get added to the statewide checklist and vote on the spot. Critics say the process is rife with abuse and amounts to same-day registration.
Asked how many people voted in recent elections despite not appearing on the statewide checklist, Scott Schrader, Burlington’s elections chief, said affirmation forms from the 2012 presidential election were discarded. Forms from this year’s Town Meeting Day went missing with a clerk who no longer works for the city.
John Odum, city clerk for Montpelier, said his office kept a record of voter affirmation forms filled out during the 2012 general election. Of 4,558 votes cast in Montpelier, 98 votes, or 2.2 percent, came from individuals whose names were not on the statewide checklist.
“[The numbers] were quite high for the last general. It was a little jaw-dropping, actually,” Odum said. “You find a lot more of them in the general [election]. That’s when the parties and candidates make the big push to go out and get people registered.”
According to Odum, Vermont allows such voting because delays exist in the voter registration process. He confirmed that individuals whose names don’t appear on the statewide checklist cast standard ballots, not provisional ballots, after signing an affirmation form.
Officials in Burlington and Montpelier said they weren’t worried about fraud since voters face the threat of perjury.