AREA TOWNS – Earlier this fall, most registered voters in Vermont opened their mailboxes to find an election ballot. University of Vermont’s Center for Community News, home of Community News Service (CNS), built an interactive map to find out how many have been returned so far and from where.
Center data visualization engineer Ben Cooley pulled together figures from the Office of the Vermont Secretary of State to track the number and percent of registered voters in each town whose ballots have been received and tallied.
28% of Greensboro voters had returned ballots as of October 21, the highest percentage in the 11 towns covered by The Hardwick Gazette, according to the data. Calais is close behind with 27%. Stannard voters have returned only 14% of ballots. Six of the 11 towns in the Gazette coverage area were at or above the state average of 22.14%, the data shows.
Local mail-in returns gathered from Cooley’s map show the following as of October 21:
28% of Greensboro mail-in ballots have been returned. (177 of 643 mailed)
27% of Calais mail-in ballots have been returned. (361 of 1342 mailed)
23% of Plainfield mail-in ballots have been returned. (242 of 1051 mailed)
22% of Walden mail-in ballots have been returned. (154 of 699 mailed)
22% of Wolcott mail-in ballots have been returned. (262 of 1202 mailed)
22% of Marshfield mail-in ballots have been returned. (251 of 1121 mailed)
20% of Hardwick mail-in ballots have been returned. (432 of 2176 mailed)
20% of Cabot mail-in ballots have been returned. (213 of 1092 mailed)
20% of Woodbury mail-in ballots have been returned. (137 of 698 mailed)
18% of Craftsbury mail-in ballots have been returned. (169 of 931 mailed)
14% of Stannard mail-in ballots have been returned. (22 of 162 mailed)
Link to the map directly at ccn–election–map-2024.netlify.app/ where hovering over a town allows you to see the data. Over the next several weeks, the center will be updating the map as new numbers come in.
In Greensboro, 192 ballots returned as undeliverable have not been able to be forwarded to known new addresses, making the actual percentage there over 29%. Greensboro Town Clerk Kim Greaves has been researching reasons for the returns. She noted many people had moved, but not yet registered to vote at their new address, and some people were deceased.
In Hardwick, Town Clerk Tonia Chase has been forwarding ballots when a new address has been supplied by the post office, or someone has called in because they hadn’t received one. 147 ballots remain undeliverable, making the percentage of voted mail-in ballots there just over 21%.
In 2021, the legislature made universal mail-in ballots a permanent part of voting in Vermont. This coming election day marks only the second presidential election in which most registered voters in Vermont automatically were mailed a ballot though some states have been doing it for many years.
Casting ballots via mail is not a new concept. Dating back to the Civil War, U.S. citizens have been able to request an absentee ballot if they’re unable to attend their usual polling location due to being away for college or military service, for example.
Universal mail-in ballots differ from absentee ballots. They don’t require requests or reasons and are sent automatically to all residents.
In Vermont, the use of universal mail-in ballots spiked during the 2020 election. Officials sent them to voters as an emergency measure to maintain social distancing during the height of the pandemic.
Almost three-quarters of Vermont votes cast in 2020 came from mail-in ballots, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Only about one in four votes came from people showing up in person.
Whether a vote came by mail or in person that year followed partisan trends. The more people in a town who voted for former President Donald Trump over President Joe Biden, the fewer people from that town chose to vote by mail, according to a VTDigger breakdown of state election data.
Acey Sheehan and Gwen Matthews report for the Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship.