The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 17 : Elections

Chapter 051 : Conduct of Elections

Subchapter 006 : EARLY OR ABSENTEE VOTERS

• § 2531. Application for early voter absentee ballot

  (a) Deadline to file.

  (1)(A) A voter who expects to be an early or absentee voter, or an authorized person on behalf of such voter, may apply for an early voter absentee ballot until 5:00 p.m. or the closing of the town clerk’s office on the day preceding the election.

  (B) If a town clerk does not have regular office hours on the day before the election and his or her office will not otherwise be open on that day, an application may be filed until the closing of the clerk’s office on the last day that office has hours preceding the election.

  (2)(A) In cases of emergency, including unanticipated illness or injury, at his or her discretion the town clerk may accept a request for an absentee ballot after the deadline set forth in subdivision (1) of this subsection.

  (B) In such cases of emergency, the ballot may be mailed, electronically delivered, or delivered by two justices of the peace as set forth in subsection 2539(b) of this subchapter.

  (b) Place of filing.

  (1) All applications shall be filed with the town clerk of the town in which the early or absentee voter is registered to vote.

  (2) The town clerk shall file written applications and memoranda of verbal applications in his or her office, and shall retain the applications and memoranda for 90 days following the election, at which time they may be destroyed.

  (c) Australian ballot. Voting by early voter absentee ballot shall be allowed only in elections using the Australian ballot system. (Added 1977, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 1979, No. 200 (Adj. Sess.), § 64; 1993, No. 79, § 1; 2001, No. 6, § 3, eff. April 10, 2001; 2017, No. 50, § 26; 2019, No. 67, § 14.)