The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2025 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
Subchapter
008
:
COUNT AND RETURN OF VOTES
(Cite as: 17 V.S.A. § 2586)
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§ 2586. Tally sheets; summary sheets; returns
The Secretary of State shall design, prepare, and distribute a sufficient supply of
the following forms, which may be used in each polling place during the counting process:
(1) Tally sheets.
(A) These sheets shall provide a place to identify the office or question for which the
ballots are being counted, the name of each candidate for that office, and the signature
of the pair of election officials actually counting the ballots.
(B) Votes for each candidate or question shall be recorded on the tally sheets by means
of “tick” marks or some other convenient system, and the total shall then be written
on the tally sheet.
(C) Blank votes (undervotes) and overvotes shall be indicated.
(D) In towns that count ballots by hand, all votes must be accounted for on the tally
sheets.
(2) Summary sheets. These sheets shall be used to record the totals shown on all tally sheets in the polling
place for each office or public question, and the sum of such totals. They shall
provide a place to identify the office or public question, the candidates, and the
signatures of the presiding officer and at least one other election official.
(3) Return. The return shall be prepared in duplicate and used to make the official report from
each polling place of the grand totals of all votes cast in the polling place. It
shall identify the polling place, and each candidate or question receiving votes,
and shall be signed by the presiding officer and at least one other election official. (Added 1977, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 2017, No. 50, § 42.)