Nov. 5 is Election Day: Voting, learning results, a food drive & more
November 3, 2024 | By Lisa Scagliotti Election Day is this Tuesday, Nov. 5 and many Vermonters have already cast their ballots.
Candidate campaign signs line the North Main Street Waterbury welcome spot near the roundabout. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
The general election includes the U.S. Presidential election, electing one of the state’s U.S. Senators, Vermont’s lone U.S. House member, the entire Vermont Legislature, and the six statewide offices of governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, auditor, secretary of state and treasurer. Other local offices include high bailiff and justices of the peace.
Registered voters were mailed ballots in late September. Ballots also will be available to vote in person on Tuesday at local polling places around the state.
In Waterbury, voting will be held at Brookside Primary School; Duxbury will conduct its balloting outdoors in the drive-through loop outside the town office. The polls will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. A full list of polling places is posted on the Vermont Secretary of State’s website here.
Voters may still drop off their completed ballot early in the drop boxes outside local town offices or inside with their town clerk during regular hours on Monday. On Tuesday, however, all ballots will be collected at the polling places.
State and local election officials advise voters to bring their ballots that they received in the mail to the polls if possible -- either completed or to mark there.
Waterbury Town Clerk Karen Petrovic explained that the ballots available on Tuesday are identical to those sent in the mail. If a ballot was lost or destroyed, voters may receive a new ballot on Tuesday, after signing an affidavit attesting to not already having voted.
As of Friday, 47% of Waterbury’s ballots had been returned and 37% had been received in Duxbury, according to data reported by local town clerks to the Secretary of State.
Waterbury Election Day food drive
Volunteers with the Waterbury Common Market will be collecting nonperishable food items on Election Day at Brookside Primary School. See more details about the food drive and how to make a monetary contribution as well in this earlier Waterbury Roundabout post.
Election night & official results
On election night, unofficial results are reported to the Secretary of State by Vermont city and town clerks after polls close. Results from each town for every office on the ballot are then posted on the Secretary of State’s website by contest at electionresults.vermont.gov.
Waterbury Roundabout will post results in local legislative contests on election night online and on Facebook with updates on Wednesday. Look to other Vermont news outlets for statewide results.
On Tuesday, Nov. 12, a Canvassing Committee meets at the Vermont State House at 10 a.m. to certify the results to make them official.
“Vermont is well-known for its free, fair, transparent and accessible elections,” Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas said in an announcement last week. “My office will be working closely with Vermont’s city and town clerks to post the unofficial results of the General Election on the night of Nov. 5, so voters, the media, and all interested parties have access to those results. We then encourage public and media engagement in our post-election day events at the State House.”
Following the certification of results, the Secretary of State’s Office will hold a public, livestreamed General Election Audit at the State House on Tuesday, Dec. 3, at 9 a.m. A number of Vermont cities and towns (including some hand-count towns) will be selected, and their reported results will be matched to the paper ballots retained by the clerk, to make sure there are no discrepancies.
Two weeks after that, Vermont’s Presidential Electors will gather at the State House to cast their electoral college votes on Tuesday, Dec. 17, at 10 a.m.
Each of these events is open to the public.
See more election news coverage on the Roundabout’s Election section at the top of the home page and election-related letters and commentaries in the Opinion section.