Federal judge upholds Vermont’s mail-in ballot procedures News
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Federal judge upholds Vermont’s mail-in ballot procedures

A federal on Wednesday upheld Vermont Secretary of State James Condos’ directive permitting Vermont residents to utilize mail-in-voting for the November Election.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many states have altered the way in which citizens can vote. Vermont’s legislature, in accordance with Acts 91 and 135, authorized the Secretary of State to require local election officials to send mail-in-ballots to all registered voters. However, several Vermont residents challenged this directive as unconstitutional and contrary to law because it could open the election up to fraud and “dilute the individual vote of each legitimate Plaintiff voter.”

Judge Geoffrey Crawford’s order focused on whether plaintiffs had standing to challenge these claims in federal court. In order to have standing in a federal court, a plaintiff must show (1) a particularized injury, (2) that was caused by defendant, and (3) a specific remedy to cure such injury. Plaintiffs failed to meet all of the necessary criteria to show standing. Crawford reasoned that “a vote case by fraud or mailed in by the wrong person through mistake has a mathematical impact on the final tally and thus on the proportional effect of every vote, but no single voter is specifically disadvantaged.” More specifically, voters experience a generalized injury because “every voter suffers the same incremental dilution of the franchise.” As such, these plaintiffs are not suffering a harm different than other voters in Vermont.

Secretary of State James Condos’ motion to dismiss was granted, and his directive remains in place. Mail-in ballots are set to disseminate to all registered voters on Friday.

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