State of Vermont

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Secretary of State

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Elections Update, February, 1997

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Good luck to all of you and don't hesitate to contact us if we can be of assistance.

One of the purposes of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (effective July 1, 1997 in Vermont) is to keep voter checklists up to date, and one aspect of that purpose that will have an impact on Vermont town budgets is the requirement that purging notice return cards must be postage prepaid and pre-addressed.

Popularly known as Motor Voter, the law requires the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to transmit all changes of address to the appropriate election official. At the present time, it appears as if those changes will be transmitted to the Secretary of State's office where they will be sorted and periodically sent to the appropriate clerks.

In addition, the law suggests a program whereby checklists would be run against the U.S. Post Office National Change of Address (NCOA) system.

Although Vermont does not currently have such a program in place, we are working with the Legislature to assure that we have a procedure in place by July 1, 1997 which allows clerks to receive information concerning the addresses of voters.

We won't know what that program will look like until a bill gains the approval of the Legislature and the Governor.

Whatever program is finally approved for tracking voters, when clerks receive notice that a voter has moved (whether through DMV notices or the NCOA system) they will be required to do the following:

1. Upon receipt of information that a voter has moved to a different residence within his jurisdiction, the clerk will be required to change the checklist to show the new address and to send the registrant a notice of the change by forwardable mail along with a postage prepaid pre-addressed return form by which the registrant may verify or correct the address information.

2. If the registrant has moved to a different address not in the clerk's jurisdiction, the clerk must send a postage prepaid pre-addressed return form by which the registrant may verify or correct the address information. The notice must also contain information on how the voter can register to vote at the new address.

3. The formal purge process will require the Board of Civil Authority to send a letter to any voter whom the Board cannot verify as a resident, accompanied by a postage prepaid pre-addressed return form. In each of these three situations, if voters neglect to return the confirmation card to the clerk, their names cannot be removed from the checklist for the period from the date of the confirmation notice until the day after the date of the second general election for federal office that occurs after the date of the notice.

   For example, suppose a clerk sends a confirmation notice on August 30, 1997. If the voter neglects to return that confirmation notice, the voter's name may not be removed from the checklist until the day after the general election in the year 2000.

1. How do we account for the people who don't return their confirmation letters?

   If the names remain on the checklist, checklist size will be inflated. Those inflated numbers will affect the number of names required to meet the threshold for petitions for local offices and articles. The percentage of voters participating will drop statistically because of these additional names. Should we create an "inactive" checklist?

   An inactive checklist would comply with the requirement to keep voter names on a checklist, but the names would not be counted for purposes of petition requirements and turnout statistics.

2. How often will Vermont do a general purge?

   Should we continue with our every other year in odd-numbered year purges?

3. Is there another mechanism for systematically updating addresses other than the Postal Service NCOA?

4. If the NCOA system is approved, who is to compile a "statewide" checklist?

   How often will the "statewide" checklist be run against the NCOA?

   How often will each town be required to submit updates to the "statewide" checklist.

   In what format will checklists be required? What data elements should be required in all checklists?

These important questions must be debated and reviewed in order for Vermont to meet the July 1, 1997 date for compliance with Motor Voter.

We welcome your thoughts and concerns. In the meantime, don't forget to review your budgets with an eye to a new purging and updating process.

Beginning March 17, a full-time community project coordinator will be available to travel to town offices in Orleans, Essex, Caledonia, Lamoille, Washington and Orange counties. He will demonstrate e-mail and web site technology and assist in getting local efforts started.

Individual and group training will be available. Further information is available from David Deutl at the University of Vermont Extension office (802-223-2389) in Berlin.

In compliance with 1 V.S.A. §316(d) (Act No. 159 of 1996) our office has adopted, by rule, a uniform schedule of fees that may be charged for providing copies of public records.

This fee schedule must be followed by all state agencies and by municipal governments that have not established their own fee schedule under 1 V.S.A. §316(e). These fees do not apply to copies of documents such as land records for which the statutes set out specific charges. Nor do they apply to the Department of Libraries, which has statutory authority to set its own fees.

No office MUST charge these fees, of course, but if costs are charged, the schedule applies. The fees are as follows:

• For photocopies, $.04 per single-sided page and $.06 per double-sided page for pages up to 8.5 by 14 inches.
• For computer-generated paper copies, $.02 per page for pages up to 8.5 by 14 inches.
• For computer diskettes, $.88 each for 3.5 inch diskettes and $.69 each for 5.25 inch diskettes.
• For compact discs, $22.08 each for write-once CDS and $124.58 for re-writable CDS.
• For audio tapes, $1.25 each.
• For video tapes, $2.25 each.

The new law, Act No. 159, allows some labor costs to be charged for providing copies or, if an agency chooses to, for creating a new record (filtering data from an existing database, for example).

The actual cost rule provides for three levels of labor costs:

• For staff time involved in physically duplicating a record, $.23 per minute after the first 30 minutes.

• For senior-level information technology specialists' time spent extracting data from databases or performing similar tasks necessary to comply with a request to create a new public record, $.41 per minute (there is no 30-minute exemption).

• For any other staff time for which cost can be charged under the law, $.30 a minute after the first 30 minutes. (An example: time spent reviewing the request material to segregate exempt information.)

The caller to our office expressed frustration at being unable to inspect listers' records in a timely fashion.

In some municipalities he was able to view the records under the clerk's supervision; in others, a lister was available to supervise inspection.

But in some cases, he could not inspect the records, either because a lister was unavailable and the clerk, who is not custodian of the listers' records, was reluctant to provide access, or because the listers' records were in a lister's house, not the clerk's office.

Each board of listers adopts its own practice on whether to deposit the records with the clerk, permit the clerk to allow inspection, etc.

The key provision here is 1 V.S.A.§316(a): "Any person may inspect or copy any public record or document of a public agency, on any day other than Saturday, Sunday or a legal holiday, between the hours of nine o'clock and twelve o'clock in the forenoon and

between one o'clock and four o'clock in the afternoon; provided, however, if the public agency is not regularly open to the public during those hours, inspection or copying may be made during the customary office hours." (emphasis added).

Obviously, it behooves a member of the public to call the clerk's office first to see what practices that municipality follows in terms of listers' records.

Municipalities can take some steps to avoid confusion.

If listers' records are stored with the clerk, for example, a written agreement could establish access to the records if a lister is not available.

In compliance with the italicized section above, if listers do not permit the clerk to allow inspection, they must post their "customary office hours" and be there to ensure that these public records are accessible to the public.

During the last legislative session, the Commissioner of Health and others lobbied for the regulation of tattooists in Vermont, citing concern for health and safety, the increase in the use of tattooing, and the concern for the spread of blood-borne disease.

The testimony painted a picture of tattooing as an underground industry, becoming more popular within the state, and frequently performed with unsterilized guitar strings in someone's basement.

Since July 1, 1996, tattooists have been regulated by our Office of Professional Regulation. Any person purporting to be a tattooist in Vermont now must be registered, must have an application on file outlining services provided and training, and identify any other state or jurisdiction in which he or she has been licensed.

The "practice of tattooing" is defined by statute as meaning "to place a permanent mark, design, or coloration of a human being by a process of pricking or ingraining an indelible pigment on the skin."

We believe that each community's elected representatives, police, and health officers are important sources of information about tattooing in the community and our office seeks your assistance in locating Vermont tattooists. It is now a criminal offense to practice tattooing in Vermont without being registered, and we would like your police and health officers to be so advised.