Some 25,000 Vermont voters have already requested absentee ballots for the August 11 primary election, according to the Secretary of State’s Office — a nearly tenfold increase in such requests since the last state primary.
“We expect that number will continue to climb,” said Secretary of State Jim Condos.
The surge is almost certainly due to concerns over in-person voting prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. But according to Condos, it’s too soon to say whether the shift means more Vermonters intend to vote this year or whether a typical number will vote but will do so in a different manner.
“I’m hoping there will be an increase because it’s your constitutional right to cast your ballot, and typically a primary gets a lower turnout than a general election,” he said.
At an equivalent point in the 2018 election — 40 days before the primary — only 2,603 voters had requested ballots, according to Condos’ office. At the same time in 2016, when there were competitive primaries for open gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial positions, 4,885 voters had requested ballots. The 24,988 who had done so by the end of the day Thursday represented close to a quarter of the 107,000 Vermonters who voted in any manner during the 2018 primary.