James M. Jeffords: “In Vermont when a person arrives at the polling place to vote and their name does not appear on the voter checklist…”

“In Vermont when a person arrives at the polling place to vote and their name does not appear on the voter checklist, even though they believe they have properly registered, we have a system that would allow them to cast a ballot. The voter completes an affidavit form swearing that they had properly applied but were not added to the voter checklist. The form is reviewed by the Board of Civil Authority at the polling place and unless the information appears false the person is allowed to cast a ballot. If the information appears to be false, the Board of Civil Authority will not allow the person to cast a ballot and refers them to a local judge to get added to the voter checklist for the election that day. The ballots cast this way are counted exactly like the other ballots and included in the final totals. The information from the approved affidavits is immediately used to update the voter checklist. My question to you Senator Dodd is that while this system is not called a provisional balloting system it appears to me that the affidavit voting system conforms to all the requirements in this legislation, and therefore the State of Vermont would already have satisfied the provisional balloting requirements of the bill?”