A voter carries ballots past a booth in Shelburne on Primary Day, Tuesday, August 11, 2026. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger Voter rights advocates are pushing on several fronts to ensure voting access for Vermonters ahead of the general election in November. The Secretary of State’s office launched a voter accessibility task force in coalition with advocacy groups last year that focused on expanding resources for people with disabilities, people experiencing homelessness, survivors of domestic and sexual violence and people who are incarcerated.  Nursing home residents were also identified as a group with voter accessibility needs, said Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas. Nursing home groups have already been working to meet those needs, including guidance in September from the Vermont Health Care Association. The guidance is aimed at providing clarity on federal and state regulations relating to residents’ rights and the voting assistance process in nursing homes in Vermont. “I hope that the guidance that we created will help people be more confident in and more willing to assist people who need assistance in exercising their right to vote,” Kaili Kuiper, state long-term care ombudsman with Vermont Legal Aid, said, who provided input on the guidance. The effort followed a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services memo in July, reminding nursing facilities and staff that they must avoid inference, coercion or influencing residents while preserving and promoting the right to vote for residents.  The memo was issued after a social worker was charged with election fraud in Texas for unlawfully registering residents to vote and an investigation by law enforcement officials in Wisconsin into allegations that eight people “whose mental capacities had diminished due to age or disease” voted. The guidance only reinforces existing law and is not a change in regulations.  Kuiper said that she worried that the memo would cause a “chilling effect.”  “I was afraid that facilities might take from that that anyone who has any sign of cognitive impairment shouldn’t be assisted with voting, or even shouldn’t be allowed to vote,” Kuiper said. That concern was echoed by Copeland Hanzas who reiterated that Vermont state law prescribes that every Vermonter should have access to their ballot and should be able to ask someone for assistance in filling out their ballot.  Voting in nursing homes is driven by resident choice, and staff should let residents know that elections are coming up and what their voting options are, Helen Labun, executive director of the Vermont Health Care Association, said. She added that residents should be asked whether they want to vote and if they would like help.  Vermont law prohibits voting if an individual is ruled incompetent by a judge, according to the guidance. Facilities should provide assistance to any resident who is able to indicate their voting choice, the guidance says.  Nursing home staff should document residents’ permission for assistance in the voting process  and individuals cannot deliver more than 25 mail-in ballots from residents without a justice of the peace in attendance, according to the guidance.  While some advocates are worried the memo could affect the voting rights of nursing home residents, the voting process is much the same as it has been for past elections at the Vermont Veterans Home in Bennington, said Melissa Jackson, CEO of the facility.  Staff meet with veterans living at the facility to determine whether they would like to vote and organize transportation to the polls. Oliver Allen, a veteran living at the facility, has played a role in sharing nonpartisan voter information with residents and encouraging them to vote.  Allen says he tells residents, “You can’t serve your country anymore in uniform, but you can get out to the voting booths and cast your ballot.” Vermont ranks low in voting access for people with disabilities, according to a 2024 MIT analysis of U.S. Census data, which found a lower turnout rate for people who reported having a disability compared to those who reported no disability. Barriers facing people with disabilities voting in Vermont include a lack of accessible voter information for people with visual or cognitive disabilities or limited English proficiencies, and a lack of transportation options for people with disabilities who want to vote in-person, according to a Disability Rights Vermont report.  Vermont likely also ranks low compared to other states because municipal and school elections sometimes are held in buildings that are not handicapped-accessible, Copeland Hanzas said, and local communities in Vermont often lack the funds to upgrade buildings with ramps and elevators or find another location for Town Meeting Day. Copeland Hanzas said she has a longer-term goal of piloting an electronic voting system for municipal elections that would allow voters to make voting decisions securely by phone if they cannot gather in a physical space. This would open up the local democratic process to more people, said Copeland Hanzas, but would require legislative action and a statutory change.  Copeland Hanzas also wants to ensure Vermonters are aware of the accessible voting tablet-based system that allows people with disabilities to vote in private in every polling place in the state, which was first rolled out in 2018.  Survivors of domestic and sexual violence also can face unique barriers to voting, including safety concerns, residential address confidentiality and housing instability, and a newly developed voter guide helps people navigate these challenges, said Charlie Parker Gliserman, policy director with the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, which serves on the task force.  Copeland Hanzas said the taskforce is also working to ensure people experiencing homelessness know they can register to vote using the address of a shelter or other location where they are residing. The Secretary of State’s Office is working with the Department of Corrections to ensure mail-in ballots are forwarded to people who are incarcerated, and that they have access to a voter guide the Secretary of State’s Office is developing, which will be mailed to every household in Vermont.  Copeland-Hanzas encouraged anyone who sees any irregularities in the election process to report it to a municipal clerk, the Secretary of State or the Attorney General for investigation.  “Vermonters should be confident that our town and city clerks are running clean and fair and accessible elections in our communities,” Copeland-Hanzas said. Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont officials and advocates tackle voting accessibility concerns ahead of November election. ...read more read less