Vermont’s Democratic Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas and Republican Gov. Phil Scott speak at a press conference on Monday in Montpelier about the upcoming 2026 general election. Photo by Shaun Robinson/VTDigger MONTPELIER — Top state officials on Monday urged Vermonters to turn down the temperature amid an uptick in what one called “heated” confrontations between voters and local city and town clerks about the integrity of next week’s general election. The rhetoric from people who are “agitated” and unsure of the process is fueled by “a lot of misinformation that’s coming out of Washington, D.C. — daily, nightly social media posts from the president — about how elections work,” said Sarah Copeland Hanzas, Vermont’s Democratic secretary of state, at a press conference in Montpelier. She was joined by Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican. Scott said the state government and Vermont law enforcement will “do whatever we have to do” to help town and city officials run the Nov. 3 election safely and securely. That could include preventing federal officials from exerting undue influence over the voting process, which is run by the state, he said. President Donald Trump’s administration has taken unprecedented steps to assert more control over elections during Trump’s second term. Last week, for example, the federal government moved to preemptively challenge the certification of Alaska’s U.S. Senate election if the Republican candidate there narrowly loses. “The (U.S.) Constitution is clear on this: The elections are the responsibility of the states. We take that very seriously,” Scott told reporters. “So, from our standpoint, we will do everything within our power to protect the process — and we will counter anything that comes up.” Copeland Hanzas, who is Vermont’s top election official, said she was not aware of any specific threats to polling places in the state as of Monday and added that the heated rhetoric she described was not centered on any one geographic area. The press conference came as about 101,400 people had already cast a Vermont general election ballot as of Monday morning, according to Copeland Hanzas’ office. That’s about a fifth of the 500,700 total registered voters in the state.  The number of people who’ve voted early is down from recent years, though. At this point in 2024, about 141,500 ballots had been cast; at this point in 2022, that figure was just shy of 113,400, Copeland Hanzas said. Turnout is consistently higher in years with a presidential election, like 2024, than in midterm years, like 2022 and 2026.  Copeland Hanzas said it’s also possible people have less confidence in the security of mail-in voting this year than in the past because Trump has tried to curtail people’s access to mail-in voting, plans that have so far been struck down in court.  Scott, meanwhile, said the well-documented mail delivery delays around Vermont have meant some voters still have not received their ballots. Anyone who has not received a ballot by this point, and who wants to vote early, should go to their local clerk’s office and fill one out there, Copeland Hanzas said.  She and Scott said the state is planning for “any number of contingencies” during next week’s voting, including power outages, internet outages or other communications disruptions, physical threats to election workers and the appearance of federal immigration agents at polling locations. The Trump administration said earlier this month that it would not send U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to polling locations around the country en masse, but it would not rule out their presence entirely. Vermont officials would be unlikely to get much if any heads up about such activity from the feds, Copeland Hanzas said.  Scott said the state Agency of Digital Services has taken additional steps this year to protect the secretary of state’s website and online election management system out of a concern for cyberattacks. State officials have also been meeting with city and town clerks, as well as local law enforcement and the Vermont State Police, to make sure there’s a shared understanding of the rules governing where and how people can observe the voting process and what activities are permitted at the polls.  Federal law prohibits the military or federal officials from stationing “troops or armed men” at polling locations, according to the secretary of state’s office, though federal agents are generally allowed to operate in any public place that’s near a polling station.  The goal, Copeland Hanzas said, is that “our law enforcement partners will be able to respond and be prepared to uphold Vermont law.” Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermont officials raise concerns over ‘heated’ confrontations between voters, town clerks ahead of Election Day. ...read more read less