2017 Vermont Statutes
Title 17 - Elections
Chapter 51 - Conduct Of Elections
§ 2564 Challenges

§ 2564. Challenges

(a)(1)(A) Each organized political party, each candidate on the ballot not representing an organized political party, and each committee supporting or opposing any public question on the ballot shall have the right to have not more than two representatives for each voting district, in a polling place but outside the guardrail, for the purpose of observing the voting process and challenging the right of any person to vote.

(B) In no event shall such representatives be permitted to interfere with the orderly conduct of the election, and the presiding officer shall have authority to impose reasonable rules for the preservation of order.

(C) However, in all cases the representatives shall have the right to hear or see the name of a person seeking to vote, and they shall have the right to make an immediate challenge to a person's right to vote.

(2) The grounds of challenge of a person whose name appears on the checklist shall be only:

(A) that he or she is not, in fact, the person whose name appears on the checklist; or

(B) that he or she has previously voted in the same election.

(b) If a challenge is issued, the members of the board of civil authority present in the polling place shall immediately convene, informally hear the facts, and decide whether the challenge should be sustained.

(1) If the board overrules the challenge, the person shall immediately be admitted within the guardrail and permitted to vote.

(2) If the board sustains the challenge, the person shall not be admitted unless, before the polls close, he or she shall obtain a court order directing that he or she be permitted to vote. (Added 1977, No. 269 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 2017, No. 50, § 38.)