By Kolby R. LaMarche

A recent check of Burlington’s voter records uncovered mistakes that could have sent votes to the wrong districts. 

An audit conducted over the summer, led by the City Clerk’s office and the Board for Registration of Voters, found 72 voters had issues with their district, be it local or state, assignments. 

While the impacted voters represent less than 0.3% of the city’s voters, the errors included a voter registered in the wrong city and others missing district assignments entirely, according to meeting minutes.  

The audit used mapping technology called GIS to match every voter’s address to the correct city ward and state House and Senate districts. The team pulled residential addresses from a state database, filtered out non-residential properties, and checked if each address fell within the right boundaries. They also randomly reviewed 20% of Burlington’s streets to confirm address ranges and district assignments. 

Most streets were correct, but one address, 78 Adams Street, initially seemed misassigned due to mismatched city and state records. A field check confirmed it was correctly placed in House District Chi-14. Some streets included commercial buildings in their voter address ranges, which could confuse things, but the city decided not to adjust these to avoid missing mixed-use residential properties.

The largest issue was 34 voters assigned to the wrong districts. Twenty-two voters on Manhattan Drive were listed in House District Chi-16 but belonged in Chi-17 due to incorrect street data. 

8 voters at 75 Colchester Ave were in Ward 1 instead of Ward 8.

1 voter was registered in Burlington but actually lived in South Burlington, requiring a transfer from House District Chi-13 to Chi-11. 

3 voters had slightly wrong addresses: one was listed at 171 Intervale Road instead of 171 Intervale Ave, switching their district from Chi-17 to Chi-16; another was at 194 North Ave instead of 194 North Street, also moving from Chi-17 to Chi-16.

11 voters had no district assignments at all. Three at 270 South Willard Street were missing assignments due to a glitch in the street data, and eight others likely fell through the cracks during a switch to a new election system. 

10 voters had invalid addresses listed, but research showed their districts were still correct, revealing a flaw in the city’s system, which relies on street ranges instead of exact locations.

All were updated to their correct districts, according to the city. Sixteen voters had hidden addresses for privacy reasons, like those who are homeless or in protective programs, but their visible addresses checked out. 

At a review of the audit, Board for Registration of Voters member Adam Franz asked “would the voters who were incorrectly assigned state house districts have voted in the wrong house district in the 2024 election?” Sarah Montgomery, of the city’s clerk’s office, answered yes, any of those voters who participated would have received the incorrect ballot. 

The city said it would be contacting impacted voters and notifying them of any updates to their assignment.

A review of elections and candidates for the affected districts was done by BDN. If voters did vote in the wrong district in 2024, their votes would have not seriously altered the results of any election. Many of the races were uncontested, in this case. 

Read the full audit here: https://burlingtonvt.portal.civicclerk.com/event/8469/files/attachment/10823