But three days after the November 5 election, Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas called for a revote. Errors on the Pownal voter checklist meant that dozens of ballots went to people in the wrong district — enough to have potentially swayed the election. Copeland Hanzas said the redo would “assure that every voter in the district has a chance to have their vote counted.”
The revote has yet to happen. And on Tuesday, Copeland Hanzas backtracked. She told lawmakers in the House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee that this time, she’d made a mistake. She had supported a revote because she thought the decision was up to the courts. In reality, she said on Tuesday, that decision rests solely with members of the House of Representatives.
She added: “I apologize for that miscommunication.”
For weeks, lawmakers have been weighing the benefits of a revote against the downsides, include the costs and the likely lower turnout of an off-cycle special election. About 2,500 people voted in the original Bennington-1 election, a district that includes the small towns of Pownal, Readsboro, Searsburg, Woodford and Stamford.
The error appears to stem from 2022, when new legislative districts were created. A line was drawn down the middle of Barber Pond Road in Pownal to divide Bennington-1 to the south and Bennington-5 to the north.
But on Tuesday, members of the House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee appeared willing to accept the flawed results. There were too many downsides to make a revote worth the effort, they said.
“We heard a lot of different things that prove we couldn’t go back and re-create the past even if we wanted to,” Rep. Mary-Katherine Stone (D/P-Burlington) said.
The committee took a straw poll, with members voting 10-1 in favor of allowing Cooper to retain his seat. Rep. Michael Morgan (R-Milton) was the lone no vote.
They agreed to pursue changes to election law to prevent such errors from happening in the future.
Some Republicans, however, didn’t want to let Copeland Hanzas, a Democrat, off too easy.
Rep. Lisa Hango (R-Berkshire) said she was “sorry it took seven and half weeks” for Copeland Hanzas to publicly reverse her position.
“It really did get ingrained in people’s heads that [a revote] is what was going to happen,” Hango said. “It does put us in a difficult position.”
Morgan agreed that people had the expectation after Copeland Hanzas’ November 8 statement that a revote would happen. If the House now decides against one, which appears likely, people will have strong feelings, he said.
“No matter which way this goes, plenty are going to say that’s right, and plenty are going to say that’s wrong,” Morgan said.