House Government Operations committee finds S.298, Vermont Voting Rights Act, favorable

The House Government Operations and Military Affairs Committee on the record moved to find S.298 — the Vermont Voting Rights Act — favorable after committee members said extensive drafting addressed problems with candidate disclosure forms.

The chair said the committee had "made this thing a better bill" and credited the table for work on candidate disclosure forms, calling that change "a very big lift." A committee member then moved that the committee find draft 5.1 of S.298 favorable.

Clerk called the roll for a recorded vote. The transcript records affirmative votes for the following members as transcribed: Representative Vden; Representative Coffman; Representative Hango; Representative Morgan (transcribed once as "Cooperator Morgan"); Representative N.; Representative Skully; Representative Stone; Representative Waters Evans; and Representative Byron. The vote was recorded and the clerk announced that Representative Waters Evans "will be the order of the bill."

The chair closed by thanking the team for their work and previewed next week’s business: further child care items and prioritized work on a cannabis bill sent over from the Senate.

The committee did not elaborate in the transcript on subsequent steps beyond the assignment of the bill to the order of Representative Waters Evans.