Counting spans 247 town jurisdictions, with first results expected after 7 p.m.
Vermont voters are electing federal and state officeholders and other leaders on Tuesday, with polls closing at 7 p.m. ET, the Associated Press said in its Election Day preview for the state. The AP’s Decision Team will monitor key data points as votes are tallied, and the news organization will provide vote results and declare winners across the ballot.
The AP will report results in races for governor, U.S. House, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state Senate, state House, state auditor, state treasurer and statewide ballot measures.
How fast those numbers arrive depends on how Vermont runs its elections. Elections operate at the town and city level, and 247 separate jurisdictions administer local elections, varying in terms of how and when they release results, according to the AP. In many of the larger jurisdictions, the bulk of results from both mail voting and in-person Election Day voting are released together in the first vote update.
Recent elections offer a rough timeline. The first results of the 2024 general election were reported starting at 7:12 p.m. ET, 12 minutes after polls closed. The state reached 50% of votes reporting at 8:48 p.m. ET and 90% of votes reporting at 10:44 p.m. ET.
Turnout in the state’s last midterm provides a benchmark. About 286,000 votes were cast in Vermont’s 2022 U.S. Senate race, according to the AP, and about 67% of all ballots in the 2022 race were cast early or by absentee ballot. The AP’s advance vote tracker carries the latest advance vote totals for this year’s election.
The AP’s calling standards govern how election night unfolds. The organization does not make projections and will declare a winner only when “it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap.”
If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.
A candidate may request a recount if the vote margin falls below a certain threshold. In federal, statewide, county and state Senate elections, a recount may be requested if the margin between the winning and losing candidate is 2% or less of the total votes cast, divided by the number of persons to be elected for that position. For state House and local races, the required margin is 5% or less of the total votes cast, divided by the number of persons to be elected.
The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.