Board of Civil Authority



The Jericho Board of Civil Authority consists of the following people: the Town Clerk, the three members of the Selectboard, and the twelve elected Justices of the Peace. In addition, for term February 1 2022 to February 1 2025 the Select Board has appointed BCA members Mary Coburn, Carol Gross and Dave Schuler to improve political party balance for election related duties. (click here to view the statue reference) Meetings of the board are called by the town clerk. This board is responsible for the following: to assist with the running of elections, to act as a



The Jericho Board of Civil Authority consists of the following people: the Town Clerk, the three members of the Selectboard, and the twelve elected Justices of the Peace. In addition, for term February 1 2022 to February 1 2025 the Select Board has appointed BCA members Mary Coburn, Carol Gross and Dave Schuler to improve political party balance for election related duties. (click here to view the statue reference) Meetings of the board are called by the town clerk. This board is responsible for the following: to assist with the running of elections, to act as a quasi-judicial board for grievances between taxpayers and Listers, and to maintain the voter checklist.

Elections

In the running of elections, the Town Clerk is the Presiding Officer. The members of the Board of Civil Authority assist with the smooth running of elections, and assist with the counting of ballots. Generally, at least three members of the Board of Civil Authority are present throughout the day at the polling place.

Tax Appeals

When a taxpayer has a grievance with the decision of the Board of Listers, the taxpayer can appeal to the Board of Civil Authority. The board acts as a quasi-judicial board hearing evidence from all parties involved, and renders a decision. Guidelines for appeals to the Board of Civil Authority, and the appropriate forms to be used can be found in the Property Valuation and Review’s “A Handbook on Property Tax Assessment Appeals”.

Voter Checklist

The board is responsible for reviewing all applications for addition to the checklist. Every two years the board must review the voter checklist and make a list of names of voters to be challenged.

  • Jericho Board of Civil Authority Voting Principles

    Jericho BCA Voting Principles

    Purpose:

    In collaboration with the Town Clerk, the Board of Civil Authority (BCA) supports the planning, administration, and oversight of elections in the Town of Jericho. This document outlines the core principles that will guide the BCA in shaping election policy and ensuring fair and accessible electoral practices.

    Principles:

    • Voting is a fundamental right, not a privilege, and every eligible voter must be able to exercise that right freely and without obstruction or duress.
    • All voters must have equitable and convenient access to the ballot through any lawful voting method of their choice.
    • Polling places must be safe for voters and poll workers, ballots must remain secure, and the privacy of each voter must be protected at all times.

    Adopted by the BCA on May 14, 2025

  • Early Absentee Ballot Processing for November 5th Election 2024

    CLOSED: This discussion has concluded.

    BCA members will meet the following dates to process early ballots:

    All early ballot processing will take place at the Jericho Town Hall

    Wednesday October 23rd, 1 to 3pm Mike Weinberg and Mary Coburn

    Monday October 28th, 8:30 to 10:30am Cathy Paris and Mary Coburn

    Monday October 28th, 10:30 to 12:30 Kathleen Bassett Cramer and Carol Smith

    Tuesday October 29th , 1pm to 3pm Tom Joslin and Mike Sweeney

    Wednesday October 30th, 1 to 3pm Michele Tulis and Carol Smith

    NOT SCHEDULED Saturday November 2nd if needed, Cathy Paris available, will need to confirm if scheduled

    NOT SCHEDULED Monday November 4th if needed, 8:30am, 10:30am if needed, no teams identified yet

    REMAINDER OF EARLY BALLOT PROCESSING WILL BE DONE AT THE POLLING PLACE on TUESDY NOVEMBER 5th, 7am to 7pm


    Wednesday October 23rd from 11 to noon, Mary Coburn, Mike Weinberg and Jessica Alexander will be at the Jeri Hill Senior Housing for a mobile polling place. They will meet at Town Hall at 10:30 so that they can ride together to transport the ballots.

  • 2023 Jericho Checklist Challenge

    The Jericho Board of Civil Authority will be meeting this August to confirm that all registered voters in Jericho are still qualified to vote in Jericho. If you have recently moved within Vermont you can update your voter registration through the Secretary of State's "my voter page" If you have moved to Jericho, Vermont from another State, you can register to vote (click blue text) in Vermont through the Secretary of State's website or in person at the Jericho Town Hall. Voter registration also occurs when you apply for a Vermont Drivers license unless you opt out. The Town Clerk is currently preparing a list of voters for the Board of Civil Authority to review in August, 2023. Sometimes it is difficult to know if adults that are attending school are still using their parents, address as their voting address or if they have registered to vote in another state. The Town Clerk may contact you to ask about family members to help confirm if a challenge letter should be sent to the voter. There are also some voters on the Jericho Voter Checklist that do not have birthdate or Vermont Driver's License # information with their voter registration. These are generally voters who registered in Jericho prior to 1998 (before the Town had a computer). The birthdate and Vermont Driver's license information is kept confidential through the Vermont Election Management System but used as a unique identifier to prevent duplicate registration in more than one Vermont town.

  • Jericho BCA Guidelines for issuance of challenge letters developed in 2019

    Every odd year, the Board of Civil Authority, BCA, is tasked with going through the Jericho Voter Checklist to confirm that all listed voters are qualified to vote in Jericho. For those that the board is unable to confirm residency, a challenge letter is sent with a return postage paid card for the voter to complete, sign and return. The postcard should be signed by the voter, not a family member. In 2019 the Jericho BCA came up with guidelines to systematically review names that required more information from the voter.

    The procedure outlined below was taken from the August 29, 2019 BCA minutes.

    BCA members expressed concern of going through the remaining voter names in a name by name fashion. During the discussion, some names were removed from the list because they were known to still be living in Jericho. Many of the remaining voter names were unknown to the BCA members. A systematic review approach was preferred. The below criteria was developed to review the remaining names.

    Issuance of Challenge Letters

    Challenge letters shall be issued to citizens on the Jericho voter checklist on a period basis. The issuance of challenges letters shall be based on the following criteria:

    Any voter who has not voted in either of the previous two presidential elections will be issued a challenge letter.

    OR

    Any voter who registered to vote prior to the previous two presidential elections and has not yet voted will be issued a challenge letter.

    HOWEVER

    Any voter who meets either of the above criteria may be reviewed for cause at the request of a member of the Board of Civil Authority for the purpose of not issuing a challenge letter. If a majority of the members of the Board of Civil Authority agree with the exemption a challenge letter will not be sent.

  • Want to know more about legislative reapportionment and how it affects Jericho ?

    The Jericho Board of Civil Authority has been actively following the Legislative Apportionment Board (LAB) You can find the link to the September 29th, 2021 five Town Board of Civil Authority Meeting to discuss Senate redistricting. This was recorded by MMCTV and is pictured on the right hand side of this page. On November 3rd, the Jericho and Underhill Boards of Civil Authority met to discuss the proposal received from the Legislative Apportionment Board

    Below is information that the Board of Civil Authority received from the Legislative Apportionment Board
    Memo from Board Chair Tom Little     explaining the process and the BCA role.

    Proposed House Reapportionment Statewide Map - Town Finder App. This is an interactive map displaying a side-by-side comparison of current House districts and the LAB’s proposed re-drawing of districts. Clicking on a district displays district specific data like population and population deviation.

    Proposed House Reapportionment individual district PDFs. These PDFs are high resolution and can be printed in large sizes or emailed to BCA members. They can also be found and printed from the Town Finder App, above.

    1. Sorted by City/Town
    1. Sorted by Proposed District

    2020 Census Data Interactive Maps by Town (courtesy VCGI)

    17 V.S.A. Chapter 34A: Periodic Reapportionment

    Apportionment Board Resources

    Contact the Board

    This is the response to the Legislative Apportionment Board that the Jericho Board of Civil Authority sent following the November 3rd, 2021 meeting.

    The Jericho BCA strongly recommends that the current Jericho - Underhill district remain as two towns with two representatives.

    We strongly support the current two town/two representative model to the House of Representatives. Underhill and Jericho together elect two representatives and have done so for decades. There has been a long standing tradition which has been continuously honored by the major parties that one representative comes from Underhill and one from Jericho but that they both represent both towns. This has been beneficial to the citizens of both towns because they have had two officials to turn to when they felt a need to converse with their representative. Underhill and Jericho currently share many municipal and community resources, some of which are schools, the Deborah Rawson Memorial Library, the Underhill-Jericho Fire Department, the Underhill Jericho Park District, the Jericho Market, etc. We would advocate that Underhill and Jericho continue to have a two member representative district and that no changes to this status quo be effected.

    We feel it is important to keep the flexibility of having two member districts to respect the differences across the state. In respect to Town Government and management of elections it is very important to respect Town lines. By keeping Jericho intact in a 2 member representative district the running of elections is more efficient. If Jericho were divided into 2 different single member districts that would require increased staffing at a shared polling location for Jericho’s two districts. There would be two different ballots and increased associated costs in printing the ballots, coding the vote tabulators and two different vote tabulators. There is a potential for increased confusion to the Jericho resident if they move between districts and decreased awareness as to what district that they live in. This will increase confusion with same day voter registration as well as the complexity of keeping two different districts separate while processing early/absentee ballots. This confusion may not only be on the voters part but the trained election official. With the trend of increasing mail in ballots, there will be extra steps needed to ensure that voters receive the correct ballot for their district. For voters that live in the section of Jericho that is split off, they will be voting in a separate district for August and November elections but join the rest of the Jericho voters during March elections and other special town elections.


    • Currently LAB members are working on a Senate District map, which will be sent directly to the VT Senate, once they have voted to approve a map. LAB meetings are open to the public, are conducted as hybrid in-person with a remote option (Zoom) and have scheduled agenda time for public comment or input. Visit https://sos.vermont.gov/apportionment-board/ for details.


    By November 29th, the LAB is charged with sending their final recommendation for a House District map and a Senate District map to the Legislature, alongside a report detailing their recommendation and process.

Page last updated: 29 May 2025, 04:51 PM