Snelling Center for Government

(Vermont State House 1859)

In 1870, the Council of Censors adopted a proposal to extend the length of terms from one year to two years. In the 135 years since the Council of Censors changed the length of term, there have been several attempts to change the term length to 4 years. The furthest the process went was in 1971 when a proposal made it through two biennium sessions and was put before the citizens of Vermont in a referendum vote. The amendment failed by a very close margin. Most of the other attempts have died in either a House or Senate committee. Below are a variety of historical resources to help frame the issues and to show the historical context of the four year term for elected officials.

Resources:
Amending the Constitution A History: Gregory Sanford (PDF)
History of Attempts to Change The Vermont’s Governor Term: A Timeline (PDF)
Themes and Arguments of Previous Discussions (PDF)

Previous Proposals on Four-year term:
Proposal 4 1995 (PDF)
Proposal 8 1996 (PDF)
Proposal 1 2003 (PDF)
Proposal 4 2003 (PDF)

Previous Testimony on Four Year Term:
Testimony Before 1983 Senate Government Operations Committee (PDF)
Madeline Kunin Testimony Before 1991 Senate Government Operations Committee (PDF)