In Vermont, a constitutional amendment can be proposed in one year out of four. The window opened in 1975 and has opened every fourth year since.
Chapter II, section 72 spells out the gauntlet. The Senate proposes by a two-thirds vote. The House concurs by a majority. The proposal then gets referred to the next biennial session, with a general election in between, and both chambers have to agree again by majority before it reaches the voters. The Governor gives public notice by proclamation first. Miss a step and you wait four years for another turn.
It used to be slower. Before a 1974 change, the window came once a decade. Before 1870, the legislature couldn't propose amendments at all. That job belonged to a Council of Censors, thirteen members elected statewide, sitting once every seven years. Run a document through that many gates for two and a half centuries and it stays short. Vermont's constitution is 100 sections.
The statute book and the copy you'll actually read
Vermont's permanent law is the Vermont Statutes Annotated, Revision of 1959. The legislature enacted the revision as positive statute law at 1 V.S.A. § 51, carving out the prefatory matter, catchlines, notes, annotations, tables and indexes, and it wrote the citation form into the statute itself. The text says they may be cited as "-- V.S.A. § --". Section 52 started the clock on July 1, 1959.
Maintenance sits with the Office of Legislative Counsel. Under 2 V.S.A. § 421 the office has to "continuously maintain and update" the V.S.A., and it holds the copyright on behalf of the State. Under § 422 it contracts the printing out, with cumulative pocket parts published each year after the session ends.
The free website you'll land on carries a notice at the top of every chapter. The Vermont Statutes Online is "an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience." Under 1 V.S.A. § 59 the authentic record is a copy kept in the Secretary of State's office, with the Secretary's certificate and the Seal of the State attached.
The letter you cannot drop
Cite by title number, then V.S.A., then the section.
12 V.S.A. § 512
Title 12 is court procedure. Simple enough, until you notice that Vermont has 33 numbered titles plus a dozen more that hang a letter off a number, and the lettered ones are nothing like their neighbors.
Title 9 is Commerce and Trade. Title 9A is the Uniform Commercial Code. Title 24 is Municipal and County Government. Title 24A is the municipal charters, one chapter per town. Title 27 is Property. Title 27A is the Vermont Common Interest Ownership Act, and its sections are numbered by part, so you get citations like 27A V.S.A. § 1-103, a hyphen where every other title has a plain number.
Now picture a cite that loses its letter in a copy and paste. It doesn't break. It resolves, to a real section, in a different subject.
Session laws have a tag you can't drop either. Vermont numbers acts by biennium, and the second year of each biennium is the adjourned session, marked in the cite. So 1967, No. 360 (Adj. Sess.) is a 1968 act. Strip the parenthetical and your year is off by one.
Three desks, and silence counts as yes
Rules run under 3 V.S.A. chapter 25, which section 801 names the Vermont Administrative Procedure Act.
A rule touches three bodies on its way to existence. It prefiles with the Interagency Committee on Administrative Rules. The proposal and the final proposal go to the Secretary of State. The adopted rule goes to the Secretary of State and to the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules, eight legislators under 3 V.S.A. § 817, four from each chamber, not all from the same party.
The committee gets 45 days from the final proposal to object, by majority vote of the whole committee, on grounds listed in § 842. Beyond the agency's authority. Contrary to the intent of the legislature. Arbitrary. And if the 45 days run out quietly, § 842 says that "Failure to give timely notice shall be deemed approval." Silence is a yes. So what does a clean record actually tell you about a Vermont rule? Only that nobody objected in time, which is not the same as anybody reading it.
Section 843 finishes the job. Adoption is complete only on proper filing with both the Secretary of State and the committee, and the agency has eight months from its first filing to get there. After that the Secretary of State refuses the final filing and the agency starts over. Section 845 then holds the rule back 15 days after adoption is complete, and § 846 says that missing any one of the three filings stops the rule taking effect at all.
For citing, the Secretary publishes a code of administrative rules under § 847, numbered by agency, then subagency, then rule. The Secretary of State's own Rule on Rulemaking is CVR 04-000-001, agency 04 being the Secretary of State.
Where the dead rules went
Vermont doesn't keep a graveyard in its rule code. Under § 848 a rule is repealed by operation of law when the agency that adopted it is abolished without its authority moving somewhere else, when a court declares the rule invalid, or when the General Assembly repeals the statute the agency named as its authority. The agency tells the Secretary of State, and the Secretary deletes the rule from the published code.
There was also a one-time sweep. Section 848(c) provided that on July 1, 2018, a rule was repealed without formal proceedings if it had been in effect on July 1, 2016, was not published in the code, and still wasn't published by the deadline. Unpublished meant gone.
The counts line up with a book that gets cleaned rather than annotated. Of 23,521 statute sections, 23,376 read as in force, 45 repealed and 100 reserved. Of 1,102 regulation sections, 913 read as in force and 4 as repealed, with 185 carrying no status on the face of the text, which is a question for the Secretary of State's register rather than for the rule document. Constitution, 100 sections. Agency guidance, 216. Attorney general opinions, 16. Everything together, 24,955.
Worked example
Take that 12 V.S.A. § 512 cite. It gives three years for assault and battery, false imprisonment, slander and libel, injuries to the person, and damage to personal property.
Read past the number twice. The fourth item opens with "except as otherwise provided in this chapter," so the rest of chapter 23 can move your date. And it puts accrual on the date the injury is discovered, a proviso added in the 1975 adjourned session.
Then read the Source note under the text, which is where Vermont keeps its receipts. Section 512 traces back through V.S. 1947 § 1690, P.L. § 1649, G.L. § 1850, 1915 No. 88, and on down to a 1787 revision. Anything you need about how the words got that way is in that chain.
Last, remember which copy you're holding. If the exact wording is going to decide something, take it from the certified copy or the print edition rather than the convenience copy on the web. Vermont told you which is which, right at the top of the page.
Facts used
All Vermont corpus counts below are from Vaquill AI's US primary law data, measured 2026-09-18.
| Claim | Value | Where from |
|---|---|---|
| Total Vermont sections held | 24,955 | Corpus counts, measured 2026-09-18 |
| Statute sections | 23,521 | Corpus counts, measured 2026-09-18 |
| Statute sections in force / repealed / reserved | 23,376 / 45 / 100 | Corpus counts, measured 2026-09-18 |
| Regulation sections | 1,102 | Corpus counts, measured 2026-09-18 |
| Regulation sections in force / repealed / no status on the text | 913 / 4 / 185 | Corpus counts, measured 2026-09-18 |
| Constitution sections | 100 | Corpus counts, measured 2026-09-18 |
| Agency guidance sections | 216 | Corpus counts, measured 2026-09-18 |
| Attorney general opinions held | 16 | Corpus counts, measured 2026-09-18 |
| Amendments proposed in one year out of four, Senate two-thirds then House majority, then next session, then voters | Vt. Const. ch. II, § 72 | Text of the section |
| Window ran once a decade before the 1974 change, effective 1975 | Verified | Vermont State Archives, amending the constitution |
| Council of Censors, thirteen members, proposed amendments every seven years until 1870 | Verified | Vermont State Archives, amending the constitution |
| V.S.A. Revision of 1959 enacted as positive statute law, citation form fixed in the statute | 1 V.S.A. § 51 | Text of the section |
| V.S.A. took effect July 1, 1959 | 1 V.S.A. § 52 | Text of the section |
| Certified copy in the Secretary of State's office is the authentic record | 1 V.S.A. § 59 | Text of the section |
| Office of Legislative Counsel maintains the V.S.A. and holds the copyright | 2 V.S.A. § 421 | Text of the section |
| Printing contracted out, annual cumulative pocket parts | 2 V.S.A. § 422 | Text of the section |
| Online statutes are "an unofficial copy ... provided as a convenience" | Verified | Notice on the General Assembly's statutes pages |
| 33 numbered titles plus lettered titles 9A, 24A, 27A and others | Verified | Title list of the Vermont Statutes Annotated |
| Title 9A is the UCC, 24A the municipal charters, 27A the Common Interest Ownership Act | Verified | Title headings |
| Common Interest Ownership Act sections numbered by part | 27A V.S.A. § 1-103 | Text of the section |
| Chapter 25 is the Vermont Administrative Procedure Act | 3 V.S.A. § 801 | Text of the section |
| Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules has eight members, four per chamber, not all one party | 3 V.S.A. § 817 | Text of the section |
| Committee has 45 days to object, and "Failure to give timely notice shall be deemed approval" | 3 V.S.A. § 842 | Text of the section |
| Adoption complete only on filing with the Secretary of State and the committee, eight month deadline | 3 V.S.A. § 843 | Text of the section |
| Rules take effect 15 days after adoption is complete | 3 V.S.A. § 845(d) | Text of the section |
| Missing any required filing prevents a rule taking effect | 3 V.S.A. § 846(a) | Text of the section |
| Secretary publishes a code of administrative rules | 3 V.S.A. § 847(b) | Text of the section |
| Rule on Rulemaking is CVR 04-000-001, agency 04 | Verified | Code of Vermont Rules entry |
| Repeal by operation of law, and deletion from the published code | 3 V.S.A. § 848(a) and (b) | Section text on the Vermont Legislature's own site, re-verified 2026-09-20 |
| Rules unpublished in the code repealed on July 1, 2018 | 3 V.S.A. § 848(c) | Section text on the Vermont Legislature's own site, re-verified 2026-09-20 |
| Three year limit for assault and battery, false imprisonment, slander and libel, injuries to the person, damage to personal property | 12 V.S.A. § 512 | Text of the section |
| Discovery accrual proviso added in the 1975 adjourned session | 1975, No. 248 (Adj. Sess.), § 2 | Amendment note to 12 V.S.A. § 512 |
| Section 512 traces back through V.S. 1947 § 1690 to a 1787 revision | Verified | Source note to 12 V.S.A. § 512 |
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