Sarah Copeland Hanzas

Sarah Copeland Hanzas is the incumbent Democratic Secretary of State, seeking a third two-year term. Before her election in 2022 she served nearly two decades in the Vermont House. In office she has overseen replacement of the state's election-management IT systems and civic-education programs, and she and the Attorney General won dismissal of a Department of Justice suit demanding Vermont's unredacted voter list.[1][2][3]

Sarah Copeland Hanzas was born in Illinois and moved to Vermont in 1971.[5] She graduated from Oxbow High School and the University of Vermont, where she studied history and geology, and completed her teaching certification at the Upper Valley Educator Institute.[5] She taught secondary science in public schools and at Valley Vista in Bradford, and her 2021 legislative biography says she owned a small business, The Local Buzz Cafe, on Main Street in Bradford, where she lives with her husband and their three young-adult children.[5] She has described herself as an educator, a youth coach, a small business owner and a state legislator.[4]

Copeland Hanzas served 18 years in the Vermont House of Representatives, sitting on the Health Care Committee and later chairing the Government Operations Committee.[4][5] She also served on the executive committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures.[5] She won the election for Secretary of State in November 2022 and was sworn in on January 5, 2023, as the state's 39th Secretary of State, succeeding Jim Condos after his 12 years in the office.[4] In her welcome message she said she planned to bring a renewed focus on civic education and engagement, and she was re-elected in 2024.[3][4]

Researched from the cited sources on 2026-10-21.