Law / United States / 
Vermont
Vermont Synthetic Media in Elections Act
17 V.S.A. §§ 2031-2033, 2041-2042
In force since .
An AI transparency rule binding public and private bodies.
- Enforcement body
- Vermont Attorney General and State's Attorneys
- How the hook was established
- express
- What makes it apply
- Place of effect
- Obligation class
- Disclosure, Prohibition
- Audit expectation
- none
- Setting the rule reaches
- Elections
What it requires
- Within 90 days before a Vermont election, do not publish, communicate, or distribute synthetic media you know is deceptive and fraudulent synthetic media, meaning a realistic depiction of a candidate that injures their reputation, or of an individual providing materially false information to voters, unless the required disclosure is included.NIST AI RMFMAP 3.3
- The disclosure must read: 'This media has been manipulated or generated by digital technology and depicts speech or conduct that did not occur,' shown for a video's full duration or read at intervals of not more than two minutes for audio.NIST AI RMFMEASURE 2.8
- A bona fide newscast, a periodical of general circulation, satire or parody, and a telecommunications or interactive computer service passing through another person's content are each exempted, subject to conditions set out in the act.
- A candidate misrepresented by such media may seek injunctive relief in addition to the Attorney General's or a State's Attorney's own enforcement authority.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- MAP 3.3Targeted application scope is specified and documented based on the system’s capability, established context, and AI system categorization.
- MEASURE 2.8Risks associated with transparency and accountability – as identified in the MAP function – are examined and documented.
- NIST AI 600-1
- GAI-RISK-07Human-AI Configuration
- GAI-RISK-08Information Integrity
- GAI-RISK-11Obscene, Degrading, and/or Abusive Content
- MIT mitigations Draft
- FINOS AIGF
- AIR-PREV-005System Acceptance Testing
- AIR-DET-021Agent Decision Audit and Explainability
- ETSI EN 304 223
- 5.1.2-1Business need and security risks written down and assessed before deciding to build an AI system.
- 5.1.3-2Threats developers cannot resolve are passed to operators and on to end-users.
- 5.1.4-5End-users told which uses of the system are prohibited.
- 5.3.1-1Users told where and how their data is used, accessed and stored, with developers informing operators.
- 5.3.1-2.1That guidance covers proper use, limits and likely failure modes.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework, and in the NIST AI RMF, line by line beside each duty above. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
Identifiers refer to ETSI EN 304 223 V2.1.1 (2025-12), © ETSI 2025, all rights reserved. ETSI owns the standard; no ETSI text (titles or sentences) is reproduced here. The standard is free to download from ETSI.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionYes
Criminal exposure note
A knowing and intentional violation is subject to criminal prosecution and a fine of not more than $1,000.00, rising to $5,000.00 with intent to cause violence or bodily harm, $10,000.00 for a repeat violation within five years, or $15,000.00 where both apply; the act specifies no imprisonment term.
Penalty structure
Base fine for a knowing and intentional violation is not more than $1,000.00; not more than $5,000.00 with intent to cause violence or bodily harm; not more than $10,000.00 for a violation within five years of a prior violation; and not more than $15,000.00 where both aggravating factors apply.
- Rule
- Fixed only
- As of
- Currency
- USD
- Fixed cap
- 15,000
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Sections 2031 through 2033 state a disclosure duty for deceptive and fraudulent synthetic media distributed before a Vermont election; they state no duty for the distributor to create, keep, or produce a record of having disclosed. Section 2042, part of this same citation, gives the Attorney General or a State's Attorney a civil-investigation power to examine any existing books, records, papers, or memoranda bearing on an alleged violation and to demand written responses under oath, but that is a general power to investigate a suspected violation rather than a duty imposed by this subchapter to create an AI-specific record.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Enacted as 2026 Act No. 75 (S.23), this act adds a new subchapter to Title 17's elections law defining "synthetic media" as an image, audio recording, or video recording of a person's appearance, speech, or conduct created or intentionally manipulated using digital technology, including artificial intelligence, and "deceptive and fraudulent synthetic media" as synthetic media that appears realistic and either injures a candidate's reputation or provides materially false information to influence an election.
Within 90 days before a Vermont election, a person may not publish, communicate, or distribute synthetic media it knows is deceptive and fraudulent unless the media carries a specified disclosure stating that it has been manipulated or generated by digital technology and depicts speech or conduct that did not occur, shown for the full duration of a video or read at set intervals for an audio recording.
The act exempts a bona fide newscast or news broadcast that acknowledges questions about authenticity, a periodical of general circulation that states the media does not accurately represent the person, satire or parody, and a telecommunications or interactive computer service that only carries another person's content.
A knowing and intentional violation is a civil fine of not more than $1,000.00, escalating to $5,000.00 with intent to cause violence or bodily harm, $10,000.00 for a repeat violation within five years, or $15,000.00 where both aggravating factors apply; a misrepresented candidate may separately seek injunctive relief, and the Attorney General or a State's Attorney may investigate and enforce.
The enacted text adds subchapters 4 and 5 to 17 V.S.A. chapter 35, at sections 2031 to 2033 and 2041 to 2042; it is not part of chapter 61 (Campaign Finance). The act took effect on passage, when Governor Scott signed it on .
When LexLint raises it
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