State officials are assuring Vermonters that the upcoming election will be both fair and secure. Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas, a Democrat, and Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, appeared together in Montpelier on Tuesday to urge Vermonters to keep divisive rhetoric in check, treat election officials with respect and, most importantly, to vote. “Our Democracy depends on people being able to safely and securely cast their ballots on or before Election Day,” Copeland Hanzas said. There have been a handful of incidents in Vermont in recent weeks of “angry interactions” between voters and town clerks, a sign that emotions are running high and people can get riled up by stories from elsewhere, she said. “We’re lucky in Vermont to have a little less vitriol than they do in some parts of this country, but we are not immune to it,” Copeland Hanzas said. Ballot box fires in Washington state and Oregon destroyed hundreds of ballots Monday and have been characterized as coordinated efforts to disrupt the election. In Vermont, more than 150,000 people have already voted by mail, about 45 percent of the turnout in the 2020 election. Scott said his office has been working closely with Copeland Hanzas’s staff and law enforcement to address any possible disruptions, including power outages on election night. “We have to be ready for anything,” Scott said. He echoed concerns about divisive political rhetoric, and urged anyone with questions to seek out trusted sources of information, such as their town clerk or the Secretary of State’s Office. “Although we may not agree on every policy issue or the candidates we’re casting our vote for, it is essential we do our part to strengthen our democracy, treat each other with respect, and tamp down the polarization we’re seeing across the country, and unfortunately, even here in Vermont,” Scott said. Copeland Hanzas said her office has been made aware of fewer than a dozen incidents of town and city clerks reporting “really negative interactions” with people who “appear to have been agitated by something they saw on social media.” Every registered voter in Vermont was mailed a ballot. It is now too late to return the ballot through the mail, so voters should either place it in a drop box or take it to the polls on Election Day. Even people who intend to vote in person should bring the ballot they received in…