Waterbury-Duxbury voter turnout exceeds state
November 7, 2020 | By Lisa Scagliotti 
Editor’s Note: This story was updated Nov. 7.
After mailing and dropping off ballots for nearly a month, voters in Waterbury and Duxbury made their way to the polls on Tuesday, resulting in turnout in both towns hitting 77 percent, topping the statewide turnout rate of just under 74 percent.
Town Clerks Carla Lawrence and Maureen Harvey said the pace was steady much of the day. Waterbury voters followed a traditional setup inside the gym at Thatcher Brook Primary School with masks and distancing required and election workers seated behind Plexiglas shields.
In Duxbury, the format was drive-through at the town office after success with it for the school budget re-vote in June and the August primary. Voters pulled up, checked in and either dropped off or filled out a ballot on the spot. Morning snow quickly melted into a scene more like April mud season but that didn’t bother voters who stayed in their vehicles.
Some voters arrived at the polls without ballots and filled out affidavits to get a new one. Others brought the ballots they received in the mail to drop off. Why wait until the last day? For some, it was the ritual or tradition of voting on Election Day. Those voting in person received “I voted” stickers, of course.
In some cases, Harvey said, voters had not even opened the ballot they received in the mail in October until they arrived at the drive-through. “They’re sitting in their car filling out their ballot instead of at home in their Barcalounger,” she said with a shrug.
In both communities, participation hit record highs. Lawrence said 75% of Waterbury’s registered voters cast ballots in the 2016 presidential election. “Note that in 2008 when President Obama ran, the turnout was 78% but the checklist was much smaller then,” she said.
Harvey said this year’s turnout easily surpassed any past participation. “I would say that is a record for us. We had a turnout in the 60-plus percent range in 2016,” she said. And while 681 people sent their ballots in early, Harvey said Election Day traffic was about evenly split between those voting at the town office (103) and those just dropping off their filled-out ballot (139).
Choices mirror Vermonters’ picks
Election results in both communities mirrored statewide results where voters split their tickets preferring former Vice President and Democrat Joe Biden for president, Republican Gov. Phil Scott for re-election, Democrat Molly Gray for lieutenant governor, and all of the other incumbent statewide Democratic office-holders.
Incumbents were safe up and down the ballot including U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Washington County Sens. Ann Cummings-D, Anthony Pollina-PD, and Andrew Perchlik-DP. Waterbury’s state Reps. Theresa Wood and Tom Stevens, both Democrats, won re-election in the Washington-Chittenden district with Huntington, Bolton and Buels Gore. Likewise Democratic Reps. Kari Dolan of Waitsfield and Maxine Grad of Moretown in the Washington-7 district representing Duxbury will be returning to Montpelier having run unopposed.
Full election results are available online on the Vermont Secretary of State’s website: electionresults.vermont.gov