Primary election a big draw despite pandemic

August 15, 2020  |  By Lisa Scagliotti

At 6:43 p.m., eight voters wait outside the town offices in Waterbury to cast their ballots in Tuesday's primary election. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti.

UPDATE: This story was updated to correct the winners in the Republican primary race for Washington County Senate.

Vermont’s typically sleepy August primary was anything but this year with record turnout statewide in this week’s election which relied heavily on absentee voting by mail due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to the Vermont Secretary of State’s office, a record 170,586 people participated in Tuesday’s election, surpassing the 2000 primary turnout by 39 percent. Overall the statewide turnout was 35 percent compared with a typical 20-25 percent turnout for a primary, according to state records. 

Waterbury Town Clerk Carla Lawrence reported an even higher turnout: 1,640 or 36.7 percent of the town’s 4,463 registered voters cast ballots. Of them, 387 voted in person on Tuesday with the rest voting absentee, she said. 

The turnout beat Waterbury’s previous high-primary mark which came in 2016 when 1,452 voters participated, she said. 

Despite the heavy early voting, Lawrence said that the pace of voters coming to vote in person was steady throughout the day Tuesday. People stood in a queue outside the municipal offices’ entrance to wait their turn to go inside to cast their ballots. Election officials limited the number of people inside in order to keep distance and sanitize between users. 

In Duxbury, 385 people voted which was just shy of 33 percent of the town’s 1,169 registered voters, Town Clerk Maureen Harvey said. That beat the high year 2016 when 370 voters participated. Absentee ballots numbered 236 of the total, Harvey reported.

Duxbury used a drive-up polling place for the second time this summer. It worked well for the school budget vote in June and elections workers once again staged the polling place in the bus loop at Crossett Brook Middle School. 

Voters stayed in their cars to check in, pull over and mark ballots, and drive up to put them in the appropriate boxes. Harvey said turnout was light with no more than a few cars there at once with voters marking ballots. 

Given the push for people to request early ballots to avoid in-person voting due to public health concerns, election officials were vigilant to collect absentee ballots down to the time the polls closed at 7 p.m. Several drove up to the Waterbury town offices shortly before 7 to hand sealed envelopes to an election worker. 

Lawrence said clerks were reminded to check in with their post offices around closing time on election day to see if any ballots had come in that day. Indeed, at 5:15 on Tuesday, Lawrence said, there were six ballots to pick up. There also was one dropped off for Moretown, she said, and a post office worker waited until someone from Moretown arrived to retrieve it. Lawrence said the post office deserved credit for their extra effort. “Every ballot counts!” she said.  

Local results mostly reflect statewide choices

The primary election decided candidates for the November general election ballot for Congress, statewide offices, legislative races and county positions.

For the most part, local returns mirrored the statewide results although Waterbury voters by a slim margin -- 11 votes -- chose Rebecca Holcombe in the Democratic primary for governor, 483-472. 

Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman was the winner in that race, besting Holcombe 44 percent to 34 percent statewide. A Progressive/Democrat, Zuckerman will challenge two-term Gov. Phil Scott who won the Republican primary handily with 72 percent of the vote. His nearest challenger, John Klar won just under 22 percent of the vote, according to statewide returns. 

Vermont’s lone Congressman, Democratic Rep. Peter Welch, won his nomination with 93 percent of the vote. Miriam Berry will be on the GOP ballot and Chris Brimmer on the Progressive ticket against Welch in November. Neither of Vermont’s U.S. Senators are up for re-election this year.

Zuckerman’s move to run for governor opened up his seat, touching off a crowded primary. Political newcomer Molly Gray of Burlington pulled out a win in her first run for office. The assistant attorney general won 43 percent of the vote, beating state Sen. Tim Ashe of Burlington who got just under 33 percent. Former state representative Brenda Siegel of Newfane and state Sen. Debbie Ingram each won about 9 percent. 

On the Republican side, former gubernatorial candidate Scott Milne won the nomination with almost 46 percent of the vote over challenger Meg Hansen of Manchester with about 29 percent. Milne of Pomfret will face Gray in the November election. 

All other statewide officeholders are Democrats -- Attorney General T.J. Donovan, Auditor Doug Hoffer, Secretary of State Jim Condos, Treasurer Beth Pearce. All but Hoffer were unopposed in their primary; Hoffer won over 50 percent of the vote to his challenger, Linda Joy Sullivan of Dorset’s nearly 35 percent.

The GOP had few contenders for the other statewide offices. Perennial candidate H. Brook Paige of Washington won the party’s nomination for both secretary of state and attorney general; Carolyn Whitney Branagan will be on the ballot for treasurer.

The Progressive Party primary ballot was a sleeper this year with Cris Ericson of Chester running for every statewide office. 

Locally only two voters in both Waterbury and Duxbury voted the Progressive ballot. 

In Waterbury 1,191 Democratic and 447 Republican ballots were cast. In Duxbury, 232 voted the Democratic ballot and 148 marked the Republican one, according to town results.  

Elections workers collect marked and unmarked ballots in the drive-through polling station at Crossett Brook Middle School in Duxbury Tuesday. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti.

Local legislative races had little competition. Incumbents representing Waterbury and Duxbury in the Vermont House were unopposed in their primaries. 

Reps. Tom Stevens and Theresa Wood are both Democrats in the Chittenden-Washington district representing Waterbury, Bolton, Huntington and Buel’s Gore. They will have one Republican challenger on the Nov. 3 ballot, Brock Coderre of Waterbury Center. Waterbury Select Board Chair Chris Viens said he also has filed to be an Independent candidate for a House seat in November. That sets up a four-way race the district’s two seats in the general election. 

Duxbury’s Reps. Kari Dolan, D-Waitsfield, and Maxine Grad, D-Moretown have no November opponents. Their district also includes Fayston and Warren. 

On the state Senate side, Washington County’s three incumbents -- Ann Cummings and Andrew Perchlik of Montpelier and Anthony Pollina of Middlesex -- won their primary in which they had one challenger, Theo Kennedy of Middlesex. They will face Barre Republicans Dawnmarie Tomasi, Dwayne Tucker and Ken Alger on Nov. 3. 

The Progressive Party has no candidates for legislative races in the local districts. 

Full election results are available on the Vermont Secretary of State’s website.