Vermont’s primary election day is Tuesday, Aug. 9
August 4, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti 
The Vermont Secretary of State supplies cities and towns with official secure drop boxes where voters can return their marked ballots ahead of Election Day. Waterbury's is near the entry to the municipal offices. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
Vermont voters who haven’t already cast an early ballot will go to the polls for the statewide primary election on Tuesday, Aug. 9.
In Waterbury, the polling place is Brookside Primary School. In Duxbury, a drive-through will be set up outside the town offices at 5421 Vermont Route 100. Polls in both places will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
Town clerks in both communities say they have mailed out early ballots to dozens of voters and others have stopped into town offices to vote early.
Waterbury Town Clerk Carla Lawrence said on Monday that she had mailed 538 ballots, more than half of which have been returned already.
In Duxbury, Town Clerk Maureen Harvey said 126 absentee ballots have been issued with just about half returned so far.
Monday, Aug. 8, at 4:30 p.m. is the latest for anyone to request an early ballot in Waterbury – that’s when the town clerk’s office closes. In Duxbury, the town office closes Monday at 3 p.m. In both communities, ballots need to be returned to the polling place by 7 p.m. on Election Day.
The primary election will decide major-party candidates who will appear on the Nov. 8 General Election ballot.
Voters are presented with three ballot choices and are asked to vote just one – Democratic, Republican or Progressive. Statewide and county-level offices are on the ballot in this election. Local offices such as select board and school board seats are filled in the March Town Meeting Day election.
This year’s primary has contests to decide contenders for two of Vermont’s three Congressional delegation seats: the U.S. Senate seat now held by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who is not running for re-election, and Vermont’s lone House seat held by Democratic Rep. Peter Welch who is running for the senate.
The primary will also decide who voters choose from in November to fill Vermont’s statewide offices of governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, auditor, and treasurer.
Closer to home, candidates for the Vermont House and Senate are on the ballot. Locally, there are no primary contests for House districts but the three-seat Washington County Senate district has competition on the Democratic ballot where six candidates vying for three spots on the November ballot. Incumbent Democrats Ann Cummings and Anthony Perchlik are both running for re-election along with Jared Duval, Jeremy Hansen, and Anne Watson.
Cummings, a Democrat and former Montpelier mayor and retired real estate agent, is seeking her 13th two-year term. Also from Montpelier, Perchlik is a Democrat/Progressive running for a third term; he is director of the Vermont Clean Energy Development Fund.
Nearing the end of his sixth term, Sen. Anthony Pollina, P-D, from Middlesex, decided not to run for re-election this year.
The new contenders on the ballot are: Montpelier High School physics teacher and Montpelier Mayor Watson; Jared Duval, who has worked as economic development director for the Agency of Commerce and Community Development; and Jeremy Hansen of Berlin, a Norwich University computer science professor and founder of the regional municipal organization CVFiber which is working to expand broadband internet service in the region.
The Republican primary race has just two candidates for the three seats: Paul Bean of Northfield and Dwayne Tucker from Barre Town.
After the state legislature earlier this year redrew the boundaries of the Washington County state Senate district, it now includes the town of Stowe in Lamoille County as well as the Orange County towns of Braintree and Orange.
Waterbury’s House district is Chittenden-Washington with two seats representing Waterbury, Bolton, Huntington and Buel’s Gore. Both incumbent Reps. Tom Stevens and Theresa Wood are running for re-election on the Democratic ballot. Waterbury Republican newcomer Kathi Tarrant is the lone candidate for the two seats on the Republican ballot. There are no Progressive candidates running.
Duxbury’s House district is Washington-7 where incumbent Rep. Kari Dolan, D-Waitsfield, and political newcomer Dara Torre from Moretown are the two Democratic candidates for the two-seat district. Incumbent Rep. Maxine Grad, D-Moretown, is not seeking re-election after more than two decades in the legislature. There are no Republican or Progressive candidates on the primary ballot for those House seats. Independent candidate Baruzzi who also is running for the first time be on the November ballot in that district as well.
Other offices at the county level include state’s attorney, probate judge and high bailiff.
Waterbury election information is online at waterburyvt.com/departments/clerk/voting and Duxbury information can be found online at duxburyvermont.org/clerkandtreasurer. Contact the Waterbury Town Clerk’s office at 802-244-8447 or clawrence@waterburyvt.com; reach the Duxbury Town Clerk’s office at 802-244-6660 or Dux.TownClerk@gmail.com.
Without local primary contests on the ballot, Waterbury Roundabout has not covered the statewide primary races. Other statewide news sources have produced much coverage. Several election guides are online from VTDigger.org, Seven Days and VPR. WCAX coverage includes several candidate debates
Times Argus coverage of two forums with the five Democratic candidates for three Washington County Senate seats that can be found here and here. And a recent forum hosted by Vermont ACLU featured candidates for contested state’s attorneys races including Washington County. View that recording here.