Local primary voters turned out strong, but didn’t pick all of the winners
August 13, 2022 | By Lisa Scagliotti 
Elections official John Bauer works at the polls at Brookside Primary School on Tuesday as voters cast their primary ballots. Photo by Gordon Miller
A host of competitive races on the ballot attracted local voters to the polls for this week’s statewide primary for turnout higher than the statewide average. But in some cases, candidates who prevailed on ballots in Waterbury and Duxbury weren’t the overall winners in their statewide or Washington County contests.
Waterbury Town Clerk Carla Lawrence (left) oversees her final election during Tuesday's primary working alongside Karen Petrovic (right), who has been appointed to serve as town clerk from September until the March 2023 Town Meeting Day election. Lawrence plans to retire at the end of this month. Photo by Gordon Miller
At a meet-and-greet at Rusty Parker Memorial Park in Waterbury on Monday, state Sen. Becca Balint, D-Windham, meets Kevin Leahy, of Middlesex, as state Sen. Ann Cummings, D-Washington, looks on. Balint went on to win the Democratic primary for Vermont's lone U.S. House seat. Cummings won her primary to seek re-election. Leahy's father is U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who is not running for re-election this year. Photo by Gordon Miller
For the Aug. 9 election, both Waterbury and Duxbury town clerks reported turnout of 30% compared with 26.5% statewide, according to the Vermont Secretary of State’s office. That was down from 2020 which had a record high participation due to widespread voting by mail during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. (37% in Waterbury that year; 33% in Duxbury; 35% statewide)
In Waterbury this year, 1,360 of the town’s 4,465 registered voters cast primary ballots; in Duxbury, 354 of the town’s 1,190 voters participated.
Because Vermont has an open primary, voters receive three major-party ballots and are able to mark just one. The vast majority of voters statewide participated in the Democratic Party election and that was also true locally. In Waterbury, just 12% chose the Republican ballot and only six individuals voted the Progressive ballot. In Duxbury, 21% voted Republican and only 2 voters used the Progressive ballot, according to unofficial results.
The Vermont Secretary of State’s office had not yet certified the results of the election as of Friday.
Results locally mostly tracked with the final tallies, but local voters didn’t prefer the ultimate winners in all of the races.
Democratic voters in both towns supported state Sen. Becca Balint over Lt. Gov. Molly Gray in the race for U.S. House nominee and overwhelmingly approved of U.S. Rep. Peter Welch’s bid to be the nominee for U.S. Senate.
On the Republican side, Christina Nolan was the voters’ favorite in the U.S. Senate race in both towns. Gerald Malloy of Weathersfield though won the nomination statewide. In the U.S. House race, Waterbury Republicans went with Ericka Redic and Duxbury narrowly chose Liam Madden who was the overall winner statewide.
The Democratic primary contest for the lieutenant governor nominee saw Waterbury voters prefer Kitty Toll of Danville with 541 votes over former Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman of Hinesburg who won 426. Duxbury voters were evenly split with both Toll and Zuckerman receiving 115 votes apiece. Zuckerman won statewide and will be on the November ballot.
In the Democratic race for Secretary of State, local voters preferred Chris Winters of Berlin who has served as deputy secretary of state. That was one of the closest races on the statewide ballot with Sarah Copeland Hanzas declared the winner. She was the second-place finisher in both Waterbury and Duxbury.
Another race that didn’t go the way local voters preferred was for the Democratic nominee for Washington County State’s Attorney. Candidate Bridget Grace from Fayston had strong support given her local ties. She won in both Waterbury and Duxbury over Michelle Donnelly of Barre City, receiving 47% of the vote in both communities. Donnelly won 17.7% in Duxbury and 23% in Waterbury. In both towns, roughly one-third of the voters left that spot on their ballots blank.
Closest to home, neither community had primary contests to nominate candidates for the November Vermont House races, but those offices will see competition on the general election ballot.
In Waterbury, incumbent Democrats Tom Stevens and Theresa Wood, both of Waterbury, were the two candidates for the Democratic nomination in the two-seat Washington-Chittenden district representing Waterbury, Bolton, Huntington and Buels Gore.
They will have one Republican challenger, Kathi Tarrant of Waterbury, who was the lone GOP candidate on the primary ballot. An independent candidate from Bolton, William McGorry, has filed to make it a four-way race on the November ballot.
Duxbury is in the Washington 2 district along with Moretown, Waitsfield, Fayston and Warren. A three-way race for those two seats will be on the November ballot with Democratic incumbent Kari Dolan of Waitsfield, Democrat Dara Torre of Moretown, and independent Rebecca Baruzzi of Fayston.
Campaign signs along Guptil Road in Waterbury Center ahead of the Aug. 9 primary election. Photo by Gordon Miller
Sources for vote tables: Waterbury and Duxbury Town Clerks and the Vermont Secretary of State.
Table design by Julia Bailey-Wells.
Click on the files below for the full results from Waterbury and Duxbury.