Throughout Vermont on Tuesday, voters streamed into polling places to cast their ballots in an election that has been marked by extraordinary anticipation and division at the national level and a more muted debate closer to home.
More than 216,000 Vermonters — roughly two-fifths of the state’s registered voters — had already voted early, according to a preliminary count by the Secretary of State’s Office Tuesday morning. But some said they preferred to wait until Election Day to part with their ballot.
“I really like voting in person,” said Jenn Childress, a literacy coach from Winooski who lined up outside the Winooski Senior Center before the polls opened Tuesday morning. “There’s something about the act of showing up and voting on the day-of that feels, I don’t know, that feels right to me.”
Though few statewide candidates in Vermont face serious challenges this cycle, Gov. Phil Scott and his fellow Republicans have sought to make the election a referendum on the Democratic supermajority that controls the Statehouse.
That message resonated for Joan Forbes, a 73-year-old Middlebury resident who owns a concrete company. Outside the Middlebury Recreation Center on Tuesday morning, she said that she was hoping to give Scott “the help that he needs to do things to make Vermont livable right now.”
But like Vermonters traditionally do, Forbes said she was splitting her ticket — voting for Republicans in statewide races and for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, for president. “That’s new for me!” she exclaimed.
Explaining her vote for Harris over former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, Forbes said, “I just don’t like the negativity. He has to badmouth everyone. People shouldn’t do that.”
The debate over affordability in Vermont also brought Ellen Oxfeld out to the Middlebury rec center Tuesday, but for a different reason than Forbes. Oxfeld, a retired Middlebury College anthropology professor and longtime advocate for universal health care, said she wanted to volunteer at the polls to support Democratic candidates.
“I already voted, but then I thought, ‘Our state senator is in a little bit of trouble,’ so I brought the sign, too,” she said, referring to the placard she held featuring the name of Sen. Chris Bray, D-Addison. “There are some real issues — the rise of fuel prices, the rise of property taxes.” But, Oxfeld said, many affordability challenges can be traced to the rising cost of health care, not decisions made by Democrats in Montpelier.
“I think a lot of people just see property taxes going up and they say, ‘Oh, maybe this guy did it,’” she said, tapping the Bray sign she held.
Some Vermonters said Tuesday morning that they were particularly excited to vote in the presidential contest.
Georgia Bruneau, a 19-year-old student and restaurant employee from Williston, was accompanied by her parents and older sister as she cast her first vote at the National Guard Armory in town. Her father, Matt Bruneau, called out to Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, who was campaigning nearby, to tell him that he liked his shorter haircut. Her mother, Kelly Bruneau, snapped a photo of the family outside the polls.
Georgia said her parents had always emphasized to her the importance of voting. And this year, she said, that was especially true.
“I think the outcomes are going to be really impactful on society,” she said. “Depending on who wins, a lot of things could happen — either good or bad, depending on which way you see it.”
For Georgia, the decision to vote for Harris was a no-brainer. “I don’t support Trump. Never have!” she said with a laugh.
As for state races in Vermont? “I feel like it doesn’t really change around here that much,” she said.
Zuckerman was hardly the only politician pressing the flesh outside the polls on Tuesday. In Brattleboro, U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., stood outside the American Legion hall, as she has every two years since she first sought election to the state Senate a decade ago.
But this time, she wasn’t planning to move on to a string of other campaign stops. Instead, the Democrat returned home to spend Election Day making calls for Harris.
“The most important thing for me is to make sure I have a president I can work with,” Balint said. “We have to figure out how to bring people back together.”
This story will be updated.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Vermonters take to the polls on a historic Election Day.