[A]sk Brattleboro residents Michael and Beth Chevalier why they voted the minute polls opened Tuesday morning and the two answered with one word: “Urgency.” But they weren’t speaking about the fact they were speeding off to work.
“I feel the country’s going in the wrong direction,” he said.
“I want to stop that,” she said.
Think globally, act locally? In Vermont this Election Day, it was instead vote statewide, voice concerns nationally.
“What I’m hearing the most is people are upset about what’s going on in Washington,” Rep. Alice Emmons, D-Springfield, said while campaigning outside her hometown polls.
Tuesday’s midterm ballot didn’t include President Donald Trump’s name. But a majority of Vermonters surveyed in seven cities and towns cited the commander-in-chief as their reason for voting.
“I don’t want to say his name out loud,” Brattleboro resident Kathy Urffer said before noting she hoped the state would “send a clear message.”
Voting for the first time ever, Neilena Bollman, 41, of Brattleboro said she voted because she wants Trump out.
“I hate Trump,” she said. “Most of us have worked tooth and nail for what little we get, we pay a horrible amount of taxes, and a lot of that is for Social Security. That’s supposed to be for people too old to work or disabled, and they want to take it away.”
And in Barre, Mike Wyza, a 21-year-old student, said the national political climate made voting feel more important this year.
“Pretty much, I want to see Trump reined in,” he said.
Republican Gov. Phil Scott drew plenty of support and scorn this year upon signing new state gun-control measures, while his Democratic challenger, Christine Hallquist, has sparked coast-to-coast headlines as the nation’s first transgender major-party gubernatorial candidate.
No one was talking about either Tuesday.
Likewise, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders may lead the field of potential 2020 presidential candidates in national news mentions, a new Politico study reports, but he wasn’t cited by one voter, even though he was running Tuesday for a third term.
“Dump the Trump,” one voter instead said in Springfield.
“I wish we could vote him out,” an older man confirmed in Randolph.
“Agreed,” said a younger woman behind him. “High five!”
In Woodstock, Willa Nohl, said she would like to see Democrats take control of Congress.
“The broader issue is changing Washington,” she said. “Every vote counts.”
The collective response mirrored national exit polls that showed more U.S. voters disapprove than approve of Trump’s job performance.
“Voters haven’t been focused on the local or state races,” said Emmons, first elected in 1982 and now the longest-serving member of the Vermont House of Representatives. “It has taken the oxygen right out of the room.”
In the state’s largest city of Burlington, resident Dana Hutchinson was just one of many people wanting to “do something to put a check on what’s been happening nationally.” As a result, balloting was as steady as the rain that fell most of the morning and afternoon.
“There has been a line all day long, and we’ve seen a decent amount of first-time voters,” polling place clerk Colin McNeil said at Edmunds Middle School. “I’m impressed at how busy it is.”
Vermonters said although Trump wasn’t up for re-election, they hoped Tuesday’s vote nonetheless would reflect their feelings toward him.
“Although Vermont is not going to tip the scales, I think our coming out is just as important as anywhere else,” Brattleboro Union High School teacher Robert Kramsky said.
“I’m more worried nationally than I am for the state,” Rutland interior designer Ruxana Oosman added. “Today it was important to vote and be heard.”
Anne Wallace Allen and Elizabeth Gribkoff contributed reporting.
