Chittenden County is poised to see historic turnout, and potentially historic wins, among House and Senate races on Tuesday.
If Democratic Senate candidate Kesha Ram picks up a Senate seat in Chittenden County she would be the first woman of color to serve in the Senate. If Taylor Small wins her Winooski House race, she would be Vermont’s first openly transgender lawmaker.
Winooski voters will also be deciding if noncitizens should have the right to vote in the state’s most diverse city.
As of Monday morning, Burlington City Clerk Amy Bovee confirmed that out of the 26,560 mail-in ballots sent to voters in the county’s most populous city, 15,591 have been returned so far. In 2016, a total of 19,130 votes were cast. Bovee told city councilors at last Wednesday’s election preparation meeting that the city is likely to exceed 2016 vote totals.
The Secretary of State’s Office tweeted that as of Monday morning, 245,808 Vermonters had voted, which is 76% of the entire turnout in 2016, which was 320,467.
Bovee said her office will continue collecting ballots from the three drop box locations in Burlington until 4:30 p.m. and from mail and shipping services until the end of Election Day tomorrow.
Burlington’s defective ballot numbers are down this general election compared to the primary, she said. Out of the general election ballots received so far, 118 came back defective, compared to 467 out of 7,920 primary ballots.
Bovee told city councilors at last week’s meeting that defective ballots can’t be counted because a voter didn’t follow the proper instructions, such as signing the back of the envelope or placing their ballot in the proper envelope.
The city is seeing “significantly less” defective ballots likely because of the two instructional sheets that were sent to voters with their mail-in ballots for the general election, she said.
Chittenden County Senate
Former House Rep. Kesha Ram soared to the front of the Democratic pack during the Senate primary race in August. She was the second-top vote getter, falling only behind longtime incumbent Ginny Lyons.
When Ram served in the House from 2008 to 2016, she was Burlington’s first representative of color. Her father is Indian and her mother is Jewish American. She previously told VTDigger that if elected, she wants to focus on strengthening the state’s policing laws.
“We keep moving the goalposts on communities of color and social justice activists who have come with the data, who have come showing that we have a deep disparity of problems in the state,” Ram told VTDigger on the Aug. 11 primary day. “And we need to actually act.”
Newcomer Thomas Chittenden, the seventh-removed nephew of Vermont’s first (and third) Gov. Thomas Chittenden, also claimed one of the six Democratic nomination spots on this year’s general election ballot. He’s told VTDigger that he wants to attract younger people and investment opportunities to Vermont.
Two incumbents, President Pro Tem Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden, and Debbie Ingram, D-Chittenden, decided to forgo their Senate seats to run for lieutenant governor. Both Ashe and Ingram lost the Democratic nomination to political newcomer and Assistant Attorney General Molly Gray.
The other Democratic contenders include incumbents Michael Sirotkin, Philip Baruth and Chris Pearson.
The Republican candidates for the Chittenden Senate race are Susan Bowen, Tom Chastenay, Kylie Hollingsworth, Kumulia Long, Dean Rolland and Ericka Redic. Independent James Ehlers is also running.
Winooski House Seat
Taylor Small says her perspective is needed in the Statehouse.
“When we look at our state legislators, who is typically represented in those bodies? It’s typically white folks. It’s typically folks who have an excess of wealth,” she told VTDigger in August. “They’re primarily straight and cisgender as well.”
Small, who is aiming to fill the vacated House seat left by Rep. Diana Gonzalez, P-Winooski, is one of three openly transgender candidates who sought political office in Vermont this election season.
Democrat Ember Quinn is taking on two Republican incumbents in Milton and Jamie Dufour had sought the Democratic nomination for a House seat in the Bennington-4 district, against Democratic incumbents Cynthia Browning and Kathleen James. Dufour was ultimately defeated by former House Rep. Seth Bongartz in the primary, who is running on a joint ticket with James.
Former gubernatorial candidate Ehlers, who is running for a Chittenden Senate seat, threw his hat into the two-seat Winooski race. Democratic incumbent Hal Colston is running for reelection.
Ehlers is pitching himself as a maverick environmentalist, one who would defiantly push back on the F-35 basing in Burlington that he says is polluting Winooki’s skies with 100-decibel noise and would fight for clean water quality standards.
Will Winooski give noncitizens the vote?
Winooski residents will also be voting Nov. 3 on whether to authorize a charter change that would allow noncitizens the right to vote.
The question is one that has been floated in the city since 2018. If approved by voters, Winooski would be the second municipality in Vermont to move forward with such a measure, following Montpelier in 2018. But Montpelier’s charter change has since stalled in the Senate.
The change would allow those residing legally in the United States the ability to vote; it wouldn’t apply to undocumented residents. The charter change would still need to be voted on by the state Legislature before finally implemented.
The measure could add more than 600 people to Winooski’s voter rolls. In a city of 7,300, 18% of the population was born outside the United States, making it the most diverse city in the state. Some argue the measure could solidify Winooski’s reputation as a community that welcomes immigrants.
“I have my family here. I am a resident,” Winooski resident Prashant Singh told VTDigger in October. Singh is not legally a U.S. citizen. “And I have no say in any of the school meetings. I cannot vote for the local things that matter to me.”
Essex-Westford House Race
Essex-Westford Republican incumbent Robert Bancroft is facing a challenge from gun safety advocate Alyssa Black, whose son died by suicide in 2018 only hours after he was able to buy a gun.
Black continued to advocate for a 24-hour waiting period on firearms, which was implemented in 2019, after Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of the measure was overridden. Now she says she’s running against Bancroft because he “consistently votes against the interests” of her Essex-Westford district, she told VTDigger in late October.
Black said she’s also focusing her campaign on health care reforms and said she favors a universal primary care system in Vermont. She also supports protections for women’s reproductive rights, including access to abortion — something Bancroft has tried to block.
But Republicans told VTDigger they’re not worried about Black capturing Bancroft’s seat.
Paul Dame, a former state representative from Essex, said Bancroft’s background as an economist is more important than the social issues Black is pushing for because Vermonters are looking for leaders to guide them through a financial recovery from Covid-19.
“I think people just aren’t as concerned with a lot of the social issues that Black wants to make the campaign about, now, the way that they would have been, you know, eight and 10 months ago,” Dame said.
