St. Johnsbury Town Clerk Stacy Jewell called turnout “excellent” as she stood inside the town municipal office Tuesday afternoon, where voters filtered in and out.
The clerk said about 700 votes had been received by about midday, including around 250 absentee ballots in the weekend mail. Her office had received 2,100 mailed ballots before that.
“I’m pretty sure before the night’s over we’ll exceed our largest participation,” she said.
Husband and wife Emile and Christine Gonzalez voted for Democrat Joe Biden Tuesday afternoon.
“We need some change,” Emile said. “I’m tired of waking up every day and wondering if we’re gonna be alive.”
President Trump has “done nothing for the virus,” Christine said.
Emile, a Latino man, said he’s “scared to death” about Trump being reelected because of hostility nationwide toward nonwhite people. Even though he lives in the woods, he said, “I feel it.”
Tony Whitehill, another town resident, said he voted straight Republican this year.
“I just feel as though the Democrats have swung way too extreme on the left,” he said, particularly at the national level. Voters in this region are more “traditional,” he said, which is why he thinks Trump and the GOP’s support is higher here.
Richard Kroeger, a woodworker in St. Johnsbury, said he voted for Trump because of the president’s pro-life views. “And he is trying to keep jobs here in America, rather than outsourcing,” Kroeger said.
— Justin Trombly
