Voters trickled into Vermont polling stations Tuesday for the 2014 primary election. With few contested races, turnout appeared low, as predicted. Estimates leading up to primary day were that as few as 30,000 voters might participate.
Little interest in the party elections was anticipated because few members of the same party are vying for the same seats.
Notable exceptions are the three Republicans running for governor, four Democrats running for two seats representing Windham County in the Senate, and some House and countywide slots for which there are more candidates than there are seats available.
Aside from those contested races, most candidates are expected to coast through the primary and gird up for the November election.
Maura O’Brien of Montpelier said she thinks it’s more exciting when her vote makes more of a difference. But it makes her sad that more people don’t exercise the right.
“Look at the cost people are willing to pay to have the right to vote,” O’Brien said.
She said the primary election was so under the radar that she almost missed it herself. A friend reminded O’Brien at the last minute, and she was happy she participated even though she didn’t feel strongly about any of the candidates she supported.
Montpelier resident Ellen David-Friedman was fired up to write in Progressive candidate Dean Corren for lieutenant governor on the Democratic ballot.
David-Friedman said the job of encouraging civic participation “is incredibly challenging … at this moment in time.” Too many young people, poor people and people of color are disenfranchised, she said.
“Life has not been getting better,” David-Friedman said, citing wage stagnation, the cost of housing and a widening gap between rich and poor in America.
She said the sense of possibility her generation felt in the 1960s is absent today.
A 31-year-old business owner from Waterbury who asked not to be identified agreed.
People are too busy working to tune into politics and government, he said. He doesn’t read the news and wouldn’t know where to start if he wanted to get involved.
“I do vote sometimes,” he said. “I’m into politics as long as it pertains to my business.”
Adam Wood of Richmond a new homeowner said he’s more invested in Vermont than ever before, he said. But he now spends all his spare time fixing things around the house, and has a hard time keeping up with politics.
That said, he probably wouldn’t have voted in the primary anyway, mostly because he doesn’t affiliate with any political party, and also because he hadn’t taken the time to learn about individual candidates.
“I don’t know what’s worse, no vote, or an uneducated vote,” Wood said.
Ethan Ryea said he wasn’t aware Tuesday was the primary election, and he doesn’t follow politics very closely. But when H. Brooke Paige handed him a card on a street corner in Montpelier, Ryea liked his throw-back 1920s look, he said, and decided to give Paige his vote in the Democratic primary.
