Primary election sets the stage for November contests
August 12, 2026 | By Lisa Scagliotti
Town Clerk Wesley Pollock and Assistant Town Clerk Myria McNally prep ballots to hand out as local residents vote in the Brookside Primary School gym on Tuesday. Photo by Gordon Miller
Despite contests for candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and state senators to represent Washington County, voters in Waterbury and nearby communities turned out in numbers quite similar to the 22% statewide in Tuesday’s primary election.
According to the Vermont Secretary of State’s office, which collected reports from all but one town as of Wednesday afternoon (Middlesex still had yet to report), 111,816 of Vermont’s 508,121 registered voters cast ballots for a turnout of 22%. That’s the highest primary turnout since the COVID-19 pandemic – 2024 saw just 15% of Vermont voters participate in the primary compared with 22.5% in 2018.
In Waterbury, 959 voters took part in the election, just over two-thirds showing up in person on Tuesday with the rest trickling in early over the past several weeks, according to a tally by Town Clerk Wesley Pollock. That amounted to turnout of 21% of the town’s 4,635 voters. Most marked the Democratic Party ballot, which had the most competition with contests for governor, lieutenant governor, state auditor and regional offices. Just 97 Waterbury voters filled out the Republican ballot.
Voting started off slow Tuesday morning at Brookside Primary School but picked up during the day, according to local elections officials. By late afternoon a steady stream of voters came through.
The election was the first for Waterbury’s new Town Clerk Wes Pollock and Assistant Town Clerk Myria McNally, who both have joined the town staff in recent weeks.
Duxbury's drive-through polling location is outside of the town office and highway garage. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
In Duxbury, the voting drive-through was steady all day on Tuesday, with three-quarters of the 273 votes being cast in person in the town’s voting drive-through.
“We were as busy as the creemee stands today,” said Duxbury Selectboard member Gwenna Peters, who was working at the checkout booth.
Harvey also remarked on a slight uptick in new voter registrations just ahead of the election, including several on Tuesday. Most new voters were 17 or 18 and voting for the first time, Harvey said. One just made the cutoff to vote in the primary with a birthday that falls on November 3, the date of the general election. “I’m going to have to get them a cupcake in November,” quipped Town Clerk Maureen Harvey.
With 1,183 registered voters, that amounted to turnout of 23%, according to Harvey’s report.
Moretown (22%) and the Mad River Valley towns reported similar participation on Tuesday with Warren slightly higher at 28%, according to reports from town clerks.
In most of the statewide elections, local voters’ choices mirrored the overall Vermont decisions in Tuesday’s primary with one exception – Democratic voters in Waterbury, Duxbury and the Valley communities all favored Aly Richards, who fell short to winner Amanda Janoo. Richards outpaced Amanda Janoo in Waterbury 485-307, and in Duxbury 103-90. Janoo continues on to face Republican Gov. Phil Scott in the November general election.
Janoo will be the fifth Democrat to challenge Republican Gov. Phil Scott since he was elected in 2016. He’s seeking a sixth two-year term this year. In the Democratic contest for the lieutenant governor nomination, Gray, who served one term as lieutenant governor from 2021-2023, won on Tuesday, defeating Ryan McLaren and Esther Charlestin. She will now be on the November ballot up against Republican Lt. Gov. John Rodgers, who is seeking a second term.
Tim Ashe, a former state senator from Burlington, won the Democratic nomination for state auditor handily statewide in a three-way primary against newcomers Nicholas Graeter of Williston and Dan Towle of Huntington. Ashe will face Republican H. Brooke Paige on the November ballot.
All six statewide offices are up for election this year along with the entire Vermont General Assembly and the state’s lone seat in the U.S. House.
There were no primary contests for the offices of Attorney General, Treasurer or Secretary of State. Democrats Charity Clark, Sarah Copeland Hanzas and Mike Pieciak are all seeking re-election to those offices, respectively.
Single Progressive Party candidates were Zachary Hampl for treasurer and Rachel Shaw for secretary of state. Republican H. Brooke Paige ran unopposed on the GOP primary ballot for all three of these offices in addition to auditor.
This year, Vermont’s U.S. House seat is the only position in the state’s three-member Congressional delegation up for election. U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., is seeking a third term. Republican Gerald Malloy, who lives in Weathersfield, won statewide over Mark Coester of Westminster to challenge Balint. Both GOP candidates have previously run unsuccessfully for Congress. Coester was Balint’s 2024 opponent in the U.S. House election; Malloy has twice run for U.S. Senate.
Malloy was the choice of those local voters casting Republican ballots as well, winning 57-22 in Waterbury and 43-11 in Duxbury.
The Progressive ballot had no candidates running for U.S. House.
Washington Senate contest
Washington County’s three incumbent Democratic state senators, Ann Cummings of Montpelier, Andrew Perchlik of Marshfield, and Anne Watson of Barre City, were the top finishers in their primary race. Their one challenger, Gabriel LaJeunesse from Montpelier, came in fourth across the district. The three incumbents were the top vote-getters in Waterbury, Duxbury and the Mad River Valley.
The three-seat district had three Republicans on the primary ballot: Rob LaClair from Montpelier, Christopher Neddo from Barre Town, and Peter Schmeeckle from Stowe. All three will be candidates in the November general election against Cummings, Perchlik and Watson.
The Washington state Senate district covers all of Washington County as well as Stowe and the towns of Orange and Braintree in Orange County.
Assistant Judge
A Washington County office with high interest in this primary was the two seats for Assistant Judge, which had three Democratic candidates competing: Incumbent Leah Murphy Jones from Montpelier seeking re-election to a three-year term, and newcomers Caleb Curry from Montpelier and Anne Dielensnyder of Berlin.
Murphy Jones was the top vote-getter with 5,576 votes, followed by Dielensnyder with 4,022, landing them both spots on the November ballot. Curry came in third place with 3,295 votes. Waterbury, Duxbury and Valley voters favored Murphy Jones and Dielensnyder. Curry came in second place in Montpelier, Worcester and Roxbury; he tied with Dielensnyder in Northfield, according to town results reported by the Secretary of State.
The Republican ballot had just one assistant judge candidate, Ture Nelson from Berlin, who will be on the general election ballot in November.
House primaries
Local races for seats in the Vermont House to represent Waterbury and the Mad River Valley had no competition on the Democratic primary ballot and no Republican ballots running at all.
In the Washington-Chittenden district representing Waterbury, Bolton, Huntington and Buel’s Gore, incumbent Rep. Theresa Wood from Waterbury, who is seeking a sixth term, won 1,247 votes. Newcomer Katarina Lisaius from Bolton won 1,113 votes. Incumbent Rep. Tom Stevens did not run for re-election this year.
There were no Republican or Progressive candidates on the ballot on Tuesday for these two seats. The parties could still nominate candidates for the November ballot this month, according to the Secretary of State.
In the Washington-2 House District representing Moretown, Fayston, Waitsfield and Warren, Democratic incumbent Reps. Dara Torre of Moretown and Candice White of Waitsfield had no challengers. Torre, who is seeking a third term, won 1,106 votes; White, who is running for her second term, won 1,096 votes.
There also were no Republican or Progressive candidates on the ballot on Tuesday for these seats.
The primary election determines which major party candidates will be on the ballot for the November general election. Ballots for the Nov. 3 election will be mailed to all Vermont registered voters.
For more statewide and regional coverage of the Vermont primary, check out VtDigger.com, Vermont Public, Seven Days and The Times Argus. For all election results, including local town totals in each race, visit the Vermont Secretary of State’s Election Night Results interactive webpage here.