DeAnna Asborno leaves the voting booth after casting her ballot in Dover. Town clerks reported strong turnout for Tuesdays’s primary.
There were contested races on both the Republican and Democratic ballots, but it was the Democratic gubernatorial race that stole the show. On Wednesday, Peter Shumlin claimed victory, but with a lead of 178 votes over Doug Racine, and 390 votes separating Shumlin and Deb Markowitz, pundits are predicting the winner won’t be confirmed until after a recount. In a letter to supporters Wednesday, Shumlin said “It looks like we have
won the Democratic gubernatorial primary.”
But in a press release issued Wednesday, Racine indicated he and Shumlin had agreed to wait for the vote to be confirmed. “I have not conceded and I have talked with Peter Shumlin, who has agreed that we should see the official results before announcing a winner.”
Tuesday evening was a nail-biter for Democrats. Early returns showed Markowitz in the lead, with Racine, Shumlin, and Matt Dunne close behind. Susan Bartlett lagged behind, but remained a viable candidate into the evening.
As more towns reported their results, the race tightened up, becoming a three-way race between Racine, Shumlin and Markowitz. At the end of Tuesday evening, Shumlin had claimed the lead, with Racine close behind, and Markowitz only a few hundred votes behind them.
But on Wednesday morning it became a real horse race, with Racine pulling ahead as some results came in, and Shumlin regaining the lead as other towns reported. Throughout the morning, Markowitz remained in a close third place.
Locally, election officials are saying Tuesday’s turnout was high for a party primary. In Wilmington, for instance, 275 of the town’s 1,526 registered voters cast ballots. In Wardsboro, 105 ballots were cast from a total checklist of 532 voters.
In most races, valley voters reflected the rest of the state. Valley Democrats picked Shumlin, except in Readsboro, where Markowitz took 26 votes to Shumlin’s 15; and Searsburg, where Shumlin and Markowitz were tied with three votes each. Searsburg Democrats were also split in their vote for US Senator, with four votes for Patrick Leahy, and four votes for Daniel Freilich. Leahy was the top vote-getter in the rest of the valley.
In other contested races on the Democratic ticket, Jeanette White and Peter Galbraith won their party’s nomination, beating Toby Young to represent Windham County in the state Senate.
In other contested races on the Democratic ticket, Jim Condos beat Charles Merriman for secretary of state, Doug Hoffer beat Ed Flanagan for auditor of accounts, and Steve Howard took the nomination for lieutenant governor over Christopher Bray.
In contested races on the Republican ballot, Paul Beaudry won the nomination for representative to Congress, beating John Mitchell and Keith Stern; Jason Gibbs beat Chris Roy for secretary of state; and Phil Scott beat Mark Snelling for the party’s nomination for lieutenant governor.
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