With the state primary behind us, Vermont’s Democratic Party is now investigating potential election interference in Windham County.
The party alleges that anonymous letters attacking a democratic candidate were sent to voters in Guilford days before the election.
The anonymous letter largely mentions Zon Eastes, the current Chair of the Guilford Selectboard, who was running as a democrat for the open state representative seat in Vermont’s Windham One District.
Although Eastes did end up winning his primary race, democrats still want to find out who sent the letters. Vermont’s Democratic Party alleges that one candidate may have taken part in illegal efforts to mislead voters about his opponent heading into Tuesday’s primary.
Jim Dandeneau, Executive Director of the Vermont Democratic Party, said that “This is a very clear attempt to undermine people’s faith in free and fair elections in Guilford and Vernon.”
The letter accused democratic house candidate Zon Eastes of criminal activity and election fraud, saying he used his position as Guilford Selectboard Chair to access the town’s vault and mess with ballots.
Director Jim Dandeneau said the real election fraud here is from that letter, which was spreading misinformation about Eastes.
“This is criminal election interference. This is a violation of campaign finance law, this is a violation of laws around electioneering communications,” Dandeneau continued. “It’s also very shady that it was made to look like official correspondence from the town, and we believe that that was in part an attempt to suppress some votes.”
While there’s no proof yet as to who sent the letter, democrats have a sneaking suspicion it may have been Eastes’ opponent Jason Herron, who ran as a republican previously, but changed parties for this year’s primary.
“It has all of the hallmarks of a typical MAGA extremist attack on our election system … We don’t know whether or not Jason Herron is connected to these letters, but we do know he has a history of MAGA extremism,” Dandeneau told us.
In a statement posted to social media, Herron denied the claims, and pointed the finger back at Eastes, saying he sent the letters to make people think he was being attacked.
Herron wrote ‘This was done with the intention to discourage citizens from voting for me while simultaneously encouraging citizens to vote for my opponent … This letter is a vicious attack with the purposeful intent of destroying my character on election day and was committed by wealthy and influential members behind the Democrat party’s steel curtain … (I’ve) never sent an anonymous letter to anyone, ever.’
In the end, Eastes is projected to win the primary by a large margin over Herron. The unofficial tally is 743 votes to 256, but the Secretary of State will take a few days to certify the results.
While Eastes now turns his attention to November’s election, the democratic party has begun its own investigation into the anonymous letters, filing public records requests with the town of Guilford and reporting the situation to Vermont’s Secretary of State.
Eastes said he just learned of the situation last night, and hasn’t read the letter yet. He told us he was “deeply honored and humbled by the support I’ve received from voters in Vernon and Guilford.”
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