Super Tuesday: Voter turnout could be lower than previous years

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Although it’s Town Meeting Day in Vermont, it’s also Super Tuesday in Vermont, one of 16 states and territories holding presidential primary elections. It’s possible voter turnout could be relatively lower this year compared to turnout in the last two presidential primaries.

In 2016, there was no incumbent president, so contests were driving up interest on both sides of the political aisle. It was also the first time Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders ran for president, spurring extra support in his home state with 135,000 people voting in the Democratic primary and an overall total of 196,000 voters.

Sanders was back on the primary ballot in 2020, pushing Democratic turnout even higher to 158,000. Republican incumbent Donald Trump didn’t face a challenge, but overall turnout still climbed slightly higher to 197,000 votes cast.

“The other unique thing this year is that it really appears that the outcome of both the Republican and the Democratic primary are fairly predictable, shall we say? And so Super Tuesday is when a lot of states vote in the primary, so we can certainly hope that Vermonters are clued in and decide to come out to vote,” said Sarah Copeland Hanzas, D-Vt. Secretary of State.

On the Democratic side is incumbent Joe Biden. Typically when the incumbent is on a primary, voters don’t always find it necessary to vote and turnout is lower. But when that happens, usually the other party’s primary is hotly contested, which drives up turnout.

Hanzas says as of last week, there were close to 30,000 Vermonters who requested ballots ahead of time. She says while that is lower than in previous years, that doesn’t necessarily mean the turnout will be lower, and people might opt to vote in person.

“When you vote in the presidential primary, you have to actually tell them which ballot you would like to vote. Now that doesn’t mean that just because you took a democratic ballot that you are a Democrat — we don’t have a party registration system in Vermont — it just means that today, this is the ballot that I would like to vote in,” she said.

Another factor that could impact turnout is the turmoil over school budgets that has some districts delaying Town Meeting Day.

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