Voters in Strafford spent Tuesday putting ballots in the box for Amanda Janoo, with several saying the Democratic/Progressive gubernatorial candidate from town had given them a reason to show up. Jennie Russell said it was fun to drive through Strafford and see Janoo’s signs, then cast her ballot for her at the town clerk’s office.
Russell, 35, said the sight of the signs made the race feel local in a way that mattered. “It’s really fun to like, drive through town and see her signs and just feel that little excitement that there’s someone from here who could maybe be governor,” she said. “Mandy’s just talking about something completely different,” she added. “And that’s very exciting.”
That local pull showed up again at the polling place. Curt Albee said almost half of registered voters in Strafford had already voted absentee by Tuesday morning, and Ada Breese and Byron Breese both cast their ballots for Janoo in person. Byron Breese said he liked her “broader perspective on the world” and said he also appreciated that she was someone who grew up here. Janoo is 39, and for some voters that has made the race feel less like an abstract statewide contest than a chance to back someone they know by name and by place.
The support was not unanimous, and that is where the race gets its edge. Bill Thompson said he and his wife had backed Phil Scott in the past, and he credited the incumbent with doing a good job. But this year he voted for Janoo anyway. “I really have appreciated what Phil Scott has done. We could do a lot worse than Phil Scott,” he said. “But I really think it’s time for a change. I’m looking forward to a different approach — more energy.”
Elsewhere on Tuesday, voters in Fletcher were weighing a different kind of change: whether to bring back in-person town meetings for town officers and the budget. The town in Franklin County currently decides those questions by Australian ballot, and the vote would determine whether that method gives way to a return to the older in-person format. David Clark, who has volunteered on Election Day there since 1994, said the process used to mean staying up late and counting ballots over pizza before electronic voting machines changed the routine.
That leaves two questions hanging over the day’s vote. In Strafford, how much support Janoo actually built as ballots were cast and absentee votes were already piling up remains to be seen. In Fletcher, the result will decide whether voters keep the Australian ballot system for town officers and budget or move back to in-person town meetings, a shift that would change how the town does its business on Election Day in Vermont.
