MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Vermont voters will be headed to the polls on Tuesday, one of the 14 states and one U.S. territory that will cast ballots on Super Tuesday.
There are 13 candidates on Vermont’s Democratic primary ballot, including favorite son, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar. A number of the candidates whose names are on the ballot have already dropped out.
On the Republican side, incumbent President Donald Trump is on the ballot along with former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld and perennial candidate Roque “Rocky” de la Fuente.
With Sanders, who won more than 85% of the Democratic primary vote in the 2016 state primary against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vermont has not seen the attention of the Democratic candidates as other larger, more delegate-rich Super Tuesday states.
Any Vermont resident can vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary. When the voter arrives at the polling place they will be required to ask for either a Democratic or Republican ballot, but choosing one ballot or the other does not mean the voter is a member of that party. The choice is marked down.
“The only race, once every four years, where you have to actually request a ballot of a particular party is the presidential primary,” said Secretary of State Jim Condos.
He said the system was an agreement reached between the major political parties and the Legislature when the primary system was set up about 40 years ago.
As of Thursday, there were just over 484,000 registered voters in Vermont, up about 1,000 over 2016, Condos said. So far, more than 24,000 voters have requested ballots and just 14,000 have been returned to town and city clerks.
By the same date in 2016, more than 22,000 ballots had been returned.
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