Phil Scott keeps the governor’s office. The Legislature that can override him is back. Unofficial results as of the state’s 2:01 a.m. update, with 244 of 247 towns reporting.

by FYIVT.com

Vermont voters split the ticket again Tuesday. They gave Republican Gov. Phil Scott a majority and another two-year term, and they handed Democrats and Progressives enough House and Senate seats to override his vetoes without a single Republican vote.

That last part is the story. The two-thirds supermajority the Legislature lost in 2024 is back, and in the House it came back bigger than it went out.

Governor: Scott, with a majority

Scott took 160,813 votes (52.4%) to Democrat/Progressive Amanda Janoo’s 140,665 (45.8%), with 280 of 283 polling places reporting. Independent Brian Judd had 2,582, Peace and Justice candidate June Goodband 1,229, and Freedom and Unity candidate Dean Roy 1,131.

The majority matters. Under the Vermont Constitution, Chapter II, §47, if no candidate for governor gets more than half the vote, the Legislature picks the winner. Scott cleared 50% with room to spare, so this one never goes near the State House floor.

We called it at 12:13 a.m., when Scott’s lead was larger than every ballot still uncounted, and his majority could no longer slip below half even if every remaining ballot went against him.

Props 3 and 4: Both pass, big

Both proposed amendments to the Vermont Constitution passed easily.

Those totals cover 203 of 247 towns, the Secretary of State’s last update at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. The ballots still out can’t close a gap that wide: Prop 3 leads by 115,655 votes and Prop 4 by 138,600, against roughly 38,800 ballots still out (estimated from those towns’ 2024 turnout). The Constitution (Chapter II, §72) requires a majority of voters voting on each proposal. Both cleared it by more than 20 points.

The Secretary of State lists them as “Right to collectively bargain” (Prop 3) and “Equality of rights” (Prop 4). Both become official once the state canvassing committee certifies the results.

The Legislature: Supermajority, again

Overriding a governor’s veto takes two-thirds of each chamber: 100 of 150 in the House and 20 of 30 in the Senate.

Going into Tuesday, Democrats and Progressives held 90 House seats and 17 Senate seats. Neither was enough. Here is where they stand now:

“Decided” means the lead is larger than every ballot still out. We also set aside any seat close enough for the loser to request a recount (5% for House seats, 2% for Senate, per 17 V.S.A. § 2601). Even if every close Democratic or Progressive House seat flipped on recount and all three undecided seats went the other way, Democrats and Progressives would still hold 102. The House supermajority is not in doubt. The Senate sits at exactly 20 decided, with Monique Priestley (D) leading in the one undecided Senate race, Orange.

Republicans lost 17 House seats, falling from 55 to 38 won or leading. Democrats went from 87 to 102 and Progressives from 3 to 7. Independents dropped from 5 to 3. In the Senate, Republicans fell from 13 to 8.

How it compares

The 2020 election is the one to remember. Democrats and Progressives came out of it with 99 House seats, one short of 100, while the Senate kept its 23. For two years, overriding a veto in the House took at least one vote from outside the Democratic-Progressive bloc.

The 2022 election erased that, and the Legislature that followed used its numbers. In May 2023 it overrode Scott’s veto of the Affordable Heat Act (S.5, Act 18), the “clean heat standard.” The Senate vote was 20 to 10, exactly the two-thirds needed. Tonight’s Senate lands on that same line. The 2024 election took the supermajority away. Tuesday put them right back at the 109 House seats the 2022 election produced.

Seats that changed hands

Seats where the Democratic-Progressive bloc gained or lost against Republicans or independents, compared with the members seated going into the election. An asterisk marks a margin within recount range.

Franklin-1 is the one to watch. Caroline Bright leads Republican Bob Stebbins for the district’s second seat by two votes, about as close as a race gets.

Three House races were still undecided at 2 a.m. Republican Michael Southworth leads Democrat Audrey Grant by 24 votes in Caledonia-2. Republican Mike Tagliavia leads Democrat Gregory Wilson in Orange-1. Democrat John O’Brien leads Republican Bruce Post in Windsor-Orange-1. None of them changes the supermajority math.

Lieutenant Governor: Gray takes it back

Democrat Molly Gray beat Republican Lt. Gov. John Rodgers, 189,841 (62.8%) to 111,885 (37.0%). Gray held the office from 2021 to 2023. Rodgers unseated Progressive David Zuckerman in 2024 and lasts one term. We called the race at 10:47 p.m.

The rest of the ticket

Progressive Zachary Hampl took 6.4% for Treasurer, and Progressive Rachel Shaw 8.1% for Secretary of State.

Turnout

308,836 ballots were cast in the 244 towns reporting, 61.4% of their registered voters. About 61% of those ballots came in early or by mail. The same towns cast 370,545 ballots in the 2024 presidential election. A midterm-year drop is normal.

Victory had the state’s highest turnout at 82.8%, followed by Andover (81.0%) and Landgrove (79.7%). Lunenburg (38.8%) and Newport City (39.5%) had the lowest.

The reporting clock: how fast did your town count?

Polls closed at 7 p.m. Here is when towns had fully reported to the state’s results site:

First in: Highgate (1,367 ballots) and Woodstock (1,763) both posted at 7:21 p.m., 21 minutes after the polls closed. Elmore, Jamaica and Sunderland followed at 7:26.

Last in: Plymouth posted at 1:51 a.m. Royalton, Stannard and Washington had not reported by 2 a.m.

Size isn’t speed. The median town finished about two hours after polls closed. Towns that cast under 500 ballots had a median of about 2½ hours. Towns casting 500 to 2,000 came in faster, at under two hours. The biggest towns, 4,000 ballots or more, took the longest, about three hours. We’d like to break this down by hand-count versus tabulator towns, but we couldn’t find a current public list of which towns use machines.

Towns with more than one polling place report each one separately, so a town is only “done” when its last polling place is in. Rutland City’s four were all in by 8:36 p.m. Burlington’s six spread across more than two hours, from 10:26 p.m. to 12:41 a.m. Stowe’s two came in nearly three hours apart: Lamoille-Washington at 9:01 p.m. and Lamoille-1 at 11:56 p.m. Hartford’s two were 1 hour 45 minutes apart.

Find your town on our results page’s My Town tab.

One more thing about Props 3 and 4

The state’s live results site, refreshed every few minutes, never carried the two constitutional amendments, even though they were on the same ballot. The Secretary of State published them separately, in a downloadable spreadsheet. The spreadsheet’s layout was restructured around 7:30 p.m., it updated roughly every 30 to 60 minutes, and its last update came at 10:30 p.m. with 203 towns counted. The rest of the ticket kept updating all night.

How we called races. FYIVT doesn’t project. We called a race only when the leader’s margin was larger than every ballot still out, measured by each unreported polling place’s 2024 general-election ballot count. Governor, lieutenant governor and treasurer also required a majority locked in. A town counts as “reported” when its clerk’s entry reaches the state’s results site. All numbers here are unofficial until the state canvass. Clerks who see an error in their town’s numbers or timing can write to editor@fyivt.com.

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