 I'm Diane Meyerhoff, host for a preview of tonight's special coverage of live election results. We've been busy here at Channel 17 this election season, introducing you to all the candidates. Now we recap these races and later tonight we'll bring you detailed results and analysis. In this live preview show, we are honored to have Lauren Glendividian, the executive director of CCTV and the Center for Media and Democracy. Welcome, Lauren Glend. Thanks for joining me. Thanks, and thanks for doing the show tonight. Of course, of course. Election night, it's our night, right? It's our night. It's very exciting. So, I guess the turnout has been really high all over the city and the space. I was in Ward 3 at about noon and about over 500 people had already come through and they said it was like the back to the Obama time, so apparently very, very busy. I found that in Ward 6, too, and there were a lot of young people registering to vote because we had same-day registration. So that combined with the early voting, hopefully the clerks have processed those early votes before 7 o'clock tonight. That would be really good. And we're going to have people at all the polling places in Chittany County, including the clerks letting us know what's happening so we can bring the results to the people. Great. That's great. And I know you're also talking to the voters out there, too. We've got some tape as the night goes on of what the voters had to say at the polls. That's the voices, which we were very excited this year to have the students from the Burlington Register, which is the high school newspaper. Yeah, we were noticing that the Seahorse is right where the G is, so it really could be called the Burlington Register. Okay, so it's like right up your alley. Exactly. Well, and they did a wonderful job. They did great interviews, and they came here and edited them with Megan, and they're also our own other crews. So that'll be interesting. And then in Studio B, we'll have Brady Tenzing and Kevin Ellis talking about the statewide and the national results, because I know a lot of people are concerned about the midterms. Absolutely. There are a lot of governor's races and house races and senate races that are of concern. And governor as well. Governors. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. So we have field reports from the Republican Party, which is down, is it the old Sheraton, but it's now called Double Tree. Double Tree, yeah. And then we have the Democrats at the Hilton, which is still the Hilton. In Burlington's waterfront. Exactly. Good. Good. We're going to have interviews throughout the night. We are. And we're going to have interviews with folks. And then we're going to have speeches of concession or winner's speeches. Yes? Mostly winner's speeches. Mostly winner's speeches. Okay. Exactly. Although, I mean, I'm sure we'll have whatever is timely and correct. Of course. So I think that'll be very exciting. And we also will have full results at channel17.tv. That's ch17.tv. Yeah. And folks can come and see the numbers and watch the program there as well. People have questions. They can put them on the social media, which is also on the website. Yes. They'll be interested to hear from people. Great. Great. And oh, and there's other places to get statewide information now online, right? That's the Secretary of State's office. Excuse me. So the Secretary of State is requiring all clerks to post their results. First year ever? I don't know if it's a first year, but it may be. I think it's the first. It is the first year because two years ago, I'm not sure if they were required. But it's a go-to backup for us. Yeah. And people can see all the races. State, Senate, probate judge, which we'll also be following. Yes. The Chittin County probate judge. We should talk about the things that we're following. Let's talk about some of the races that we're looking at, especially the contested races. Exactly. The House. Yeah. There are about 15 or 18 contested races that we're looking at. So in Burlington, there is the New North End race, which is two incumbents, Kurt Wright and Carol Odie, Republican and Democrat, and Robert Bancroft, who's a Democrat, is trying to gain one of those seats in effect. The mayor came out in favor of endorsing Kurt Wright, which was a little controversial. Sure. The Republican. Yeah. And so that's the contested race in Burlington. So we'll need the results from Ward 4 and 7 for that. And then in Wyniski, it's not a contested race, but Klambesanet, who is an incumbent, stepped down once he was on the ballot already. And so Hal Colston is mounting yet another writing candidate. After his city council write-in, which he won last time meeting. Exactly. So there are two seats in Wyniski, which is a district shared with Wyniski and Burlington's south end sort of corner. So we will be looking at those, but I have a feeling that because of the write-ins for how the results from Ward 1 will be delayed. Yeah. And that means that we'll be hard to call citywide ballot results until we get Ward 1. So, but we'll be watching that race. And it'll be interesting to see if people got the memo that Klambesanet actually running. Right. Looks like we've got an exit voices from Burlington's Ward 2 and 3, which we were just chatting about. So let's hear what the voters had to say. Very disappointing to see the kind of hateful and super tired emotion all the time. We need to relax and be the country that we should be. The way the country is going today, it's important that you get out and vote. That's a sad thing. They all have wanting to have those people in Washington do a job and they sit there and they fight with each other for two years. That's stupid. I'm glad it's so easy to do in Vermont and that everyone can get out and do it. It looks like we have a pretty good turnout today. Other than it being your first time to vote, why was it important for you to vote today? To vote for who would run to make our state great. I'm doing my, doing my civic duty. Yeah. I think everyone knows that this is a very important election. Well, I always vote. So no matter what, I think it's important to participate. 791. Okay. So this is just folks who have voted today. Who have walked in the door today. Okay. Is that it good? Yeah. It's good. So only this morning up until about quarter of 8, this section in here was wall-to-wall people. Wow. So you could not have seen people feeling in blood. Fantastic turnout. Now if it keeps steady like this. Yes, guys. And the polls are open until 7. Until 7. Okay. And if you're in here when we close the door, you're good to go. I'm so distressed with the Republican Trump and the Republican Party that I just will never vote for anybody who calls themselves a Republican. I just think the party is so corrupt if you don't have the moral fiber to leave the party and call yourself an independent or you don't have to be a Democrat. I appreciate your sharing that. I'm with him and I agree. Well, you guys make a good couple then. She improved this message. It's important to keep the change going. I'm here sort of on behalf of the town clerk because she can't be here. And so I make sure that the polls are being followed and that people are doing things that they're supposed to be doing. Make sure that nobody's campaigning too close to the polling site. People don't come in with badges, that sort of thing. But it was huge this morning when people were coming in. So I would say, yeah, definitely I would expect a higher number than we typically get in the midterm. Well, I'm here supporting my sister for State Representative in 8-1. That's very cool. Who's my sister? Tonya Bihovsky. So I'm here to show my support and casting my vote. You know, I'm aware that young people my age don't generally vote as often, especially in midterm elections, as people who are older. So I think it's important just to kind of make sure to kind of come in here, get the vote out, and represent the youth vote in Vermont. Changing our leadership in Washington. That's all I got to say. I always vote and definitely I'm excited about today and a little scared nationally. So tonight I'll be glued to the TV. Go vote. Thank you. And that was S6 Junction Exit Voices. You'll notice that Lauren Glenn has left me. She's now over in Studio B, where later we're going to have statewide and national results. So, Lauren Glenn. Tensing in Kevin Ellis, who are two experienced political pundits. We'll be very glad to have them here talking about national results and the statewide results. The national results, as we mentioned, are a number of governor's races, as well as House races and U.S. Senate races that will determine what happens in Washington going forward. And many analysts are considering this a referendum on the president and the rhetoric of hate and darkness. So it should be an interesting night. And Brady and Kevin will be talking about those races and those results. Back to you. Thanks so much, Lauren Glenn. Looking forward to hearing from both Brady and Kevin later on tonight. And we are also, as part of our coverage, we have folks out at both Democratic and Republican headquarters talking to folks, getting interviews. So we're going to go over right now to the Republican headquarters, which is at the Double Tree Pilton in South Burlington. Kelly, we're live here at Vermont GOP headquarters in South Burlington for election 2018. It's the calm before the storm, if you will. Pretty much throughout the room, camera crews are setting up awaiting the night's festivities. Before long, we expect Governor Scott to appear and work the crowd a little bit. Also, Don Turner is expected here, as well as other Republican luminaries, who we expect to have some interviews with throughout the night. So stay here at Channel 17 Town Meeting Television for election night coverage 2018 from GOP headquarters in South Burlington. I'm Matt Kelly for Channel 17. Back to you in the studio. Thanks so much, Matt. That was Matt Kelly at the Republican headquarters, the Double Tree in South Burlington. And we also have Barry Silver, who's at the Democratic headquarters, which is at the Hilton in Burlington on the waterfront. So we're going to hear a little bit from Barry. But not quite yet. Not quite yet, okay. We are going to hear from Barry very soon, though. So we have a few more races to talk about. Yes? Yes, we do. So Essex, they're two contested races. There are two seats. There's two seats in Essex. There is the... So Maureen Day can seat. No, that's Colchester. Oh, that's Colchester. Sorry, Myers. The Myers seat. Yes. Okay. Linda Myers. Linda Myers. Sorry. That's District 8-1, I believe. And there are two seats there, and there's an open seat. And Mary Beth Redmond is running. And there is another candidate running, whose last name has just left me. Okay, you keep talking. You have it. I do. I do. And Tanya Vahovsky. That's it. Tanya Vahovsky. Progressive slash dam. Exactly. So they're both buying... Well, all three of them are buying for those two seats. And then... It's Linda. She's the incumbent. Exactly. And then there's one MPC. And then A-2 is Essex Junction. Okay. And that is two incumbents through there. You can say who they are. I can. Incumbent Dylan Giambasta, first term legislator. Giambatista. Giambatista works for Shep Smith. Lori Hughton, the Democrat, is also a Junction trustee. And first term legislator, and they're challenged by John Brennan, a Republican. One of the... So those two seats. Two people want two seats. Yep. And then there is the Bancroft seat, which is... Yep. It's... That's in Westford and Essex, and District A-3, and Bob Bancroft is running for reelection on a post. Okay. And we are now going to go to Democratic headquarters. Let's see Barry Silver. Barry Silver. Hi, Barry. This is Barry Silver coming to you live from the Vermont Democratic Party headquarters at the Burlington Hilton on the waterfront. And things haven't really got started here yet, but everyone from the Democratic Party is going to be here, including Christine Hallquist, Peter Welch, Bernie Sanders. We'll probably drop by later on tonight, and we'll be doing our best to speak with everyone and bring you live reports from tonight's event. We'll also be doing live interviews, so stay tuned. We are also aware that it has been a very busy day at the polls all across Chittenden County. We've heard about traffic jams in Heinsberg, and record turnout, so I decided to keep you up to date on what is going on in all of our communities. Back to you, Diane. Thanks, Barry. That's Barry Silver, who's at the Democratic headquarters at the Hilton Burlington on the waterfront. So it's quiet there. No one's quiet. Yeah, well, we have quite a ways, and we've got another almost an hour and a half before the polls close. Well, I think the scene will be a little different than it was two years ago when Barry also covered the Democratic Party, and it was the year that Phil Scott won, and it was also the year that, well, in any event, it was the year that the president, Trump won, and she had a very difficult time finding anyone to interview. People didn't come downstairs. They were in their suites, right? Yes. Watching glue to the television sets, I guess. Exactly. So I think it might be a little bit more social and dynamic this year. I certainly hope so. For her sake and our sake. Exactly. So Williston is another house race that we're watching. Tell us about that. That's an interesting race because Terry McKag and Jim McCullough are two incumbents. Terry McKag is a lifelong Williston flung Williston public servant, and Jim McCullough has served in the legislature for a long time, and they're being challenged by Joy LeMage, who won a seat on the select board and was very close two years ago to upsetting one of those two. Maybe a couple hundred votes? Yes, about 400 votes, and there's a fourth candidate. This is for a two-seat district. Her name is Kathleen Orion, who she describes that she's keeping the seat warm and is a fairly conservative Trump supporter who wanted to make sure that that view was represented. So that'll be an interesting race to watch. And then Colchester, there are two open seats in Colchester's collective four seats. One of them Jim Condon, who passed away, and that's District 9-1, and the other is District 9-2, where Maureen Dakin has stepped down after many years, and what's interesting about that is Pam LaRange is running as a Republican, and she won the primary. She was a right-in candidate in the primary, and it was so close that there had to be a runoff or a recount, a recount, at least. So that was very exciting. So I think Pam LaRange is very eager to take one of those open seats, or the open seat there. And then in Milton, there is a three-way race for one seat, and there's an incumbent there. I'm not as familiar with those names, but that's a race we're watching. And then hopefully the results, we're not collecting these results in Grand Isle County, but I think we will be able to share what's happening with the Mitzi-Johnson race. So Mitzi-Johnson and Ben Joseph represent the islands. Mitzi-Johnson is the Speaker of the House, so she's an important political figure, and two of Don Turner's cousins are running to unseat her. I want to say Don Turner is the current Milton town manager, and also running for Lieutenant Governor. And he also is the minority leader in the House. So that's another, in terms of statewide races, there are a number of interesting races. One of them is Governor Phil Scott. He's being challenged by Christine Halquist and several independents. Christine Halquist is running as a Democrat. And then the Lieutenant Governor's race, which people feel might be closer than might be expected, is we have our current Lieutenant Governor, David Zuckerman, who's being challenged by Don Turner, who's a Republican. And there are, I think, Murray and Nagoyma is also in that race. The rest of the races seem to be, you know, where I'll just say that there are Democratic incumbents who are favored to win. That's, and we will be probably talking to some of them at the Democratic headquarters. And speaking about Democratic incumbents who are likely to win, the State Senate race. So the State Senate race, Democratic incumbents, that are likely to win. But there are some 13 candidates. I know this because I did the forum that went for three hours with all 13 candidates. And I know you did the Governor one with many candidates as well. That was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed that debate. That was a big group. It was a good, that was the debate where Chris Erickson posed her, the first thing that she would do if she was Governor, which would be to have some folks who were from the penal system come and appeal for their pardon and make that a reality TV show and sell the rights to that and use that for the general fund. And was this like every month or every week? It would be a regular show. Regular show, yeah. There was very interesting ideas in that, including one of the candidates, Stephen Marks, who thinks there should be a constitutional amendment in the state constitution to protect the Earth, to say that the Earth should be protected. So it's interesting because people run very often with the thing that they care about the most. Sure. They're not all omnivorous and that they have a variety of views on a variety of topics. But I think the fact that people are able to answer the questions that we ask them is remarkable and incredibly courageous people to do to say that they feel so strongly about their beliefs that they're willing to speak publicly about them. And also that Child 17 had all of the candidates come and this was an issue with some of the other media that didn't allow the more third or fifth, I don't know how many parties you had, to come to the debates. This was a real opportunity for those folks to hear. Absolutely. Which is sort of the whole point of democracy in my book. Exactly. Well, and just tell us a little bit about the state senate races. I mean, the state senate in Jitney County tends to favor incumbents, but there are 13 people running. Right. And I think the interesting candidate is Alex Farrell. He's a young republican from the New North end of Burlington. And, you know, he could, he could, that seventh, that sixth seat, I think Chris Pearson took that last seat last time in 16 by only, you know, he was further than the other candidates and that's kind of the one that could change potentially. But even if Alex comes in seventh, so it just misses it, you know, I think we're going to hear a lot more from him in the future. He's not done by any means, and we know that often candidates. Well, he may not be done. I mean, we'll see what happens tonight. We'll see. Yeah, yeah, and certainly there is precedent for a republican in the delegation from Jitney County, Jitney County senate, because Diane Selling was there for a long time. So it's a possibility, but the incumbents are running as a block. The Jitney County Republican, sorry, Democrats are running as a block. And is the, kind of where is he running as a Liberty Union candidate? Was that in the state senate? I believe that's right. He's a high school senior. Interesting. Which is really interesting. Yeah, he's a high school senior, and he's been running in his spare time and meeting with people, and it's a great thing to see the young people involved more than I recall in the past. Well, we're getting older. Oh, that must be what it is, of course. Silly me. I mean, people are just becoming candidates and we're just looking old, that's all. Okay, that's what it is. So we are pretty set. I think we're ready for our show tonight at 7.30. It's going to be great. It's going to be great. You can tune in here. It's 7.30. You can tune in here on channel 17. Or you can, somebody called me up and they said, I've cut cable. I've cut the cord. Where do I watch the results? Well, of course, it's ch17.tv. You can tune right in. And I think what we're going to do, if you don't mind, is we're going to close with exit voices from the old north end in Burlington. We were trying to find before. Awards two and three. Thanks for watching. Okay. See you later. See you later. And it's my civic duty to vote. That's why I'm here. Are there any specific issues that are bringing out to the polls today? Well, the couple items that are tax related supporting the high school and the wastewater treatment facility upgrades. I'm pretty psyched about yes on both of those. I learned a little bit about both issues and think it's a good investment for the community. My name is John. I think it's a pretty important midterm election. So we're happy to cast our vote today. Are there any specific issues that brought you out today? I mean, we cast our vote for the governor. We care about just having good balance in our government. We want to stick it to Trump. And yeah, that's part of it. I don't know. You eat your veggies and you work out in the morning and you got to vote. It's just doing your duty. This is what you got to do. I think the two ballot initiatives for the city, for the sewage and for the Burlington High School were hard ones to think about, but I'm glad they were on the ballot. So I want to make sure I voted for them. Do you feel that national politics have motivated you today to come out to the polls? I would like to say no, but it's a yes. It has. Yeah, national politics has definitely gotten me. Motivated to come out today. Are there any specific questions on the ballot today that brought you out? No, not particularly. This is just whenever there's an election, I'm always out to vote just to exercise my right, just because a lot of people fought and died for it. So I might as well take advantage of it, right? I feel very fortunate to live in Vermont, but I thought it was a good idea if Vermont has a really strong showing to support the rest of the country, saying we need to get up and we need to vote. And I told all my friends, I don't care how you vote, just vote. Awesome. Thank you so much. Have a good day. All right, so if you could just introduce yourselves and why you came out to vote today. I'm Rebecca Grimm, and I came out to vote because I vote every single time we can. I'm John Grimm, and I vote so that I think it's a responsibility to be involved and have a voice. My name is Paige, and I am a student at UVM, studying biomedical engineering, and I came out to vote today to support Christine Hallequist and support democracy. My name is Gallick Ponsang, I'm originally from Tibet, and I came here to vote for the rights of the people. Are there any specific questions on the ballot today that brought you out? The bond for BHS. We have high school students in the building who have upgrades and need some change. If not now, then it's going to get more expensive and more complicated, so I think we have to do it. The school and the water. Kids in water. The future is that. I feel it's important to get our voice out there and elect pretty much like Democrats to keep the current terrible administration from being able to do all the things they want to do, and I didn't get an absentee ballot in Massachusetts, so that's pretty much why. Before I came here, I knew that right now we were isolating from the other nationals, like America is still even though it's in the same globe, but we were isolating because of some reasons. So I just want to connect that one. We have a power as a student, so we have to vote the person who we believe that this person will connect to the rest of the world. That's why I voted. Awesome. Are there any specific questions on the ballot today that brought you out? Not in particular, although it's important to me to support our local government here. I know that there are some questions on the ballot today about supporting a bond for the high school here, and I think that's important as well as supporting our local government Do you feel like national politics have put more pressure on this year's election? For sure, nationally. I'm not sure I feel the difference in Burlington. I feel like we're in a little bit of a bubble in Burlington, and I think people generally feel engaged in the political process in Burlington, but certainly the tenor of the country is present. Yeah, I agree. I think that unfortunately the national politics is primarily about arguing. And I hope that we can get to a place where we're more looking for solutions and discussing. I think we do that here well, but nationally we're having a hard time with it. Yeah, I mean, I'm really alarmed by a lot of stuff going on, and I'm more likely to come out and vote in the midterms. Just in general, because the news cycle is really scary, but nothing impacting my like day-to-day life. Great, thank you so much. Yeah, I definitely think there has been. I feel a big push for young voters to come out and participate in democracy that hasn't been present in the past years. I know from my peers I've definitely been encouraged to come out and vote today, which I think is really great. Awesome, thank you so much. Thanks for voting.