Burlington Free Press Comments On Fairfax

In tense election, Fairfax less divided than in 2000

By John Briggs
Free Press Staff Writer

FAIRFAX -- John Kerry held a commanding Vermont lead with more than a third of the state's ballots counted Tuesday night. Vermonters appeared to be voting decisively Tuesday for a change of leadership at the national level, handing Kerry 61 percent of the vote with 34 percent of the state's precincts reporting.

The vote wasn't a surprise. Vermont was never considered up for grabs. Neither candidate visited and the state's three electoral votes were long considered safe for Kerry.

Still, the vote, after a prolonged and strident campaign that focused largely on national security issues, was anything but predictable in small Vermont towns like Fairfax.

In 2000 Vermont tipped to Al Gore by nearly 10 points, 50.6 percent to 40.7 percent. Ralph Nader took 6.9 percent of the vote.

Fairfax, a rapidly growing town in southern Franklin County, defied that trend in 2000, voting narrowly for Bush, 47.2 percent to 45.6 percent.

That changed dramatically Tuesday, and Kerry won in Fairfax, 55 percent to 44 percent. Ralph Nader barely registered, with just 34 votes out of the 1,945 cast for president. Turnout was historically high -- more than three of four registered voters cast ballots in Fairfax.

Even in "tight-knit" Fairfax, as one voter described the town, this year's election was clearly more angst-producing than the 2000 choice between Gore's promise of Democratic
continuity and Bush's pledge of compassionate conservatism.

As elsewhere, across the state and across the country, the presidential vote in Fairfax was an expression of fundamental social values, sometimes dividing neighbor from neighbor.

"It's been highly intense," said Bryce McNall, who voted -- for Bush, he said -- in early afternoon, when the lines were shorter, in the old gymnasium at the Bellows Free Academy, Fairfax.

"If you're talking to someone who isn't voting the way you are," he said, "it tends to turn ugly pretty quick."

Voters across the state in the weeks before the election said much the same thing, predicting the result could leave a bad taste.

That could happen even in Fairfax, he said, because the choice between Bush and Kerry exposed a person's core beliefs too starkly.

"People don't really want to talk about it," he said. "You used to be able to ask people who they're voting for and they wouldn't mind telling you. But they're really locked up about it this year."

Whatever election tension there is in Fairfax wasn't visible in the gym Tuesday, as voters lined up in an orderly way to get their names checked off by friendly poll workers. No one challenged their right to vote, as pre-election national news predicted could happen in Ohio, Florida and other close states. No police officer stood by to maintain order. And outside, on Hunt Street, well away from the school building, local candidates stood under umbrellas on a chilly day.

The final turnout was 77 percent, a record for the town,
said Town Clerk Tina Levick. David Therrien, an asphalt paver from North Fairfax, voted for Kerry. He was turned off by the "falsification" of Bush's National Guard attendance records, he said.

However the election turned out, Therrien said, people in Fairfax wouldn't start hissing at their neighbors.

"There's less of a tendency here to get into people's business," he said. "Most people know what you're doing, but
they don't ask."

Two Fairfax high school students who voted for the first time Tuesday were more
excited by the process than by the philosophical differences between the candidates.

"It was pretty cool," said
Matt Lascelle, 19, who voted early in the day for Kerry as the "lesser of the evils."

Bush, Lascelle said, is "gung-ho about the war."

Jessica Godfrey, 18, voted for Bush, she said, because of his opposition to abortion and because she thinks he is "a great leader" who deserves a chance to complete the job in Iraq.

"I hope I'm voting the right way," she said. "I'm really new at all this."

Contact John Briggs at 660-1863 or jbriggs@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com