Turnout is also strong across Chittenden County, where Take Back Vermont has not taken the same kind of hold as in rural areas. Shelburne had the highest percentage of turnout in this area with 44% eligible voters voting: numbers the town hasn't seen in 20 years. There were of course anti-civil union voters, but not nearly as many as those out to save Tom Little and civil unions. In fact some clerks were concerned they were going to run out of ballots, which is a rare occurrence. Many expect today's results to break the normal 20 percent range of voters turning out in the primary.

It is obvious that much of the extra primary turnout came directly from the civil union debate. More than 75-thousand people cast ballots in the Republican primary. That's 23-thousand more than 2 years ago. Most of the extra turn out was from people either trying to "Take Vermont Back" or people trying to "Take Vermont Forward" with more rights to minorities and homosexuals. And, not everyone that is opposed to the civil unions law is opposed to homosexuals doing their perverted thing in their own area or places. Some just don't like the fact that the law, which started out for everyone that chose to live together (even father and a adult daughter or son) was changed to only include homosexuals.

U.S. Senator Democrats Jan Backus of Winooski vs. Ed Flanagan of Burlington State Auditor Ed Flanagan nudged challenger Jan Backus for the democratic Senate nomination. Flanagan has the win by 960 votes. Both campaigns knew all along the race would be a tight one. The candidates share similar positions on key issues -- like health care and campaign finance reform. Jan Backus says one difference was the Flanagan war chest. He outspent her 2 to one. Ed is also open about his homosexuality. This is a concern to many voters, because many wonder if the homosexuals are trying to get people into Washington that they can have vote for homosexual rights on the national level. The fact that Ed Flanagan is getting much of his money from homesexuality groups around the country is not helping peoples fears, either. Republican Rick Hubbard of Stowe vs. James M. Jeffords of Shrewsbury Senator Jeffords has 79 percent of the vote. The virtually unknown Rick Hubbard challenged the two-term incumbent on a campaign finance reform platform. Ironically, Rick never expected to win in the primary; but wanted to use it as a chance to express his concern over campaign finance reform. Rick plans to run for the U.S. Senate in the November election as an independent.

U.S. Representative Both Democratic Pete Diamondstone of Brattleboro and Republican Karen Ann Kerin of Royalton ran unopposed in their respective parties. Pete and Ann will now square off against the ever-popular independent Bernard Sanders who currently holds the seat.

Governor Democrats Howard Dean of Burlington vs. Brian Pearl of Grand Isle Governor Dean easily won his party's nomination to run for a 6th term. Dean defeated Brian Pearl -- winning 88-percent of the vote. Republican Ruth Dwyer of Thetford vs. William Meub of Rutland City: The final results from the Associated Press show Dwyer with 58-percent of the vote to 42-percent for Meub. Inronically, we don't know which person the republicans in the state of Vermont really wanted. Polical Actions Committees (PACs) from both parties made it appoint to urge people to vote on the republican party during the primary. The republican PACs urged people to vote for Anti-Civil-Unions republican candidates, while democratic PACs urged people to vote in the primary for the republicans that had voted for the civil unions bill.

Lieutenant Governor Both democrat Lt. Gov. Douglas A. Racine of Richmond and republican Brian Dubie of Essex ran uncontested for their respective party primary, and will face off in November.

State Treasure Republican James H. Douglas is running for the Republican primary and the November election uncontested by anybody.

Secretary of State Democrat Deborah Markowitz of Montpelier and Larry Drown of Northfield ran uncontested for their respective party primary, and will face off in November.

Auditor of Accounts Democrat Elizabeth M. Ready of Lincoln and Republican John S. Hall of Saint Johnsbury ran uncontested for their respective party primary, and will face off in November.

Attorney General Democrat William H. Sorrell is running for the Democratic primary and the November election uncontested by anybody.

6 State Senator for Chittenden County (Sorted by number of votes, not by party) (Winners are in bold print with WHITE background) (Source: Burlington Free Press) Republican Skip Vallee 10412 Republican Donald Brunelle 8931 Republican William Parkinson 8387 Republican Leigh Pfenning 8327 Republican Tut Parmly 8181 Republican Barbara Snelling 8144 Republican Gravin Mills 7786 Republican Peter Brownell (Incumbent) 7755 Democrat Janet Munt (Incumbent) 6401 Democrat James Leddy (Incumbent) 6283 Democrat Jean Ankeney (Incumbent) 6160 Democrat Karen Lafayette 5052 Democrat Virginia Lyons 4629 Democrat Jim Condos 3634 Democrat Paul Couture 3329 Democrat Jerry Acosta 3143 On the republican ticket, Peter Brownell voted for civil unions and came out dead last in the republican primary. The only other republican senate candidate to support civil unions narrowly won over Gravin Mills, who is one of the unknowns. On the democrat ticket, three incumbents ran for re-election and all came out on top for their party. Now the democratic candidates must win the republican candidates. In a normal election this would be quite a challenge for any democrat to make it into office, considering all the republican candidates got more votes than any of the democratic candidates. But considering many democrats voted on the republican primary to keep their republican pro-civil-union candidates in their primaries, the numbers for the republican are probably not going to be so high come election time. During the primary all the republicans senators beat all the democrats in raw numbers, but that may change.

House Representatives (Source: Burlington Free Press) Chittenden 1-3 district: Democratic incumbents Kenneth Atkins and George Cross held their post against Paul Brown, with 429 votes, 332 votes, and 172 votes, respectively. Atkins is one of the few democrats that voted against civil unions. They will face Republican challenger Robert Picher in the general election, which went uncontested in the primary. Chittenden 2-1 district: Incumbent Gene Sweetser (739) & Martin Myers (693) won the 4 way republican primary race for two house seats. Martin Bonneau got 426 and John Keene only got 268 votes. Sweetser was the only pro-civil-union candidate. Act 60 and the Essex Town/Essex Junction debate seem to top this contest. Democrat Debbie Evans and Winooski Police Chief Steve McQueen ran unopposed in the democratic primary. Democrat McQueen bowed out after it was publicly announced that it is illegal for him to run for that seat. Chittenden 2-4 district: Democrats Bernard Couture and Larry Chase won over George Boucher with 326, 199, and 185 votes respectively. This is not surprising considering the democrats are typically liberal; and, Couture supports civil unions, Chase would leave it up to the people, and Boucher opposes civil unions. Act 60 was also a favorite topic in this election. These winners will face off against the unopposed republican candidates Linda Kirker and Matthew Stevens in the November election. Chittenden 5-4 district: The republican primary for Shelburne had the highest percentage for a primary turnout at 44% of the registered voters voting. Rod Fisher challenged Representative Thomas Little, whom drafted the civil unions bill. Fisher did NO campaigning. Fisher announced his candidacy and returned back to everyday activities. Despite the fact that fisher did not bother to campaign, he only lost to Little by about 200 votes. Little says the challenge should be a wake up call for Legislators to mend bridges between those who oppose civil unions and those who support the law. Little is expected to be running uncontested in November. Chittenden 7-5 district: Mark Larson bumped incumbent democrat James McNamara with 265 to 209. McNamara had separated from the Democratic Party and voted against civil unions. Larson will face unopposed republican candidate Steven Ciardelli in November's election. Chittenden 7-7 district: Democrats Bill Aswad and Dennis McBee won their primary with 534 and 310 votes respectfully. Jill Malin trailed with 287 votes and ran against civil unions and the Circumferential Highway. Both stands are unpopular with the democrats. Aswad and McBee will face off against the unchallenged republican candidates Kurt Wright and Matt Gardy, both former city councilors for Burlington.