Sanders' home state of Vermont voting in primary Tuesday

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Residents of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' home state of Vermont voted in Super Tuesday's presidential primary along with 13 other states and one territory.

Vermont's voting comes on the state's annual Town Meeting Day when most communities across the state are holding meetings and votes on local and school spending plans.

Sanders voted in the morning in Burlington, telling reporters that his campaign is the one that can defeat President Donald Trump.

“We are putting together a multi-generational, multi-racial movement of people who are standing up for justice and to beat Donald Trump, we are going to need to have the largest voter turnout in the history of this country,” he told a crowd of reporters. "We need energy. We need excitement. I think our campaign is that campaign."

Sanders is planning to hold an election night rally at the Champlain Valley fairgrounds in Essex Junction.

There are 13 candidates on Vermont's Democratic primary ballot, including Sanders, former Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

A number of the Democratic candidates whose names are on the ballot have already dropped out. Any votes already cast for those candidates who dropped out will be counted.

On the Republican side, Trump is on the ballot along with former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld and perennial candidate Roque “Rocky” de la Fuente.

In 2016, Sanders won more than 85% of the Democratic primary vote in the race against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Vermont has not seen the attention of the Democratic candidates that larger, more delegate-rich Super Tuesday states have gotten.

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 polls close at 7 p.m.

As of Thursday, there were just over 484,000 registered voters in Vermont, up about 1,000 over 2016, said Secretary of State Jim Condos said.