I’m stealing someone’s wi-fi now so I can report on what I’m hearing about turnout
In my division 21-24 in Mt. Airy, it has been slow and steady all day with no real rush in the morning. We have about 175 voters right now. That might get us to 45%. We have about 903 total registered voters and typically do 70-75% in primaries and 90% in presidential generals.
I just heard about a division in Germantown, Ward 12, that had about 50 voters an hour ago. I don’t know the division but most division in ward 12 have 300 voters or so, if I remember correctly. So they could get to 40-50%
A friend in Overbrook, ward 34, said that there were 15 voters at 7:30 which is low but not abysmal for that time of day.
I’m told by people running state wide judicial campaigns that if turnout is “not absysmal” in Phlly which I think means about 20%, our state wide candidates have a shot.
So far, it looks to me like we are doing better than not abysmal.
If you can't add to this by commment, call me at 215 880-6142 and I'll keep posting, at least until they add security to the wi-fi network I'm on
Ward/Division Updates
Can anyone get any input from the 29-10, 29-13 polling place on 29th St?
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My polling place in
My polling place in Fairmount actually had a small line in the morning. When I voted at 11 or so, the poll workers were pleaseantly surprised at turnout.
Fairmount - 15th Ward - 13th Division
I was # 18 this morning at about 7:30AM. As of a few minutes ago there were 105 and the report is "slow, but steady". If this holds up we should see between 40-45% for the division and about the same for the rest of the 15th Ward.
Anthony
Anthony Ingargiola
www.evolvestrategies.net
"I work for Evolve Strategies, unless otherwise indicated, my comments represent my own ideas and opinions and not those of Evolve Strategies, our clients and affiliates."
(37-15) I was the 7th person to vote at 9AM
I think I'm almost always 7 there. I think all the pollworkers vote and then it's me.
As usual, by 9AM, there was still no signs out front indicating it was a polling location, though some were going up as I was leaving. So frustrating.
Why don't we get those "Kiss Me I Voted" stickers here in Philadelphia? Those are awesome. We get stickers in Kansas.
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Street Visibility of Polling Places
Great Point! The only indicator for our location was a poster of the ballot on the storefront and a committeeperson handing out ticket ballots out in front (how far do they need to be again? 8 feet didn't seem enough). We almost missed it last fall.
Integrate, don't separate! Make Brewerytown Great!
Evidently Rendell said
we need 30% from Philly. I'm not sure how to factor in the different levels of turnout we have seen so far, but my gut is that we might get 30% here.
Michael Nutter deserves some of the credit, not just because his campaign has focused on turnout and Democratic judges but, I think, people really want to come out and vote for him.
8th Councilmanic Turnout
Marc, do you have any updates on the turnout across the 8th?
Anthony
Anthony Ingargiola
www.evolvestrategies.net
"I work for Evolve Strategies, unless otherwise indicated, my comments represent my own ideas and opinions and not those of Evolve Strategies, our clients and affiliates."
heard from a few divisions in CH, MA and Germantown
in the 8th. Same report from all over: turnout is slow but steady. Thirty percentlooks possible.
My division just hit 250 (out of 900). I still think 40% is possible.
Number 85 today in the 46th
Number 85 today in the 46th Ward, 8th Division, in Cedar Park. We took our son and he wasn't even the youngest baby there.
--Tim
I think that I was number 34
I think that I was number 34 in the 22-12 (part of the 8th District) at 10AM.
We have to figure out ways to make voting easier
Taking a break from the polls at Grace Episcopal Church where 1st, 2nd, and 3rd divisions of 9th ward vote. The situation is similar to what Marc reports.
We have had lines most of the day, but the reason for the lines is the complexity of the ballot and the time it takes each person to vote—not high numbers.
We have to figure out ways to make voting easier. Several folks waited in line for about 20-30 minutes and had to leave to catch their train before voting. Hope they come back. A lot of folks made the point that they should able to vote online, vote by mail etc.
I recall that we had a conversation on this blog about online voting, voting by mail as an option for everyone. I believe Ray was arguing for this. I recall someone ( Lou?)wanted to retain the community ritual of neighborhood voting. (My apologies if I have the people advocating these ideas wrong—don’t have time to look it all up.)
I really like the Election Day ritual; it’s one of the reasons I’ve been a committeeperson for so many years. However, people have really pressured lives these days and neighborhood voting is not working for a lot of people.
Community
I think it's important to note that people have broader understanding of what it means to be part of a community. For example, I consider this blog a community of sorts (although somewhat dysfunctional and certainly home to way too many lawyers) and the list goes on and on.
I was against on-line voting
All research on voting patterns shows that ease of voting has nothing to do with it. I continue to stand against it because it would take a big fight and wouldn't accomplish anything.
People don't vote because they don't want to. Economists will tell you that make something "cheaper" (in this case, making it take less time or work more easily) doesn't necessarily increase demand. In fact, many times, making things cheaper communicates to people that it's less important and so they want it even less (and for the uninitiated, Economists study all kinds of decisionmaking productively, not just financial ones).
If voting goes on-line or by mail or goes to the weekend, turnout won't change.
There is but one reform I, personally, support, but it's more about existing voters sanity than increasing voting numbers: Any voter should be able to vote at any polling place, within their city.
If I could run out and vote from work, that would be awesome. It would also make it a lot easier for good bosses to encourage voting.
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I too . . .
I'm not a fan of online voting for just those same reasons. I think that, insofar as our democracy requires few real sacrifices, finding the time to go and vote (and jury duty) is one of them.
As for voting anywhere in the City, I haven't really thought about it.
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Turnout in the 8th
I am sitting at my desk, so my access to information is a little limited.
At 9am, 83 people had voted at Division 2 in the 22nd Ward. That's in Mt. Airy. Not sure if it means anything, but that seems like pretty heavy turnout.
I highly doubt that Jesse Brown is going to win, but I'm pretty interested to see what the returns look like.
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Lines are Growing
We just hit 35% turnout and we have a line 20 people long even though we have 3 voting machines. The problem, of course, is that the ballot is so long as are the ballot questions. Each voter is taking 5-10 minutes in the booth. Are the folks in my division particularly conscientious / obsessive? Most of them are reading my four page single-space voting guide. Of course they don't have much else to do during their half hour to forty-five minute wait to vote.
What are things like in other divisions. Are people taking so long to vote? If not, is their going to be a big drop-off at the bottom of the ballot?
Are these long waits a problem? Do they lead to people with more interst or education having more influence at the bottom of the ballot than other people? Or is a long wait the price of democracy?
Marc, a long wait is not the
Marc, a long wait is not the price of democracy. We need to make it a lot easier to vote. Yes, the ballot questions are long and difficult. But that just means there is not enough voter education. If people knew what the questions were in advance and how they were voting on them, I bet the line would be a lot quicker.
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Ben, I know that
but Jennifer thinks I sound too certain of myself too often. So I'm trying to express myself a bit more tentatively.
That was another, probably bad, joke. I've only gotten a few hours sleep in the last two days and I'm punch drunk.
Actually, I really haven't ever thought this through before. Do we actually have the capacity to educate people about ballot questions? Are people going to be interested in them? If not, does that tell us something about the limits of referenda in a democracy? Sometimes I long for referenda in this state and, as you know, came up with the idea of using the charter change process as a way of creating a referenda on the casino sites. But what works in a high profile issue might not work so well for a low profile issue. A lot of pretty disappointing decisions, from a left wing point of view, have been made with referenda along with some good ones.
I suspect there are a lot of interesting, deeper questions here. But now's the time to celebrate not cogitate.
Voting Time in San Francisco
Years ago when I was in San Francisco working on a campaign I was authorized to help a blind gentleman vote. The ballot went on and on. In addition to the usual offices, there were about 12 referendums, and the ballot also had the candidates for the local community college board among other offices. (There were a lot more offices in San Francisco than in Philadelphia on the ballot.) Granted I had to read all of the questions to the blind gentleman, but I believe it took about 20 minutes for him to vote.
Early Voting / Vote-by-Mail / Etc.
For those who want other/better ways to vote, you're in luck -- many of you are probably constituents of the House State Government Committee chairwoman, Rep. Babette Josephs.
Now, I will say her committee's got a fairly full schedule. For example, next week (Thursday, Nov. 15) she is bringing the committee to Philly for the third hearing on a bill near and dear to me -- a bill to make it illegal STATEWIDE to discriminate in employment, housing or credit on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. (The hearing is set for 1 PM Thurs Nov 15 at the Friends Center, 1501 Cherry St.)
We're done
I'm the last voter, #414 which gives us a 46% turnout. Given where my division generally is relative to the rest of teh city, that should give us between 25 and 30% city wide. I sure hope it is towards the top end of that range.