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The most important elected office most of us know nothing about
Submitted by Anne Dicker on Fri, 05/04/2007 - 5:57pm.
Is City Commissioner - which is elected every four years, including this one!
There are three elected City Commissioners. Two are from the majority party, one from a minority party. Decades ago, City Commissioners held mayoral-like powers, but now the office has been restricted to running elections. Commissioners are in charge of maintaining a list of registered Philadelphia voters, buying and maintaining voting machines, printing ballots and most important: running election day - making sure that everyone gets to vote and tallying up those votes.
The first time I ever had a reason to go to City Commissioners was to ask for the Philadelphia voter file on behalf of Philly for Dean back in 2003. Not even knowing what I was asking for, I naively walked to the City Commissioners Office, chaired by Marge Tartaglione.
I remember filling out a form stating the reason I wanted the file and then leaving the request there. Apparently having checked us out and making sure we were on the up and up, I was given a paper copy of Ward 2 - a mere four weeks later – which was a stack of papers about 6 six inches thick. Names and addresses of registered voters, with their party affiliation, were listed in order of address. It was really kind of cute, but I was flabbergasted: After working my entire adult life with computer files, I was shocked that the file couldn’t be given out on a disk. I mean, isn't it cheaper?
I wasn’t alone in my incredulity. Many Philadelphians, trying to educate voters about upcoming races, were also frustrated. Two experimental physicists, a bunch of computer tapes and one successful lawsuit later – the Philadelphia voter file became available in file format for the dandy price of $67. I didn’t have anything to do with the effort, but it was a Herculean task that I am still greatfull for today.
As it turns out, getting the list of Philadelphia voters that didn’t require the decimation of an ENTIRE acre of forest wasn’t the only time I’d be a little bit frustrated with City Commissioners, but that's for another post. (get a preview at http://ballotforchange.blogspot.com)
In any case, I’d love to know about the experiences you have had with the City Commissioners - especially with regard to holding elections and tallying votes.
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Reforms of 1951 Didn't Go Far Enough...
When the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter was enacted in 1951, it ushered in a new era of reform. County and City governments were consolidated into one. The Office of City Controller was creted as an independently elected position to audit the newly created government. The patronage system was replaced with a civil service commission to ensure fairness in the hiring of municipal employees.
Joe Clark and Richardson Dillworth and the YPP'ers of their day did a great deal to clean up the corrupt Republican stranglehold on our government. But they didn't go far enough. The office of City Commissioner in my opinion should not be an elected position. If it remains an elected position, I would at a minimum argue that those elected should not be allowed to continue serving as Ward Leaders. Those that are entrusted with ensuring fair elections should not themselves be partisan players. The folks that are responsible for making sure all the vote counters start at ZERO should not have a stake in the candidates that are running for office.
We have had many "nice people" serve as City Commissioners. I am not trying to point the finger at anyone (at least while typing here) but thee are inherent problems with this loophole that the previous generation of reformers failed to close.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
— Margaret Mead
Seth
Elected Commissioners
You may find this ironic but one of Marge Tartaglione's biggest supporters was always Fred Voigt, former head of the Committee of Seventy, back when it monitored elections, instead of trying to influence them.
Fred, Marge and singing in the basement
Lou, like I said..my comment wasn't meant to negatively characterize anyone that has held or is holding the job. I am sure Fred and Marge got along well. That doesn't dispute the fact that the position should be free of partisan politics.
While we are here on a Friday night suggesting changes to the Home Rule Charter...we might as well go ahead and eliminate the Clerk of Quarter Sessions. I don't know why that needs to be an elected position. Again, this has nothing to do with the personalities involved. The fact is however that Court Administration could take over the function.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
— Margaret Mead
Seth
Marge and singing in the basement
You are nobody in Philadelphia politics until you have sung in the basement.
This question highlights
This question highlights insider/non insider status. If you are an insider -- whatever that means -- you can get voter lists and ward maps in no time at all. (Talmadge used to have a half-decent website about elections.) If not, it can take some time, but I don't get a sense that there is any prejudice. Aside from that, it is better than the long wait for recording deeds, that's really another subject.
But having that stuff in an excel file, which is what you need for mail, etc., would be priceless. You have to pay some outside group, then the voter files, b/c of motor voter are not kept up to date. So the technology and information hinder a lot of that.
But I don't know how to gauge whether the City Commissioner does a good job or not.
Clerk of Quarter sessions, as an office, is a pain of most of the legal community, b/c it is widely viewed as a position that does not exist other places.
But row offices and their employees are not subject to the Charter's prohibition on electioneering. Don't expect them to go away anytime soon.
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I do not work for/support any candidate for any office in Philadelphia.
more on commissioners
The Commissioner's office does keep an updated, computer-based verison of the voter file. Anne is correct above when she points out that the best they do now is hand out a video tape with the electronic data on it that you need. That video than needs to be transcribed to a format one could actually load on a computer.
No one produces walk lists anymore without such a file and the fact that Commissioner's office does not respect that has to either speak to prejudice or extreme lack of competence.
Beyond that one issue, the whole job of the Commissioner's office is to make voting accessible. However in a city where less than 50% of the people on the rolls EVER vote (except the odd presidential), I'd say the Commissioners need to go further, and make voting easy.
What does that mean?
-same-day registration
-allowing voters to vote anywhere in the city, treating polling stations like MAC machines
-advertising the election on buses, billboards, TV, etc.
-sending postcards to every registered voter with polling place information in every election
-spreading the election out over more than day
-allowing votes by mail
Some of the reforms above would require state action (though Dems are now in the majority, and Babette Josephs heads the committee that would decide on these changes), and some could be done locally.
I tend to think the fact that the Commissioners don't do this is because the people who are elected Commissioners are closely tied to party structure and it is in the best interest of the party to keep turnout low, and election information non-existent to reelect incumbents and otehr party-backed candidates in primaries.
Postcards
sending postcards to every registered voter with polling place information in every election
I get postcards before many elections, if not all. I always know when and where to vote anyway, so I don't really keep track, but I think I have gotten them. What is the current policy or practice?
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I support Michael Nutter for Mayor. My slate.
unfortunately, there is no uniform policy
The first time postcards were sent was in the 2004 general. You did not get one in the 2005 primary or general or the 06 primary unless you had newly registered, though at that time I believe you would have only gotten a notice of your ward and division number--not the address of your poll.
In 2006, new voters got postcards with their polling place info on them. They may have sent postcards to all voters but that was after a group of us met with Edgar Howard (to no avail) with 70 (to no avail) and then finally Bob Brady who I suspect is the one who made it happen. The other scenario is that postcards in the 06 general were only mailed to polling locations that had changed due to relocation of sites that were not made accessible to people with disabilities.
Speaking of which...that is a whole other issue the Commissioner's office has still not fixed--how to get people of different abilities to the polls to vote.
City Commissioner Candidates
Democratic (Vote for 2)
Anthony Clark 2440 N. 28th Street Dep. Reg. of Wills
Margaret M. Tartaglione 1407 Vankirk Street City Commissioner
B. Blair Talmadge 5407B Chestnut Street Consultant
Edgar Howard 1411 E. Cliveden Street City Commissioner
I know little about any of these candidates. I know Blair Talmadge is brother of Alex Talmadge, who is behind a 527 against Knox. He is the only one endorsed by Anne Dicker. I don't recall seeing any other endorsements.
Should we vote Clark and Talmadge to throw the bums out, or what?
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I support Michael Nutter for Mayor. My slate.
Vote for Blair Talmadge
I haven't interviewed Anthony Clark, but I do know that he actually "won" a seat last time. The night before the election, he dropped out of the race.(Things that may you go "hmmmm".) He got more votes than Edgar Howard, who is now Commissioner. I don't quite understand how that happened, because the latest a candidate can drop out of the race is weeks before the election - definitely not the night before.
Normally, I would like to see a "slate" run, but as I'm concerned about Clark dropping out at midnight the night before last time, I can't recommend him.
Blair has promised to run a candidate training on the requirements of running, which could in turn allow for more progressive, grassroots, populist, or reformers to run and win.
Two points. 1. While I don't
Two points.
1. While I don't support any candidate, I would have to hear how the logic in supporting Anthony Clark squares at all with most of the reform minded stuff I see on this site. There are reasons to support him, but not for the cause of advancing a reform minded agenda.
2. The Commissioner's office and that tape is the most worthless thing they do. Who has the drive necessary to take that stuff and convert it to real information. Better would be to post election information on line.
The other stuff, i.e., registering the same day, is a function of state law (I believe.)
It is expensive as all get out to hold elections, my suggestion would be to reduce the number of polling places.
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I do not work for/support any candidate for any office in Philadelphia.
nope
I am pretty sure the city do all this on its own:
-allowing voters to vote anywhere in the city, treating polling stations like MAC machines
(all this would require is getting the voter file out of those dumb ward books, and into laptops on a secure online database).
-advertising the election on buses, billboards, TV, etc.
-sending postcards to every registered voter with polling place information in every election
Truth, the thing is, your advice makes sense based on the conventional wisdom of Philly politics. The problem with conventional politics in Philly is that we have terrible turnout. Efforts to increase turnout would really shake stuff up.
Which I imagine is why the ward leaders who control the Commissioner's office don;t do anything.
It was the same day
It was the same day registration that I believe is a function of state law.
As to the other items, I think elections cost too much money as it is. People come out for elections that they care about Rizzo/Goode was a high mark. Few people vote in the off year elections.
I would ask that the Commissioners focus in on younger voters, go to high schools, CCP, etc.
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I do not work for/support any candidate for any office in Philadelphia.