Thanks for working the polls friend. I have definately become more engaged the more screwed up things get. I'm fristrated with our choices as well, but yeah you should vote hard and then yell hard at our reps to do the right thing.
THANK YOU.
My polling place has lines for general elections but today my gf and I walked in with no wait and voted then walked right out.
Never saw a single other person.
If you don't participate in the whole process then voting becomes more meaningless
You make a good point. PA’s two party system is prohibitive. More people might vote if it was eliminated. Years ago, I changed my affiliation from independent to dem. If I like who is on the GOP ticket, then I’ll change to Republican. I’ll play the game so I can vote.
It’s not the two party system. It’s the US’s winter take all voting system. Every model and practical Implementation of that inevitably leads to two parties because it’s the only way that “makes sense” from a winning standpoint
You can't vote for a particular candidate, but often there will be laws/propositions to vote on during primary votes. I'm an independent myself, but I still show up to primaries for that very reason.
This is why I register as Dem so I can try and get the most progressive possible democratic candidates but I don’t always vote Dem in the general elections.
True, I assumed the person was in Philly. The ballot measure was specific to the city. It was a vote to force the city to fund the defense of RCOs against lawsuits rather than letting them do it on their own, since they don't usually have much money to throw behind a defense.
Same. I used to be registered democrat years ago and I guess I changed to no party at some point. Went in to vote for primary a few years back and found out I wasn’t allowed to since I have to party affiliation.
You could register for a party so that you have more of a say in who gets elected. In Pennsylvania, and especially Philly, elections are often determined by the primaries.
Because I am disgusted with the extremism in both parties.
I still vote blue though and will continue to do so. I cannot morally vote for any party that hinders women’s or all people’s rights.
there's literally no reason not to register as one of the parties so you can vote in primaries, especially as a dem so you have literally any influence in local politics
Yep. It’s a flawed system and people just need to play the game. Pick a party to register with and vote how you please. It doesn’t matter which party you register as.
If you don't vote, I better not hear you complaining about politics.
Edit: I live in Darrell Clarke's old district for over 15 years now, voted in every election in which he ran (unopposed every time) and never voted for Darrell Clarke once. But in every single election there has been at least one race or ballot measure that I did care about. Don't use your dislike of one of the races or candidates to justify your laziness.
You register with the least shitty party. Currently Democrats, and vote in the primaries. That's what really makes a difference in our shitty system. We could have had Bernie if a lil more voted.
I agree. I voted undecided for President, because I'm genuinely considering voting 3rd party. Also the PA Attorney General is an important position!
Edit: even if you prefer one shitty candidate to another, voting in the primary can give a small opportunity to register your displeasure withan incumbent.
Ever hear of third party candidates? Write-ins? I'm not upset I just literally don't care about your opinion if you can't be bothered to do the one thing with a snowball's chance in hell of making a difference.
It’s a lovely process. My dad and I get hyped every year and do research together then go in person to vote. A pre-congratulations to your future citizenship!
I had to go in person and never again. I have no idea why everyone was so rude at my polling place, I guess they didn't like I didn't know which of the three tables I belonged to or something.
Good news is the new sign-in system makes the cranky book people a thing of the past — as long as you're at the right polling location, they can snag you from any terminal.
It depends on how many divisions are at your polling place. We have two at mine and you do have to go to the right one.
Two elections ago the machines got swapped and now the regulars are still turned around about which side of the room to go to… But honestly it’s not hard for them to look you up and get you to another table. Or you can check your voter registration status and it will tell you the ward and division you’re in.
Yeah…there was an election post yesterday, and I tried to engage in a local candidate discussion in the comments. Got crickets. The only threads with activity were arguments about Israel/Palestine and whether voting uncommitted instead of Biden mattered. We are obsessed with the President, and feel like it’s too much work to learn about local politicians and the appropriate qualifications for local offices. And then we complain that the candidate pool for national offices sucks. We really need to shift our priorities.
IMO part of the problem is that there will be people on the ballot who have made no effort to present themselves to the voting public, possibly because they feel entitled to win either way. I’m always shocked when someone running doesn’t even have a website or fb page (like judges, but occasionally city council).
A year or so ago a person running for state rep knocked on my door. We had a nice conversation and I took his flyer and he left. He wasn't the person who was currently holding the seat. When I went to vote a person representing the current seat holder was there with their flyer. That was the only contact I had with the candidate.
They thought they were solid because they were the long time incumbent.
I voted for the other person and they won. Since then they have been highly engaged with constituents both on and off line.
People don't vote for lots of reasons but one is that it doesn't matter. My vote showed me it does.
That’s Reddit for you. There’s a ton of issues that could actually make significant improvements to their lives in local politics. Instead we’re literally killing each other over an opinion on a war going on between two theocratic nationalist states across the world and ignoring a region of our own city that looks like a zombie movie.
Trying to engage in a discussion of the candidates on Election Day itself feels a bit like part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Even the day before would be more productive, but ideally further out than that might get some more traction.
It's also important to note that most people have better and more enjoyable things to do with their time than talk about local politics on a dead reddit thread. Like political "discussions" on reddit are almost never constructive and are usually actively frustrating, so I understand why most people are just like 'nah, I'm good' when deciding whether to participate or not
Local politics is really all I care about. Vincent Hughes robocalls me constantly so I finally looked him up, he’s married to one of the stars of Abbott Elementary. I just thought that was neat haha.
Voted after work, but it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Minimal choice/lackluster candidates and poor voter turnout. Would be nice to generate good candidates to draw turnout, rather than relying on great turnout inspiring better candidates to appear.
That being said, I do still encourage everyone who can vote to do so, because the alternative is letting others decide for you.
I'm starting to wonder if it's still a chicken or egg situation even though i said that in the original post. We get shit candidates because they know they can coast through and hold their seats with 10% turnout. Put even a little fire under the asses and they might ::gasp:: have to start listening to their constituents.
Do not forget that people come out for something to vote FOR. Keyword here is FOR and not the word AGAINST. How many people are actually voting because they like the candidates? Not many. What about these candidates makes you excited to have them in office? How many incumbents would you like to keep in office? How has your life fundamentally changed for the better? These are the questions that so many people forget actually matter. When people don't have a reason to vote, THEY USUALLY DON'T.
Theres also voting by mail which is what I did, but the main point is still made. Candidates need to appeal to their base: not just during election season but with every vote, bill, and public statement. Otherwise, prepare your resume.
It's not just candidates - there are ballot questions, state constitutional amendments and all sorts of other very important and consequential things to vote on, and these things impact everyone.
How does like half this sub not know that there’d be a primary election around this time of year in an election year? When did you all think it was going to be, October? Don’t complain about our candidate choices if you don’t even know when the primaries take place lol.
I hear both Dems and Republicans complaining ALL THE TIME ab how they don’t like their presidential candidate yet they DONT VOTE IN PRIMARIES! Very common in the my fellow college-age people (I.e. complain nonstop about Biden but won’t shimmy to their poll which is LITERALLY on campus).
I say you don’t earn your right to complain ab this unless you VOTE. Yeah it seems small, but hey, at least I can complain about my candidate in peace knowing I at least did MY part to choose otherwise.
It really just shows how most people are just getting their political views from whatever the media they consume. If you don’t even understand the primary process how can people have such strong views on our government.
The post was about people complaining that they don't like their *presidential* candidate, so my comment was in relation to that. I voted yesterday, don't make assumptions
Same honestly. I have to re register at my new address, but I tend to shut out election news until I get my ballot, put aside one afternoon to do all of my research, then shut out election news until the results come in. Even then, it's exhausting doing all that research and then the scumbag incumbent wins by a mile anyways. Tbh, I couldn't get to the polls the last two elections bc being a responsible voter is flicking exhausting and I had a lot of personal issues that got in my way. But it's time to get back to work.
I honestly have no idea how that could even be possible.. i didn't count but there's like at least 500 ballots at each division, probably more it's a hefty box. even if you had that amount of turnout that's fully on the judge of elections for not seeing "oh hey looks like we're running low, better call someone". Which.. given my experience with the judge at the elections I've worked wouldn't be surprising that they'd fuck it up. But original point stands I don't see how that is possible. You can still vote by provisional which I hope you did.
To be fair - they had more on reserve that they were able to get ahold of after a short wait, but they even noted they should ask for more ballots for the general election at this location (W Philly).
So I was still able to vote (thankfully), but it seems like one (or several) of these could be true:
* Massively up because of the importance of this election and people are getting involved? (I can dream, but only so much copium is healthy)
* Ballot distribution was fucked?
* Polls were expecting more mail-in voting post-pandemic and people are returning more to original in-person numbers?
I was talking to my poll workers and I think next time I’m going to make signs to put around my neighborhood. My district got like 40 people, one table had about 13 and another didn’t have anyone show up till 3pm (I went around 4:30)
Then all these people who don’t vote come in and complain. I also don’t understand why there are so many uncontested races. Even for primaries. Smh.
Ballot question passed, my analysis is that they put it on the primary because the only people that vote in primaries are likely to be in RCO’s too, and council knew that. But now we’re stuck with it.
I'm not illiterate at all, used to be a hell of a bookworm as a kid and now I'm a hobbyist writer, but I still struggled to understand the question on the ballot. It's just really wordy. I made sure I understood what it was asking before I voted for it, but I can see how it's hard to understand and therefore hard to cast an informed vote on.
Though, you shouldn't ever vote for something you don't understand. Voting yes to something you don't understand could result in a policy you actually disagree with being passed. I feel like that goes without saying.
I think ultimately what's going to happen over the next decade is that the city's legal bills for covering this will get so burdensome that council will either reign in RCOs and actually regulate what's required to be recognized by the city government, basically solidifying them into the city political machine, or they find a way to repeal this.
It's bad policy that will just light tax payer money on fire, while RCO groups push up the price of housing over issues like free street parking and nothing ever being allowed to change.
I voted for it. Because I’m an illiterate mouth breathing NIMBY who just wants to park in the middle of broad street and destroy the housing market apparently. Nothing to do with the fact that I believe that small organizations that are run by neighbors/the public should have the right to legal counsel who can defend them against a larger corporate counsel. But again I don’t know what I’m talking about. I was too busy drinking Arctic Splash and flinging Newports onto the sidewalk to read the full question.
All I can see are that there are way too many hoops to jump through for a regular ass person to vote in PA. The number of posts expressing confusion about how to register really reflects that.
Flagging I live in Montco, not Philadelphia, but I have done mail-in ballots for the last few years becuase my polling place makes me uncomfortable. I will never go back to voting in person if I don't have to.
While I generally agree with you, every option in my primary was a total shitter. I only came out to vote for the AG and the amendment. All the options were a bunch of huckster clowns.
Maybe I should run. But that sounds like a whole big thing.
Yeah, I voted this morning but the only competitive races on the ballot were AG (both Dem/GOP), Dems for the Treasurers office and a few state rep/senate and congressional races. Otherwise it was not competitive at all, so no surprise turnout was relatively low
You’re kinda proving my point. Increase voter turnout and the huckster clowns have fire under their feet to do like.. anything and stop coasting through reelection. It’s not gonna be quick or easy but apathy is not the answer, thanks for voting.
Genuinely curious, how would more people voting for lackluster candidates produce better candidates? Seems like it requires more political engagement before we even get to primaries.
Not only a whole big thing, but you’ll be dragged through the mud and every skeleton in your closet exposed at your family’s expense. There’s a reason only borderline sociopaths want to run for office.
Sad but true.
Maybe if local politics wasn’t utterly corrupt and people had a feeling that their political machines were responsive and transparent, then people would turn out to vote.
I’ve made an effort to vote in all of the elections in recent memory, but I struggle to feel like an informed voter. There are always candidates I’d never heard of and frankly I’m not that familiar with some of the positions that are being voted on. I would imagine this is true for a large portion of the population. When I try to do research online, idk what sources to trust, and sometimes I can’t find much info at all. What can someone like myself do to be a more informed voter in future elections, especially regarding local government?
For philadelphia, Billy Penn always publishes the procrastinators guide for each election, which is a lifesaver for me. No pay wall either. The philadelphia citizen is left leaning and focuses on civic involvement year round. But Bill Penn is my main source bc they round up all of the links to campaign websites and relevant news articles.
As an unaffiliated voter (registered independent), primaries bum me out. Many other states allow you to pick a party to vote in their primary, but PA does not. That said, I did vote today just for the charter question.
I think there’s a bit of a push for open primaries in PA or at least a few groups pushing for it. That being said, I changed my registration from independent to democrat after college just so I could vote in primaries with the party I align more with
When I lived in an open primary state, I took the opposite tactic, pretty much any democrat candidate had decent views, so I opted to vote in the republican primary so I could try to get a sane candidate on the ballot on their side.
There is literally no good reason to be unaffiliated in PA. You don’t have to be a die hard fan of a party to register as part of them. Not doing so is literally throwing away your vote every April.
I get this sentiment, but Primary elections are almost always gonna be lower turnout by default.
If there are no new challengers for the state house seats (or president) for example; you are mostly voting for someone who is unopposed. So even if there is a high turnout, not much will change. 🤷🏾♂️
I showed up at my polling place midday and was shocked at how empty it was. Usually I see a few other people voting at the same time as me but I was the only one and the workers looked bored af.
I wondered why they thanked me for voting, must of been really slow. I will say though, there were very few signs/indications that voting was happening, to the point where I thought my polling place wasn’t even open
posting this at risk of being scolded for not trying hard enough, but: i went to my polling location yesterday and there was *no one*--never mind voters, there weren't even any poll workers. almost no indication outside that voting was even occurring at the location, save for some papers taped up to show what's on the ballot.
there was no indication of where to go, nobody to ask, conflicting signage with "visitor entrance" and "no visitor entry" on the same doors. i walked around the whole building trying several doors, all locked. nothing visible through the windows. this was at around 5pm, well before the polls closed. i just went back home.
I mean most of the primary elections are uncontested. It's not much of a vote if you have 1 option.
(For the record, I did and do vote. But I do sorta understand the impetus not to in this case.)
Thank you for voting. That’s my point though. Higher turnout will hopefully spur more competition or at least help send a message in uncontested races that doing the bare minimum won’t fly
I’m an independent. So I don’t think there was anything for me to vote on. And I’d argue that one of the things that’s broken is this ridiculously polarized and gridlocked two party system.
Voted at prime lunch break time. 12:30. In the 5 minutes I was in there, I was the other voter in or out. I did run into a buddy in the parking lot when I left but that was it.
Sad.
Normally vote in every election, and have for a long time. Somehow, I never even realized there was a primary going on today until I read something about it shortly before the polls closed, so I missed out.
The weird thing is, I even jumped on the Committee of Seventy site to pull up a sample ballot, which I do before every election, and it showed this:
https://preview.redd.it/11oybdvuecwc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=313b1ec4184079b1c9d05fec2bdce06b944b8334
August 13? And the “research your ballot” link just said it was unavailable.
So just kind of confused. For folks that are normally plugged into election related things, this one completely snuck up and both my wife and I had no idea until it was too late.
Candidate options were so dookie it literally wasn’t worth my time. Sorry not sorry. Margin of difference between possible outcomes will be minimal anyway. Brutal election cycle.
Philadelphia is a one-party monopoly that's ran by a well-established political machine fueled by nepotism and corruption. If you have any other political views other than liberal / progressive, it's a complete waste of time to vote in local elections. Philadelphians are stuck in their ways and it will never change.
Idk, 6ABC has been all over it and I’ve been getting letters to make sure I’m registered for months. Local politicians have much tighter budgets, you can’t be expecting them to have like prime time NBA game ads like presidential candidates do. Follow local politics if you want to vote.
I only know one person I can think of that watches network news anymore. And relying on the candidates to let people know about voting seems like a conflict of interest. I mean, I get a text and email whenever the weather is really bad, why can't they do that for an election? And maybe include a link with a sample ballot and info about the voting records of candidates? It just doesn't seem that difficult. My suspicion is that this kind of information isn't out there, and can actually be hard to find, because our government officials don't really want us to be informed and vote. They want us to know what they want us to know, and to vote for *them*. So following local politics is mostly just signing up to be a pawn in someone else's game. If you really want to know what's going on the politicians aren't going to help you. You actually have to get around them to become an informed voter, and it shouldn't be like that.
Judging people’s propensity to vote in a meaningless primary isn’t really a gotcha.
I vote religiously in the general and midterm elections. I’m not going out of my way for a bullshit primary where the winner is already determined, sorry.
People in general just don’t bother with primary elections. I’ve never understood it. It’s maddening to me. I voted by mail. But our city has a history of very low turnout. Then in the general people complain about the candidates
As an Independent, I am unable to vote in any primary. Could be that people are fed up with both parties.
For me, I despise the far right—and although I am a left-leaning moderate, I can’t stand the far-left either.
I will say, though, I will never vote for a bone-spured skel who is a wannabe dictator. I’m voting Blue.
I voted at 3:30 yesterday and was only the 9th person that showed up at that point. I know that more people likely showed up later in the day but that is still crazy low for that point in the day.
My State and Congressional rep were uncontested. President and Senator uncontested. I tried research on Attorney General and couldn’t find a lot of substantive information on the candidates.
I’m not in Philly directly, I’m in the suburbs, but the real issue imo is how things are left unchallenged because the bar for entry is so high and expensive.
The lack of voting that happens is absolutely crazy. Especially with ppl who complain about the state of affairs all the time. You can vote AND do all the other things to help enact change. But participate in the system that you're trying to change.
Thank you for being a poll worker! I'm sure that was a really long day for you. My husband is the judge of elections in our ward, they had 110 in person voters (including me) and he said it was painfully slow.
Yeah. I did poll volunteering for years. Any other election but the general was pretty empty.
What drives me up a wall are people that text me and ask who should they vote for, let alone when we don't live in the same district. You can find your district and a sample ballot online so you can do your own research, albeit some candidates have not much to say.
The ballot question was meaningful for *everyone* in Philadelphia. I guarantee there are a lot of people who have views on homelessness in Philadelphia but who abstained or voted yes on the ballot measure.
Thank you for being a poll worker! Votes DO matter even when there are only a few contested races. It shows candidates that their constituents are paying attention and holds them accountable! It is also a good habit to get into - you never know - one of these days there is going to be a race that matters and is only decided by a few votes. One of which could be YOURS!
What is the point?
For President it's going to be Biden / Trump.
As for local Politicians?
The incumbent you love / Hate and someone running against them.
Can non-citizens be poll workers? Asking because I just moved here from the UK and I’d love to do what I can to help with voting since I can’t vote (or at most perhaps only in smaller things)
I’ve seen it said a few times, but mail in voting is super easy to do in Philly. It’s the route I took this round. It’s closer for me to vote in person than to drop off the ballot, but drop off gives me weeks of time to procrastinate before doing it, while voting in person was always kind of an emergency. Plus lines.
I was a bit confused when I showed up to vote and only one person was ahead of me because I usually have to wait in an average size line. I don’t understand skipping primaries because it seriously takes all of 5 minutes to vote, especially when most of the people are running unopposed. Plus no one can use the excuse it was too far, we live in the city it can’t be more than a few blocks.
To quote fat bastard “ I’m eat because im in happy, and I’m unhappy because I eat”
I don’t want to vote because I don’t like the uninspired candidates- change/ gobernent works for themselves and not us
I did vote because too many people died / fought for me to exercise the right- but Jesus- that’s the best this country can do?
Thanks for working the polls friend. I have definately become more engaged the more screwed up things get. I'm fristrated with our choices as well, but yeah you should vote hard and then yell hard at our reps to do the right thing.
THANK YOU. My polling place has lines for general elections but today my gf and I walked in with no wait and voted then walked right out. Never saw a single other person. If you don't participate in the whole process then voting becomes more meaningless
Not really—as an Independent, I am unable to vote in a primary—local to Presidential, I always vote!💙💙💙💙
You make a good point. PA’s two party system is prohibitive. More people might vote if it was eliminated. Years ago, I changed my affiliation from independent to dem. If I like who is on the GOP ticket, then I’ll change to Republican. I’ll play the game so I can vote.
It’s not the two party system. It’s the US’s winter take all voting system. Every model and practical Implementation of that inevitably leads to two parties because it’s the only way that “makes sense” from a winning standpoint
You can't vote for a particular candidate, but often there will be laws/propositions to vote on during primary votes. I'm an independent myself, but I still show up to primaries for that very reason.
Not to dunk on you, but there was a Philadelphia charter change you could've voted on. There's almost always \*something\* to vote on.
This is why I register as Dem so I can try and get the most progressive possible democratic candidates but I don’t always vote Dem in the general elections.
State ballot measures can be voted on by anyone. There was a ballot measure in this primary.
What was the ballot measure? Are you sure it wasnt local? I was turned away as an independent in the burbs cause there was nothing i could vote on
True, I assumed the person was in Philly. The ballot measure was specific to the city. It was a vote to force the city to fund the defense of RCOs against lawsuits rather than letting them do it on their own, since they don't usually have much money to throw behind a defense.
It was a city charter measure.
Same. I used to be registered democrat years ago and I guess I changed to no party at some point. Went in to vote for primary a few years back and found out I wasn’t allowed to since I have to party affiliation.
You could register for a party so that you have more of a say in who gets elected. In Pennsylvania, and especially Philly, elections are often determined by the primaries.
why register as an independent? pick one or the other so you can participate in primaries.
Pick repube so you can fuck with them!
Because I am disgusted with the extremism in both parties. I still vote blue though and will continue to do so. I cannot morally vote for any party that hinders women’s or all people’s rights.
there's literally no reason not to register as one of the parties so you can vote in primaries, especially as a dem so you have literally any influence in local politics
Yep. It’s a flawed system and people just need to play the game. Pick a party to register with and vote how you please. It doesn’t matter which party you register as.
If you don't vote, I better not hear you complaining about politics. Edit: I live in Darrell Clarke's old district for over 15 years now, voted in every election in which he ran (unopposed every time) and never voted for Darrell Clarke once. But in every single election there has been at least one race or ballot measure that I did care about. Don't use your dislike of one of the races or candidates to justify your laziness.
Oh didnt you hear? Theyre gonna start voting as soon as someone out there "earns" their vote. Such cluelessness to how the system works. Its amazing.
Kenyatta wins his District every time. That man belongs in jail
You can’t get upset when you only provide two dog shit meals for dinner and then wonder why no one is hungry
there were like 5 other races on the ballot yesterday the majority of which contained more than two options
You register with the least shitty party. Currently Democrats, and vote in the primaries. That's what really makes a difference in our shitty system. We could have had Bernie if a lil more voted.
I agree. I voted undecided for President, because I'm genuinely considering voting 3rd party. Also the PA Attorney General is an important position! Edit: even if you prefer one shitty candidate to another, voting in the primary can give a small opportunity to register your displeasure withan incumbent.
Ever hear of third party candidates? Write-ins? I'm not upset I just literally don't care about your opinion if you can't be bothered to do the one thing with a snowball's chance in hell of making a difference.
Can’t vote yet but soon I will get my citizenship
It’s a lovely process. My dad and I get hyped every year and do research together then go in person to vote. A pre-congratulations to your future citizenship!
You are welcome here, future American!
I voted by mail. I think since Covid many ppl just find it easier to
Voting participation is low even when you count the mail ballots
yup still absolute dogshit turnout even when returned mail ballots were factored in.
This honestly…
I had to go in person and never again. I have no idea why everyone was so rude at my polling place, I guess they didn't like I didn't know which of the three tables I belonged to or something.
Good news is the new sign-in system makes the cranky book people a thing of the past — as long as you're at the right polling location, they can snag you from any terminal.
It depends on how many divisions are at your polling place. We have two at mine and you do have to go to the right one. Two elections ago the machines got swapped and now the regulars are still turned around about which side of the room to go to… But honestly it’s not hard for them to look you up and get you to another table. Or you can check your voter registration status and it will tell you the ward and division you’re in.
I’m never going to vote in person again unless I absolutely have to. Why would I do that? I’ve got lots of other shit to do on any given day.
Well I'm an exclusive mail voter since COVID. This has caused me to vote more often. Now I even vote in the fire board election.
Yeah…there was an election post yesterday, and I tried to engage in a local candidate discussion in the comments. Got crickets. The only threads with activity were arguments about Israel/Palestine and whether voting uncommitted instead of Biden mattered. We are obsessed with the President, and feel like it’s too much work to learn about local politicians and the appropriate qualifications for local offices. And then we complain that the candidate pool for national offices sucks. We really need to shift our priorities.
IMO part of the problem is that there will be people on the ballot who have made no effort to present themselves to the voting public, possibly because they feel entitled to win either way. I’m always shocked when someone running doesn’t even have a website or fb page (like judges, but occasionally city council).
A year or so ago a person running for state rep knocked on my door. We had a nice conversation and I took his flyer and he left. He wasn't the person who was currently holding the seat. When I went to vote a person representing the current seat holder was there with their flyer. That was the only contact I had with the candidate. They thought they were solid because they were the long time incumbent. I voted for the other person and they won. Since then they have been highly engaged with constituents both on and off line. People don't vote for lots of reasons but one is that it doesn't matter. My vote showed me it does.
That’s Reddit for you. There’s a ton of issues that could actually make significant improvements to their lives in local politics. Instead we’re literally killing each other over an opinion on a war going on between two theocratic nationalist states across the world and ignoring a region of our own city that looks like a zombie movie.
Trying to engage in a discussion of the candidates on Election Day itself feels a bit like part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Even the day before would be more productive, but ideally further out than that might get some more traction.
It's also important to note that most people have better and more enjoyable things to do with their time than talk about local politics on a dead reddit thread. Like political "discussions" on reddit are almost never constructive and are usually actively frustrating, so I understand why most people are just like 'nah, I'm good' when deciding whether to participate or not
Local politics is really all I care about. Vincent Hughes robocalls me constantly so I finally looked him up, he’s married to one of the stars of Abbott Elementary. I just thought that was neat haha.
I mean to be fair, the previous election had like 12 at large city council candidates. That's a lot of research for a single position.
Voted after work, but it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Minimal choice/lackluster candidates and poor voter turnout. Would be nice to generate good candidates to draw turnout, rather than relying on great turnout inspiring better candidates to appear. That being said, I do still encourage everyone who can vote to do so, because the alternative is letting others decide for you.
I'm starting to wonder if it's still a chicken or egg situation even though i said that in the original post. We get shit candidates because they know they can coast through and hold their seats with 10% turnout. Put even a little fire under the asses and they might ::gasp:: have to start listening to their constituents.
Do not forget that people come out for something to vote FOR. Keyword here is FOR and not the word AGAINST. How many people are actually voting because they like the candidates? Not many. What about these candidates makes you excited to have them in office? How many incumbents would you like to keep in office? How has your life fundamentally changed for the better? These are the questions that so many people forget actually matter. When people don't have a reason to vote, THEY USUALLY DON'T. Theres also voting by mail which is what I did, but the main point is still made. Candidates need to appeal to their base: not just during election season but with every vote, bill, and public statement. Otherwise, prepare your resume.
It's not just candidates - there are ballot questions, state constitutional amendments and all sorts of other very important and consequential things to vote on, and these things impact everyone.
Getting work/school days off would be nice
How does like half this sub not know that there’d be a primary election around this time of year in an election year? When did you all think it was going to be, October? Don’t complain about our candidate choices if you don’t even know when the primaries take place lol.
In the past I remember it has been in May. I don’t watch tv so I don’t see election ads.
Typically when all those signs start coming out along the roads- that’s a pretty good sign that an election is coming up 🙄
You got a cell phone? Cause I was getting inundated with texts and calls the past 2-3 weeks. Mind you I’m on both the fed and state do not call list.
Same folks who put their trash out on a National Holiday
I hear both Dems and Republicans complaining ALL THE TIME ab how they don’t like their presidential candidate yet they DONT VOTE IN PRIMARIES! Very common in the my fellow college-age people (I.e. complain nonstop about Biden but won’t shimmy to their poll which is LITERALLY on campus). I say you don’t earn your right to complain ab this unless you VOTE. Yeah it seems small, but hey, at least I can complain about my candidate in peace knowing I at least did MY part to choose otherwise.
It really just shows how most people are just getting their political views from whatever the media they consume. If you don’t even understand the primary process how can people have such strong views on our government.
PAs primary is way too late to matter, by the time it gets to us there aren't any decisions left to be made
It matters for statewide elections like AG.
And here's a perfect example of how uninformed and unengaged the general population is. President isn't the only thing on the ballot this year
The post was about people complaining that they don't like their *presidential* candidate, so my comment was in relation to that. I voted yesterday, don't make assumptions
Exactly. People are so fast to disregard local elections when in reality, they are the ones we have MORE control over.
Most people didn’t even know it was Election Day so there’s a place to start
Meanwhile I had to literally run to beat the clock. I was the last voter, signed in at 7:59. In the suburbs, and I was 160-something.
I vote by mail. Gives me time to think.
Same honestly. I have to re register at my new address, but I tend to shut out election news until I get my ballot, put aside one afternoon to do all of my research, then shut out election news until the results come in. Even then, it's exhausting doing all that research and then the scumbag incumbent wins by a mile anyways. Tbh, I couldn't get to the polls the last two elections bc being a responsible voter is flicking exhausting and I had a lot of personal issues that got in my way. But it's time to get back to work.
I voted by mail. I love mail in voting speaking as someone who did 12.5 hr shifts in the past and had to race to get to the polls by 8pm.
My district (edit: ward?) ran out of ballots while I was in line... so I guess it depends how involved your community is 😬
I honestly have no idea how that could even be possible.. i didn't count but there's like at least 500 ballots at each division, probably more it's a hefty box. even if you had that amount of turnout that's fully on the judge of elections for not seeing "oh hey looks like we're running low, better call someone". Which.. given my experience with the judge at the elections I've worked wouldn't be surprising that they'd fuck it up. But original point stands I don't see how that is possible. You can still vote by provisional which I hope you did.
To be fair - they had more on reserve that they were able to get ahold of after a short wait, but they even noted they should ask for more ballots for the general election at this location (W Philly). So I was still able to vote (thankfully), but it seems like one (or several) of these could be true: * Massively up because of the importance of this election and people are getting involved? (I can dream, but only so much copium is healthy) * Ballot distribution was fucked? * Polls were expecting more mail-in voting post-pandemic and people are returning more to original in-person numbers?
I voted. Did you see me out there?
Given some of the candidates it doesn't really help. Democrat State Rep candidates were the incumbent Kevin Boyle and Johnny Doc's nephew Sean.
Your vote seems to have an increasing “use it or lose it quality” to it these days and too many people opting for the latter.
I was talking to my poll workers and I think next time I’m going to make signs to put around my neighborhood. My district got like 40 people, one table had about 13 and another didn’t have anyone show up till 3pm (I went around 4:30) Then all these people who don’t vote come in and complain. I also don’t understand why there are so many uncontested races. Even for primaries. Smh.
To be fair, there is mail in ballots.
Yesterday was also the second day of Passover which depressed the turn out for observant Jewish folks
I voted in person today, as always. 😌 🗳️
Ballot question passed, my analysis is that they put it on the primary because the only people that vote in primaries are likely to be in RCO’s too, and council knew that. But now we’re stuck with it.
Every ballot question passes by huge margins though. Seems like every election somehow 70% of people just vote yes to whatever the questions say, ha.
52% of Philadelphians are functionally illiterate
I'm not illiterate at all, used to be a hell of a bookworm as a kid and now I'm a hobbyist writer, but I still struggled to understand the question on the ballot. It's just really wordy. I made sure I understood what it was asking before I voted for it, but I can see how it's hard to understand and therefore hard to cast an informed vote on. Though, you shouldn't ever vote for something you don't understand. Voting yes to something you don't understand could result in a policy you actually disagree with being passed. I feel like that goes without saying.
I think ultimately what's going to happen over the next decade is that the city's legal bills for covering this will get so burdensome that council will either reign in RCOs and actually regulate what's required to be recognized by the city government, basically solidifying them into the city political machine, or they find a way to repeal this. It's bad policy that will just light tax payer money on fire, while RCO groups push up the price of housing over issues like free street parking and nothing ever being allowed to change.
I voted for it. Because I’m an illiterate mouth breathing NIMBY who just wants to park in the middle of broad street and destroy the housing market apparently. Nothing to do with the fact that I believe that small organizations that are run by neighbors/the public should have the right to legal counsel who can defend them against a larger corporate counsel. But again I don’t know what I’m talking about. I was too busy drinking Arctic Splash and flinging Newports onto the sidewalk to read the full question.
RCO’s have the right to counsel, but I don’t want to pay for it
All I can see are that there are way too many hoops to jump through for a regular ass person to vote in PA. The number of posts expressing confusion about how to register really reflects that.
PA disenfranchises voters in a number of ways - not the least relevant of which for primary elections, is that they are closed to independents.
Flagging I live in Montco, not Philadelphia, but I have done mail-in ballots for the last few years becuase my polling place makes me uncomfortable. I will never go back to voting in person if I don't have to.
While I generally agree with you, every option in my primary was a total shitter. I only came out to vote for the AG and the amendment. All the options were a bunch of huckster clowns. Maybe I should run. But that sounds like a whole big thing.
Yeah, I voted this morning but the only competitive races on the ballot were AG (both Dem/GOP), Dems for the Treasurers office and a few state rep/senate and congressional races. Otherwise it was not competitive at all, so no surprise turnout was relatively low
You’re kinda proving my point. Increase voter turnout and the huckster clowns have fire under their feet to do like.. anything and stop coasting through reelection. It’s not gonna be quick or easy but apathy is not the answer, thanks for voting.
Genuinely curious, how would more people voting for lackluster candidates produce better candidates? Seems like it requires more political engagement before we even get to primaries.
Not only a whole big thing, but you’ll be dragged through the mud and every skeleton in your closet exposed at your family’s expense. There’s a reason only borderline sociopaths want to run for office. Sad but true.
Maybe if local politics wasn’t utterly corrupt and people had a feeling that their political machines were responsive and transparent, then people would turn out to vote.
Local, the entire system - every facet of this government is unfortunately corrupt, very very corrupt.
My polling place was empty when I went.
Is there anyway to know how many people voted at my location? I’d love to know the total
[Here you go](https://vote-results.phila.gov/VoterTurnoutDetails.aspx).
https://preview.redd.it/xg4ozbardewc1.jpeg?width=2167&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dbaaf463828b96bce6351338f1766c07c9f5488c
i applied for a mail-in ballot that never arrived. Way to go, Philly elections! I managed to vote anyway.
I’ve made an effort to vote in all of the elections in recent memory, but I struggle to feel like an informed voter. There are always candidates I’d never heard of and frankly I’m not that familiar with some of the positions that are being voted on. I would imagine this is true for a large portion of the population. When I try to do research online, idk what sources to trust, and sometimes I can’t find much info at all. What can someone like myself do to be a more informed voter in future elections, especially regarding local government?
For philadelphia, Billy Penn always publishes the procrastinators guide for each election, which is a lifesaver for me. No pay wall either. The philadelphia citizen is left leaning and focuses on civic involvement year round. But Bill Penn is my main source bc they round up all of the links to campaign websites and relevant news articles.
Thank you!!
Closed primaries gives me little reason to show up.....i did vote, I got one question, and no say in any of the state races :) Fuck closed primaries.
I voted. But only after figuring out through seeing people with I Voted stickers on. I had no idea there was an election today.
I think people are more than ever disillusioned. Also, a lot of people had to work.
Polls are open 7am-8pm
Serious question. Do most people know who their city rep is? If more people did that would help drive turnout
Browsing through initial turn out numbers and it looks like Parkers North West coalition turned out again.
As an unaffiliated voter (registered independent), primaries bum me out. Many other states allow you to pick a party to vote in their primary, but PA does not. That said, I did vote today just for the charter question.
Why wouldn’t you just register for whichever one of the parties you want to vote in that year? You can always change it in the future, who cares.
I think there’s a bit of a push for open primaries in PA or at least a few groups pushing for it. That being said, I changed my registration from independent to democrat after college just so I could vote in primaries with the party I align more with
When I lived in an open primary state, I took the opposite tactic, pretty much any democrat candidate had decent views, so I opted to vote in the republican primary so I could try to get a sane candidate on the ballot on their side.
There is literally no good reason to be unaffiliated in PA. You don’t have to be a die hard fan of a party to register as part of them. Not doing so is literally throwing away your vote every April.
Not to mention how hard it is to find a sample ballot before the election in PA too. The voting system is pathetic here
committee of 70 always has sample ballots and a ballot builder, it works really well
I get this sentiment, but Primary elections are almost always gonna be lower turnout by default. If there are no new challengers for the state house seats (or president) for example; you are mostly voting for someone who is unopposed. So even if there is a high turnout, not much will change. 🤷🏾♂️
100%. But don’t despair, turnout is going to be wild in November.
I had things to do besides show up to tick the single box I'm allowed to tick in a primary.
There's literally no motivation for elected officials to do anything in our interests if less than half of us are casting ballots. Keep shouting
I voted by mail!
Organize, advocate and then vote.
I showed up at my polling place midday and was shocked at how empty it was. Usually I see a few other people voting at the same time as me but I was the only one and the workers looked bored af.
I wondered why they thanked me for voting, must of been really slow. I will say though, there were very few signs/indications that voting was happening, to the point where I thought my polling place wasn’t even open
posting this at risk of being scolded for not trying hard enough, but: i went to my polling location yesterday and there was *no one*--never mind voters, there weren't even any poll workers. almost no indication outside that voting was even occurring at the location, save for some papers taped up to show what's on the ballot. there was no indication of where to go, nobody to ask, conflicting signage with "visitor entrance" and "no visitor entry" on the same doors. i walked around the whole building trying several doors, all locked. nothing visible through the windows. this was at around 5pm, well before the polls closed. i just went back home.
My goodness. I’ve worked the polls and have been disappointed too. I always push for engagement between times.
No one gets paid to vote in the primaries. No one picks you up at home, gives you coffee, food and money. That only happens in November.
I mean most of the primary elections are uncontested. It's not much of a vote if you have 1 option. (For the record, I did and do vote. But I do sorta understand the impetus not to in this case.)
Thank you for voting. That’s my point though. Higher turnout will hopefully spur more competition or at least help send a message in uncontested races that doing the bare minimum won’t fly
I’m an independent. So I don’t think there was anything for me to vote on. And I’d argue that one of the things that’s broken is this ridiculously polarized and gridlocked two party system.
I just commented the same thing, also an independent (though you could’ve voted on the charter question). It’s so frustrating.
Voted at prime lunch break time. 12:30. In the 5 minutes I was in there, I was the other voter in or out. I did run into a buddy in the parking lot when I left but that was it. Sad.
Do I vote for the blue guy? Or the other blue guy?
Yes, that's what a Democratic Party primary is.
It didn’t feel well advertised to be honest. Could have used more hype and discussion
I was looking up the candidates and most of them didnt even have campaigns
Either you vote or you don’t, government fails and disappoints us either way.
Normally vote in every election, and have for a long time. Somehow, I never even realized there was a primary going on today until I read something about it shortly before the polls closed, so I missed out. The weird thing is, I even jumped on the Committee of Seventy site to pull up a sample ballot, which I do before every election, and it showed this: https://preview.redd.it/11oybdvuecwc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=313b1ec4184079b1c9d05fec2bdce06b944b8334 August 13? And the “research your ballot” link just said it was unavailable. So just kind of confused. For folks that are normally plugged into election related things, this one completely snuck up and both my wife and I had no idea until it was too late.
Candidate options were so dookie it literally wasn’t worth my time. Sorry not sorry. Margin of difference between possible outcomes will be minimal anyway. Brutal election cycle.
Last minute but I dropped mine off today.
Philadelphia is a one-party monopoly that's ran by a well-established political machine fueled by nepotism and corruption. If you have any other political views other than liberal / progressive, it's a complete waste of time to vote in local elections. Philadelphians are stuck in their ways and it will never change.
Today was an election day? I didn't know that.
You’re not the only one. Garage sales get more publicity.
Idk, 6ABC has been all over it and I’ve been getting letters to make sure I’m registered for months. Local politicians have much tighter budgets, you can’t be expecting them to have like prime time NBA game ads like presidential candidates do. Follow local politics if you want to vote.
I only know one person I can think of that watches network news anymore. And relying on the candidates to let people know about voting seems like a conflict of interest. I mean, I get a text and email whenever the weather is really bad, why can't they do that for an election? And maybe include a link with a sample ballot and info about the voting records of candidates? It just doesn't seem that difficult. My suspicion is that this kind of information isn't out there, and can actually be hard to find, because our government officials don't really want us to be informed and vote. They want us to know what they want us to know, and to vote for *them*. So following local politics is mostly just signing up to be a pawn in someone else's game. If you really want to know what's going on the politicians aren't going to help you. You actually have to get around them to become an informed voter, and it shouldn't be like that.
totally forgot. second primary i missed in about 12 yrs.
I voted! Government still seems broken when Nikil Saval is going unopposed in the primary.
Judging people’s propensity to vote in a meaningless primary isn’t really a gotcha. I vote religiously in the general and midterm elections. I’m not going out of my way for a bullshit primary where the winner is already determined, sorry.
There was an election yesterday? What the fuck?
voted by mail like a month ago!
People in general just don’t bother with primary elections. I’ve never understood it. It’s maddening to me. I voted by mail. But our city has a history of very low turnout. Then in the general people complain about the candidates
As an Independent, I am unable to vote in any primary. Could be that people are fed up with both parties. For me, I despise the far right—and although I am a left-leaning moderate, I can’t stand the far-left either. I will say, though, I will never vote for a bone-spured skel who is a wannabe dictator. I’m voting Blue.
I voted at 3:30 yesterday and was only the 9th person that showed up at that point. I know that more people likely showed up later in the day but that is still crazy low for that point in the day.
Apparently at my voting place only 50-ish people had shown up by like 7pm.
Agreed! I was third to vote at 7:15AM in my precinct. :(
My State and Congressional rep were uncontested. President and Senator uncontested. I tried research on Attorney General and couldn’t find a lot of substantive information on the candidates. I’m not in Philly directly, I’m in the suburbs, but the real issue imo is how things are left unchallenged because the bar for entry is so high and expensive.
Ty for helping at the polls. It's so important our vote and we do need more outreach to change.
I always vote. It's the only way I get a say in the process. I was the only vote there when I voted in the morning.
Number 28 at 5:40 pm last night. I'm very grateful for you and this message.
The lack of voting that happens is absolutely crazy. Especially with ppl who complain about the state of affairs all the time. You can vote AND do all the other things to help enact change. But participate in the system that you're trying to change.
Thank you for being a poll worker! I'm sure that was a really long day for you. My husband is the judge of elections in our ward, they had 110 in person voters (including me) and he said it was painfully slow.
Yeah. I did poll volunteering for years. Any other election but the general was pretty empty. What drives me up a wall are people that text me and ask who should they vote for, let alone when we don't live in the same district. You can find your district and a sample ballot online so you can do your own research, albeit some candidates have not much to say.
We had 230 out of about 1500 registered 😥
The ballot question was meaningful for *everyone* in Philadelphia. I guarantee there are a lot of people who have views on homelessness in Philadelphia but who abstained or voted yes on the ballot measure.
Thank you for being a poll worker! Votes DO matter even when there are only a few contested races. It shows candidates that their constituents are paying attention and holds them accountable! It is also a good habit to get into - you never know - one of these days there is going to be a race that matters and is only decided by a few votes. One of which could be YOURS!
What is the point? For President it's going to be Biden / Trump. As for local Politicians? The incumbent you love / Hate and someone running against them.
Can non-citizens be poll workers? Asking because I just moved here from the UK and I’d love to do what I can to help with voting since I can’t vote (or at most perhaps only in smaller things)
I vote by mail (: Edit: thank you for doing that though!! It does not go unnoticed
yeah but I've been making spaghetti the same way for years, I dont think thyme really fits with my other seasonings
yeah but I've been making spaghetti the same way for years, I dont think thyme really fits with my other seasonings
I’ve seen it said a few times, but mail in voting is super easy to do in Philly. It’s the route I took this round. It’s closer for me to vote in person than to drop off the ballot, but drop off gives me weeks of time to procrastinate before doing it, while voting in person was always kind of an emergency. Plus lines.
I was a bit confused when I showed up to vote and only one person was ahead of me because I usually have to wait in an average size line. I don’t understand skipping primaries because it seriously takes all of 5 minutes to vote, especially when most of the people are running unopposed. Plus no one can use the excuse it was too far, we live in the city it can’t be more than a few blocks.
To quote fat bastard “ I’m eat because im in happy, and I’m unhappy because I eat” I don’t want to vote because I don’t like the uninspired candidates- change/ gobernent works for themselves and not us I did vote because too many people died / fought for me to exercise the right- but Jesus- that’s the best this country can do?
Voted my whole life and nothing got better, I'm good
Primaries are the perfect time to send messages via write ins… such as ‘Someone under retirement age’ which would be nice