Parsing the polls

Poll workers let it be known when they were manning the voting booths last Tuesday: Citizens were out in full force.

The statement was repeated so often that it seemed to prove the trend, even before the official numbers were in.

Now that ballots have been counted and the commander-in-chief decided (this time, in a timelier fashion), political pundits are heartened by the voter interest that spurred the high turnout.

"I haven’t seen an election like this since 1983, when Frank Rizzo ran against Wilson Goode," said Fred Voigt, executive director for the political watchdog organization Committee of Seventy. In that Democratic primary, Goode defeated Rizzo and went on to become the city’s first black mayor.

Citywide turnout for this election soared to 63 percent, or approximately 654,000 people, Voigt said. That’s an increase of about 10 percent over Election Day 2000.

Furthermore, turnout for the previous six presidential elections hovered within the 54-58-percent range.

"There was a lot of passion for this election," noted Voigt. "It was important … for a lot of people."

The city’s young voters apparently were among the people who felt strongly this presidential year. According to the City Commissioners’ Office, voter registration swelled 10 to 25 percent in the Second and 30th wards. These areas of South Philly are closest to the city’s main universities.

"I would certainly think that since students are at military age, they’re going to be interested in politics," said Jon Herrmann, executive director of Campus Philly, a nonprofit coalition linking college students across the Greater Philadelphia region.

Herrmann added that he equates the voter registration increases and the possible boost in turnout among young people with consistently high numbers across the board.

At the local level, South Philly’s wards predictably favored Sen. John Kerry and the Democratic ticket. Yet at least one division wanted four more years of President Bush.

"Kerry won every single division in my ward, other than the 14th," said ward leader Matthew Myers, who covers the First to 24th divisions in the 39th Ward.

In the ward’s 14th division, Bush garnered 185 votes to Kerry’s 116, said committeewoman Judy Cerrone. This number, she added, does not include absentee or provisional ballots.

Cerrone said these results should showcase the fact that the entire city does not cast votes along party lines.

"The people here are intelligent voters," she said. "They’re not just party people."

Also in the division, state Sen. Vincent Fumo beat out his Republican opponent, John Morley Jr., but with a margin of only 28 votes, added Cerrone. Citywide, Fumo drew 79 percent of the vote.

Kerry obtained 65 percent of the vote in the 39th Ward (covering blocks east of Broad Street and south of Mifflin), as compared to 79 percent of ballots citywide.

The 26th Ward (west of Broad, south of Passyunk Avenue) had a turnout rate of 67 percent, the highest of all the South Philly wards. On par with the citywide trend, turnout in the ward grew 11 percent over the last presidential election.

While Kerry claimed the ward, it was by a mere 441 votes.

The Democrat did obtain an impressive 90 percent of the vote in the 30th Ward (Lombard Street to Washington Avenue, west of Broad) and the 36th Ward (most of the blocks between Washington Avenue and Moore Street, west of Broad).

The two wards most representative of the citywide results were the Second (east of Broad Street, between South Street and Washington Avenue) and the 48th (most blocks between Passyunk Avenue and Moore Street).

Kerry claimed the First Ward (east of Broad between Wharton and Mifflin streets), 5,136 to 1,903 votes.

How they turned out

Kerry Bush

Source: The Committee of Seventy