At 17.6%, total voter turnout not a disaster - sort of

Early on, most politicos were pegging voter turnout in Tuesday's primary at 10 percent to 20 percent - and they were right in the ballpark.

With 96.44 percent of the vote counted, 17.6 percent of total registered voters (Democrats and Republicans) came out to cast ballots in the mayoral election. In the Democratic primary alone, that turnout was 18.3 percent.

Those numbers may be dismal considering that thousands of people failed to vote.

But consider this: In 2003, when John Street was seeking reelection and had no primary opponent, about 13 percent of voters weighed in on the mayoral primary. In 1995, when Ed Rendell was running for a second term, again with no primary opponent, voter turnout was 16.5 percent.

Just food for thought.

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