Voters sit out in force, giving reasons aplenty

By Kathy Boccella and David O'Reilly

Inquirer Staff Writers

Pat Hogan didn't plan to vote yesterday, but if he did, he knew just whom he'd vote for.

Ed Rendell.

So the 23-year-old recruiter from Malvern was shocked to find out that the governor wasn't on the ballot.

"I guess I don't know who's running," he said after picking up lunch at a Genuardi's supermarket in Plymouth Meeting.

Hogan had plenty of company yesterday. From 80 to 85 percent of registered voters were expected to skip the off-year contest, in which judges, district attorneys, township supervisors, and school board directors were among the positions up for election.

In a go-go world where people don't have time to make a meal or read a newspaper, voting in nonheadliner elections has gone-gone.

Even here, in the birthplace of American democracy, the number of people who chose not to vote, a privilege for which wars have been fought, is great. The reasons cited yesterday were even greater.

I don't know who's running. It doesn't matter. I'm too busy. I don't know enough about the issues. I didn't see any ads on TV. SEPTA is on strike.

Or in Glenn Barron's case in Philadelphia, prison. "I didn't even know it was Election Day," said Barron, who explained he was not voting because he "just got out of jail."

Valentine Howe, 52, a meat cutter, said the elections "snuck up on me."

"You didn't hear much about it this year," he said. "It's been real low-key. It used to be there were signs and trucks going by with megahorns, but look," he said, gesturing at passing cars. "Nothing."

Delores Wiley, 24, a student, said she hoped to vote "if I get a chance." Wiley said she was in North Philadelphia to apply to a program for first-time home buyers, but the SEPTA strike was "making it hard to get around."

She said she had taken a taxi from her home in South Philadelphia and was not sure she would be back in her voting district before polls closed.

At the Genuardi's in Plymouth Meeting, shoppers hustled to come up with answers for why they weren't voting.

"I'm not really following it too closely, and I feel like if I'm going to vote, I should be educated," said Jennifer Kuhn, 23, of Newtown Square, who works as a cashier at Conicelli Toyota.

With no big-ticket races, only 15 to 20 percent of eligible voters were expected at the polls, said Kevin Arceneaux, a Temple University associate professor of political science who specializes in U.S. voter behavior.

"There's no governor, no senator, no eye-catching race that gets a lot of news coverage as well as a lot of campaign ads," he said of the races in Pennsylvania.

More people are voting in presidential races, with turnout in last year's contest almost as high as in the peak years of the 1960s, he said.

During high-profile campaigns, "people take it as a cue: This is important, we should be paying attention to this. Once they pay attention and care about the outcome, they go out and vote."

More people stopped by a small tent where Phillies merchandise was being sold at Ridge and Butler Pikes than showed up down the street at St. Matthew's Catholic Church in Conshohocken to vote.

"A lot of people feel it's not worth it in an off-year election," said James Ike Griffin, running for reelection for councilman in the borough's Second Ward, where 46 votes had been cast by 1 p.m.

He had plenty of time to kibitz with his GOP challenger, John Mscisz. He said many people come out only for big-issue elections, but local races "are going to affect their lives directly for the next four years."

In Philadelphia, getting a new district attorney for the first time in 19 years wasn't enough to grab voters' attention. By midafternoon, polling places felt lonely, such as the one at the Alden Park Manor apartment complex on West School House Lane.

"We're seeing about three every half-hour," said Sue Sauerman, an observer who was doing needlepoint while she waited.

"And that's with an inflation index," joked Democratic committeeman Hugh Donahue. The East Falls district, whose 1,721 registered voters include hundreds of students at Philadelphia University registered last year by the Obama campaign, had recorded only 37 voters - most of them middle-aged and older - by 10:30 a.m.

Iris Williams, judge of elections at the polling place at the Phillipian Gardens apartments in the 5100 block of North Sixth Street, said 47 of the district's 1,307 registered voters had voted as of 11:30 a.m.

"I think a lot of people woke up this morning to learn about the SEPTA strike, and they're mostly thinking about how to get to work," she said.

At Guild House West, a seniors apartment in the 1200 block of Fairmount Avenue, election judge Lugina Robinson said she expected most voters to turn up after work, "but the SEPTA strike might hurt some of that." As of 12:20 p.m., 54 of the district's 1,262 voters had cast votes.

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe," joked 63-year-old Willie Brown, a retired shipyard worker, as he studied the three vacant voting booths.

"Pick any one you want, Mr. Willie," called out one of the poll workers.

Brown, a former Democratic polling observer, entered one and emerged quickly. "It's very important to vote for the judges," Brown said. "But I vote in every election."

Contact staff writer Kathy Boccella 610-313-8123 or kboccella@phillynews.com.

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