90% turnout rumor was 100% wrong

Less than 24 hours after President Obama took Pennsylvania, state Republican leaders were suggesting massive vote fraud in Philadelphia.

"I was told that 90 percent of the precincts in Philadelphia . . . turned out over 90 percent of voters," said the state House speaker, Sam Smith. "It's questionable."

At the time, no actual turnout figures were available, but now they are: Of the city's 1,687 voting divisions, only one reported turnout over 90 percent, and election officials said that was a clear mistake.

Two divisions in Southwest Philadelphia's 40th Ward were both assigned to the same polling location, the Paschallville Library on Woodland Avenue. When poll workers were setting up operations for the day, they mistakenly traded the voting machines preprogrammed for each division.

One recorded turnout of 116 percent, with 245 votes from a division with only 211 registered voters, while the other recorded 166 votes among 472 registered voters, or 35 percent.

Combining votes from the two divisions, 411 votes were cast for president among 683 registered voters, a turnout rate of 60 percent - virtually the same as turnout citywide.

Republican City Commissioner Al Schmidt said poll workers at the library realized on Election Day that they had switched machines and notified election officials of the error.

Citywide, only three divisions reported turnouts above 80 percent - one each in West Philadelphia (85.7 percent), Roxborough (80.7 percent), and East Falls (80.4 percent). The Roxborough division was won by Romney.

Final city turnout figures aren't expected until later this month, when election officials complete the citywide vote count, including absentee and provisional ballots. - Bob Warner

The sanguinity of Michael Meehan

One Republican not screaming fraud was Michael Meehan, the city's GOP leader.

Meehan took the news that 59 Philadelphia voting divisions scored zero Romney votes (vs. 19,605 for Obama) in stride.

He has seen it before in a city so heavily Democratic. And it happens elsewhere - 56 divisions shut out John McCain here in 2008, 20 precincts in Chicago and nine in Cleveland went unanimously for Obama this year, and we found several divisions in Wyoming and Louisiana that shut out Obama in favor of Romney on Nov. 6.

While he is concerned about fraud, Meehan said he does not know of a way to cancel someone's machine vote. He frets more about voter impersonation.

"Our street lists are road maps for voter fraud," he said. Those lists include voter names, addresses, and party, and the city's are rife with people either dead or gone. - Miriam Hill