City Commissioners working hard to make voting easy in Philly

Last week, an unusually high number of voters were turned away from polling places in New York City.  To avoid that situation, Philadelphia’s City Commissioners are working to make sure anyone who is qualified to vote Tuesday can do so.   

City Commissioner Al Schmidt said the voting machines are in place, and poll workers are ready for what is one of their biggest elections when it comes down to turnout.

“Presidential elections in a major American city, no matter where you are, are like a hurricane headed your way,” he said. “The pressure is intense, the attention of the political universe is focused on you.”

More people than usual switched parties or enrolled in a party for the first time ahead of this primary.  So Schmidt said they have done some pre-emptive work to make things run smoothly.

“We’ve mailed out a notice to every single registered voter in Philadelphia, that’s more than a million registered voters, to let them know about their registration status and the location of their specific polling place,” he said.

The commissioners have also gotten the city’s water department and gas works to send out voting information notices in bills.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has a site where you can check your registration status. There is also a polling place lookup form here. Philadelphia voters can find lots of resources at the Committee of Seventy‘s page.