Tuesday’s election had expected electoral mishaps

The election watchdog group, The Committee of 70, says there were the expected electoral mishaps in Tuesday’s low-turnout election.

Philadelphia voters behaved, for the most part. The election watchdog group, The Committee of 70, says there were relatively few electoral mishaps or polling place battles in Tuesday’s primary.

In perhaps the most contentious instance, the city’s election court issued a preliminary injunction against the campaign of Democratic state Representative Angel Cruz. The court was responding to claims from Cruz’s rival for the North Philadelphia district, former police officer Jonathan Ramos. The court put the Cruz campaign on notice not to block poll entrances, improperly assist voters, or intimidate voters.

Ellen Kaplan is the vice president and policy director of the Committee of 70. Kaplan says this primary day was no worse than elections past, but also no better.

“I haven’t seen that there were instances of actual fraud, and certainly no widespread fraud,” says Kaplan, “but the usual variety of complaints that you would have in a low turnout election.”

Those complaints included a lack of access for disabled voters, active campaigning inside polling places, and some improper handling of write-ins.