These Philadelphians say too much is happening to take an election ‘off’

A year after a historic presidential election, it was widely expected that turnout would be down this year. But the voters who showed up on a gorgeous fall afternoon in North Philadelphia’s Olde Kensington neighborhood said it’s always important to know the candidates and the issues, and to be heard.

Chakeena Gibbons, 46, said she came to the polling station at the corner of Cadwallader and West Oxford streets Tuesday as part of her effort to participate in more than just the presidential elections in recent years.

“I’ve been really trying to be into community affairs and at the City Council levels and things like that. So when the time comes, I could actually have some general idea who I’m going to vote for,” she said. “Before, I used to just go one way. But now you do want to have a general idea of what each candidate stands for, so that you could ultimately be a help and not detrimental.”

Many of the voters were focused on the nonpartisan retention votes for three judges on the state Supreme Court — Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht. The state’s Republican Party had taken an unusual step of campaigning to vote out the trio, all Democrats.

Of the people questioned who revealed how they voted, all favored keeping the three judges. 

“I really just came out because I’m poor and I would like to afford things, and I guess the only way we can really do that right now is through the judicial system,” said Andrew Robertson, 40. “So this is probably like the most important election for the next two years. If we can do anything, this is all we can do.”

Nicole Moy, a Democratic committeeperson for the ward, had been at the station since shortly after it opened. She said the morning’s turnout was pretty similar to past off-year elections she had worked.

Moy said she expected that the next large wave people would come in after traditional day  shifts ended. She said the message of this year’s election for her party was “try to vote from the bottom up.”

“This is one of the most important elections from my experience, honestly, because of everything that’s going on — the climate, the environment,” she said. “Usually, people skip on elections like this, but they don’t know or understand how important it is to make sure that you are voting in your judges, and everyone that impacts you on the local level.”

Elliot Lopez, 34, agreed with Moy, saying that much of the “turbulence and craziness” in today’s politics was compounded by people not paying attention to their leaders on the local stage.

“A lot of people think about the grander stage of the presidential election and so forth,” he said. “But a lot of these political leaders in our own local spaces are very important and a lot of people don’t know who they are, or who they’re voting for.” 

Keely Dennis, 28, worked voting around an afternoon run. She said voting wasn’t optional for her.

“It feels like I don’t really have a choice. It feels like it’s important for us to vote every single time,” she said. “It’s my civic duty. Yeah, don’t even think about it much. Just come out and vote each time.”

“I believe that voting still works and I believe it’s one of our most powerful tools to make an impact on how our government functions and how our society functions,” said Josh Willis, 43. “I think it’s important to the democratic process and we need to do it.”

“The kind of crisis that this country’s facing right now, every vote kind of matters. So I’m coming out now,” said Nicholas Romitelli, 30, who added that he regularly votes and encouraged those who tend to sit out off-years to vote too.

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