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Deputy city commissioner Fred Voight (at right) reports some instances of machines breakdowns, some confusion over change polling locations, and an election court judge was quickly asked to handle a dispute over a sample ballot. But Voight says these are typical problems and "most everything is fine."
The headquarters of the political watchdog group Committee of 70 was staffed with volunteers fielding phone calls from voters and from some 800 other volunteers who were dispatched throughout the city.
Committee CEO Zack Stalberg said the type and number of problems so far is not out of the ordinary:
"So far there are the normal kinds of complaints. Some confusion about where the real polling place is. But nothing that I would say is wildly unusual."
Stalberg's advise to voters: avoid waiting until after work to vote, because then will likely be quite long. If you are not on the voter rolls, call a Committee of 70 volunteer, either at the polling place or at their hotline, 1-866-OUR-VOTE. You can ask for a provisional ballot.
One polling place in South Philadelphia saw both machines malfunction. That location is in the heart of the 1st State Senatorial District, where 3 candidates are vying to succeed outgoing Sen. Vince Fumo. Surrogates for candidate John Dougherty accused the campaign of rival Larry Farnese of causing the problem.
The Farnese campaign accuses Dougherty's camp of distributing misleading sample ballots.
KYW's John Ostapkovich reports Philadelphia district attorney Lynne Abraham (in photo below) says her office is prepared to deal with the challenges of Tuesday's primary election, and hopes voters are, too.
Abraham says there's a risk for the notable excitement of this election cycle to cross the line:
"When a lot of people are out there for a side, there's always a potential for a lot of pushing and shoving and jawboning. If everybody would just be nice, be quiet, let people vote. They've already made up their mind! You're not going the change anybody's mind."
Abraham was speaking about the First Senatorial District, where there's a three-way race to replace the retiring Vincent Fumo.
But as a caution it might apply anywhere. She says her office is ready to deal with trouble:
"We will have every one of our available detectives out tomorrow. All of our assistant district attorneys who are not otherwise in court are going to be on this election, because this is going to be the potential for issues and problems that will keep us busy all day."
Another tip from Abraham: don't just vote for Clinton or Obama, but for their delegates too:
"I'm concerned that people will say, 'Well, I'm voting for Obama' or 'I'm voting for Clinton,' click-click and then they're out of the polling place. They don't care about any of these other offices or any of these other questions, and no delegates. In the nitty-gritty of the thing, of the convention, you have to vote for delegates."
...who are listed separately toward the bottom of the ballot. Don't take too much time, though -- there's a three-minute limit in the voting booth. Abraham advises voters to be familiar with the ballot before heading to the poll.
The DA said voter complaints can be called in to her office at 215-686-9641.
