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Election Day in North Philadelphia |
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By Lucas K. Murray Lines were long and the wait tedious as hundreds of North Philadelphians turned out for Election Day Some people brought magazines. Others brought homework. One man voting at Elverson Middle School brought his dog. The polls opened at 7 a.m. with a line of voters waiting to get in. At the polling place at 10th and Oxford streets, the early line was long. "There were quite a few people waiting to get in - about 25 to 30," poll observer Darrell King said. "That's not normal [for an election]." What also wasn't normal was the high turnout of Temple students mixed in with community residents. "It's been half and half between community and Temple students," King said. "It's been a mixture." Most of the student mix consisted of underclassmen who reside in Temple-sponsored housing. The university ran an hourly shuttle to selected polling places within the ward. For some students, getting to polling locations was the easy part. A number of students were turned back from the 10th and Oxford location for lack of proper identification. Students who used their school-issued identification cards were initially turned away, said Kim Teplitzky, undergraduate coordinator of the student activism group Temple Votes! One polling official said otherwise. "Nobody was turned down," Polling Judge Ida Haley said. "If they weren't on the roll, they were given a provisional (ballot)." A section in Pennsylvania state law explicitly states school-identifcation cards are an acceptable means of identification at the polls. Not accepting the cards is against the law. Upon reports of the rejection, lawyers from the voting watchdog group Committee of Seventy arrived on the scene to clear up the situation. It is not known how many students were rejected. Any identification with a picture, including a student card, is acceptable, a Committee of Seventy representative said. Elsewhere around Temple, the only snag on election day other were the long lines. Voters were subject to waits ranging anywhere from two minutes to two hours at Elverson Middle School . "It's going so smooth," Norris Homes Polling Judge Ivette Pagan said. "We're just shocked. We're expecting at least 500 or more voters to come out before 8 p.m." Voters definitely came out late as students with evening classes and neighborhood residents who worked during the day made their way to the polls. The last few voters in line at 10th and Oxford finally cast their ballots some time around 10 p.m. |
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