Philadelphia City Commissioner Omar Sabir said, “Democracy is at stake, and as we look at our country and how polarized is now, we understand that everything is at stake. It’s about Democracy and Freedom. That’s the cornerstone of our country. It’s a shame that elections have been under attack in recent years. However, American ingenuity works, and we’re calling on everyone to exercise their right on Tuesday, November 7. Every six months there’s an election, and you should not take off on any election days. Always go to the polls and vote.”
None of the three sitting City Commissioners have opponents running against them, so it’s safe to say they will all return to office come January 2024. There are still races to watch. As Commissioner on your voter registration form, if you hope to vote on November 7, we’ll collect all voter ballots on the various races that are up for grabs. He urged voters not to lay back in the cut just because they may think one of the candidates that they like is a shoo-in to win.
Commissioner Sabir further commented, “We have Supreme Court Judges, Commonwealth Court Judges, and Superior Court Judges all running this year. Those are at the statewide level. We also have people running to be Judges in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and for Municipal Court. The people running for Judge at the state level make key decisions for our Commonwealth, and Philadelphians and people around the state must come out and vote. You can log on at Philadelphiavote.com and find all the information you need to be ready to vote on election day. I also recommend you check out the Committee of Seventy’s website,
www.commiteeofseventy.org; on that website, they tell readers more extensive information about each candidate running for office.
The system for voting in Philadelphia is all computerized now. You can change the language if that’s the issue. When I first took office, it was my mission to make the City Commissioners Office more accessible, more transparent, and more modernized. Our website is better than it ever was before, and right now, we’re looking at a mobile app for cell phones where people can download the app on their phones. Stay tuned for that.
The County Board of Elections will be open until 11:59 p.m. on October 23–the deadline date to turn in your voter registration applications. The intelligent thing is to handle your voter registration right now. Don’t wait until the deadline date.
If you are one of those organizations out trying to get people registered to vote and collect voter registration forms, please bring them in as soon as possible. Typically, we see people who want to come down on election day and say here I am; I have a thousand voter registration forms to turn in.” We need you to turn in the voter registration forms sooner rather than later so that way if people make mistakes on the voter registration form, we can contact them and get their mistakes corrected so that they can be eligible to vote in the upcoming election.
Commissioner Sabir also reminded people who are voting by mail to be sure to sign the blue secrecy envelope, seal it, and put it inside the larger envelope as you prepare to mail it back to the Commissioner’s Office. If you don’t follow the instructions for the vote-by-mail process step-by-step, you could put yourself in a position where your vote is not counted. The postage is free for voting by mail.
Get ready. Get set. Let’s vote for Philadelphia. For more information about the voting process, call the Philadelphia City Commissioners office at 215-6863462.
If you are voting in New Jersey and have questions before election day, call 1-877-NJ-VOTER, that’s 1-877658-6837.
If you live in Delaware and you want more information about voting in Delaware, call 1-302-739-4277.
Next week, we’ll take a look at the responsibilities of city council people as we move quickly toward the Tuesday, November 7 General Election. We have seventeen council seats up for grabs.
