Philadelphia City Commissioner Lisa Deeley was a featured guest recently on 6ABC to share critical election information. For those of you who may not have seen that interview, in today’s Civics 101 column, I’m sharing some of the things that Commissioner Deeley said. It’s all about trying to help make sure voters in Pennsylvania are ready and prepared to do their civic duty on General Election Day, November 8th.
Deeley stated, “We want to make sure that if you’re 18 or over, you want to be registered to vote. If you are going to be 18 on or before November 8th, you want to get registered to vote. The last day to register to vote in Pennsylvania in the upcoming General Election is October 24th at midnight. If you need to register to vote because you changed your name, or you moved, or just because you just turned 18, you want to make sure you do that before midnight on October 24th.”
Other advice that Commissioner Deeley shared included making a plan to vote. She stated, “Visit our website at vote.phila.gov. Check your voter registration. Check and see where your polling place is. Sometimes at the last minute (due to an emergency) a polling place location can change. Know where you are going to vote and know how you’re voting, whether it’s by mail or in person. We want to make sure that voters have all the information that they need. We have a newly designed website, www.vote.phila.gov–and it is a one-stop shop for all the information you’ll need.
“Because we do not have a legislature that will allow us to pre-canvas early, we are not able to start the mail-in voting until election day, Deeley added. Obviously, that’s going to make it where it will take us a little longer to count. Philadelphians are used to the polls closing at 8 pm and usually in most races by 11 pm–if you watch the news or listen to the radio, you’ll know who the winners or the losers are. This year, based on the sheer number of mail-in ballots that we anticipate and the fact that we can’t start until election day, with the count, citizens probably won’t know on election day who all the winners are. We will do our best to get the job done. We have a great staff–and we will get the count done as soon as possible, after election day.”
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