At about 10 a.m. on Election Day, poll worker Crystal Bly had seen only three voters at her table at the Harrowgate Police Athletic League (PAL) Center. She’d been working the polls since 7 a.m.
“I don’t know why nobody’s coming out to vote,” Bly said. “It’s still morning, but it’s normally packed. They probably just don’t feel it this election.”
During Tuesday’s primary, the 7th and 33rd Wards, which include Fairhill, Harrowgate, and Kensington, remained the two wards with the lowest voter turnout in Philadelphia. In the 7th Ward, fewer than 6% of registered voters voted, and in the 33rd Ward, fewer than 7%, compared to the citywide turnout of 19%.
Neighborhood poll workers and voters attributed the longstanding low voter turnout to various factors, including fear and lack of knowledge.
Annette Mears, who has lived in Kensington for 61 years, is the judge of elections in the 33rd Ward’s 19th precinct. In July, she’ll celebrate 21 years of recovery from addiction – a milestone for which she thanks one of her former ward leaders.
“If it wasn’t for my ward leader at the time, I wouldn’t be where I’m at today,” she said. “Now I’m a productive member of my society, and I’m trying to help other people.”
The neighborhood’s lack of community and civic engagement is a pressing issue for Mears. She wants to see more neighbors, especially parents with young children, get involved in community activities, meetings, and programming. However, she thinks that fear in the neighborhood is keeping people indoors.
“I see it every day where they’re scared to come outside, even on their own streets, because you got the drug dealers around the corner,” she said. “People are scared.”
Even as an involved citizen, she said she keeps her head down in the neighborhood.
“I don’t want to see anything because I’m the one if I see something, I’m gonna say something, but then I’m taking my life in my own hands,” she said. “So I don’t say anything until I can get to somebody I can talk to, even to get it off my chest.”
Jose Gonzalez, whose family encouraged him to go to the polls yesterday, said that local issues were at the top of his mind, including how fear about the open-air drug market impacts everyday life in the neighborhood.
Gonzalez lives about a block away from Kensington and Allegheny avenues, where his mom is a foster parent to multiple children. He said the fear of needles and gun violence keeps his family inside, and they try to park “as close to the house as possible” so they can run the kids inside and avoid what’s outdoors.
During a recent summer, Gonzalez said he was walking around the neighborhood playing Pokémon GO when gun violence erupted in the middle of his game.
“It was kind of crazy,” he said.
Gonzalez, who said he was still making up his mind on the candidates when he walked into the polls on Tuesday, said that other issues on his mind yesterday were military support (he supports the military), abortion access (he supports a woman’s right to choose), and helping the unhoused population, which he’s watched suffer, especially in the winter months.
“Not all of them are bad,” he said. “Some of them just either didn't make the right choices or just fell down the wrong rabbit hole.”
Meanwhile, while some, like Harrowgate resident Eugenio Paredes, who went to the polls with specific issues in mind (neighborhood cleanliness and illegal ATVs), others lack the knowledge needed to motivate them to vote in the first place, according to Thomas Fisher, the committee person for the 33rd Ward’s 22nd precinct.
“People don't understand that these elections are as important, if not more important, than the major ones,” Fisher said. “They treat it like it's a monarchy. Like, once the guy is the president, that's it. They don't understand the part about the Senate and the Congress and how everything has to pass to the president, who just signs off on everything.”
Margarita Santiago, who was working the polls at Scanlon Recreation Center, emphasized how much elections matter. She used the election of Mayor Cherelle Parker, who Santiago says – “has been on top of everything” – as a positive example of the impact that elections can have on the neighborhood.
“[Parker] has been on top of everything,” Santiago said. “Without supporting our people like that, minorities don’t get a lot of things.”
“We’d really appreciate it if everyone would come out and vote because their voices need to be heard,” she added.
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