On Tuesday, May 16th 2023, Philadelphia held a historical primary election. The focus of this election landed mostly on the highly publicized mayoral race that would determine the 100th mayor of Philadelphia. Primary elections often result in lower voter turnout in comparison to general elections- with the citywide average turnout for this election being 27.48%. Certain races for city council were decided by just a few hundred votes.
In the 40th ward- which covers most of Southwest Philadelphia- turnout was only 22.63% of registered voters. This is less than half than the turnout in the ward with the highest turnout- which was 50.96% in Ward 9. While registered voters in Ward 40 account for almost 2.8% of voters in the city, they represented only 2.3% of ballots cast in this election. While a half a percentage might not seem like much, that half percentage counts for over 1,320 people in Ward 40.
Cherelle Parker won the democratic primary both citywide and in ward 40, but the differences in percentage of votes for the other candidates between Ward 40 and citywide were stark:
The mayoral race was not the only that had notably different results in Ward 40 in comparison to the city. For the democratic nominee for Register of Wills, incumbent Tracey Gordon received 40% of the vote in Ward 40 but only 30% citywide. For the race for democratic nominee for Sheriff, Rochelle Bilal beat Michael Untermeyer by only 5,475 votes citywide, but in Ward 40 received over double the votes Untermeyer received.
The people we elect make decisions that affect everything in our lives- our incomes, families, health, safety, education, and more. Increasing the amount of people both citywide and in Ward 40 who vote would lead to increased representation in City government.
On Tuesday, May 16th 2023, Philadelphia held a historical primary election. The focus of this election landed mostly on the highly publicized mayoral race that would determine the 100th mayor of Philadelphia. Primary elections often result in lower voter turnout in comparison to general elections- with the citywide average turnout for this election being 27.48%. Certain races for city council were decided by just a few hundred votes.
In the 40th ward- which covers most of Southwest Philadelphia- turnout was only 22.63% of registered voters. This is less than half than the turnout in the ward with the highest turnout- which was 50.96% in Ward 9. While registered voters in Ward 40 account for almost 2.8% of voters in the city, they represented only 2.3% of ballots cast in this election. While a half a percentage might not seem like much, that half percentage counts for over 1,320 people in Ward 40.
Cherelle Parker won the democratic primary both citywide and in ward 40, but the differences in percentage of votes for the other candidates between Ward 40 and citywide were stark:
The mayoral race was not the only that had notably different results in Ward 40 in comparison to the city. For the democratic nominee for Register of Wills, incumbent Tracey Gordon received 40% of the vote in Ward 40 but only 30% citywide. For the race for democratic nominee for Sheriff, Rochelle Bilal beat Michael Untermeyer by only 5,475 votes citywide, but in Ward 40 received over double the votes Untermeyer received.
The people we elect make decisions that affect everything in our lives- our incomes, families, health, safety, education, and more. Increasing the amount of people both citywide and in Ward 40 who vote would lead to increased representation in City government.
https://vote.phila.gov/results/
https://vote.phila.gov/resources-data/past-election-results/
