Don’t just focus on the top of the ticket and skip the races at the bottom of the ballot. These are important.

On November 1, 2024By Karl

On November 5, hundreds of thousands of Philadelphians will vote in the presidential election.

Presidential elections are the elections with the highest participation and the most excitement among all election contests. Rightfully so, because the outcome of this race could change the whole world. Since 2016, when I first stepped into office as Philadelphia City Commissioner, the presidency has always been important to us. Super BowlBut this year I want to ask more from our voters.

Historically, tens of thousands of voters will focus solely on the top of the ticket, and many will skip one or more key races on the ballot. This is called undervoting, and it weakens Philadelphia’s influence in state elections and the influence of our voters. Undervoting is when a contest is omitted from voting or when fewer options are selected than the maximum number of options allowed in multi-candidate contests. The sad irony is that the positions that are regularly skipped are often the positions most relevant to your daily life and should be treated as such at the ballot box.

Approximately 37,867 Philadelphians skipped voting for the Attorney General race in 2020; 45,213 people skipped the Auditor General race and 41,598 skipped the race for Pennsylvania Treasurer — a statewide contest where the margin of victory was just 52,546.

Races like Attorney General, Auditor General and Treasurer are sometimes skipped because voters don’t understand the important roles these positions play in the state and in terms of tax revenue.

City Commissioners are often asked questions about attendance and are judged fairly or unfairly. In other words, how many people physically voted. To that end, I have spent hundreds of hours on various methods of reaching voters, and I am proud to say that voting in Philadelphia is more accessible than ever.

But instead of focusing on how many people showed up to vote, we should focus on how many people turned out; not just by voting, but by voting in every race. Some will come and vote blankly. They came, but they didn’t make any choices, didn’t express their opinions, didn’t participate in the election.

The least expected fruit of increasing turnout is educating already present voters to complete their ballots and vote in every contest. For example, we were all horrified. discharge This April’s primary election had just 19.4%. However, turnout in the Attorney General race was even more depressing at 17.3%, thanks to 21,469 absentee votes; Despite this, this race was the most closely contested race in the primary voting.

The full Pennsylvania State House will be up for a vote this year, and as the most local form of representation, it is one of the most important.

State representatives have the smallest districts of all elected positions in Philadelphia and are therefore the most responsive. You can probably walk to your state representative’s district office. Your state representative knows your neighborhood, knows your street, and knows the aspects of your community that you value most. The President of the United States is concerned about the hurricane and what is happening in the Middle East; Not from the abandoned car. blueberry Path. But in 2020, 101,556 Philadelphians did not vote for their state representatives.

I encourage all readers to educate themselves about the candidates and offices up for election this year. To help, I posted a series of civics education videos on my account. social media pages together PHLgovTV (formerly Channel 64) in every office on the ballot.

Everyone deserves to have their views fully reflected in their votes, and everyone deserves to understand how the government they pay for works. When it comes time to vote, please take the time to do your research so you are prepared to vote up and down the ballot.

Whether you vote or not, you will be stuck with the bill; so it’s best to show up and express your opinion in every contest on your ballot.

Lisa Deeley He is the vice chairman of the Philadelphia City Commissioners.