Polling Places

The newly elected commissioners of Philadelphia's election machinery said Wednesday that they would end a practice allowing several hundred election-day workers to collect double pay by filling two different jobs at city polling places. "We will not be double-paying in the next election or any future elections," City Commissioners Chairwoman Stephanie Singer announced at a public meeting. The issue was raised by Joseph DeFelice, a state Republican Party organizer, who obtained payroll data from last November's general election and reported that 420 people appeared to have been paid twice - three of them three times - for work at the polls.

  CONCORD, N.H. - For months Mitt Romney's name has seemed to carry the modifier fragile before the noun front-runner . But for all the hemming and hawing voters expressed as they solidified their choices during the last few days, a close look at results of an exit poll shows a sweeping victory in the New Hampshire Republican primary Tuesday for Romney. There was no gender gap. Romney swept every age category except among voters aged 18 to 29, who went for libertarian Ron Paul.

In January, there will be two new faces among the three city commissioners, who run Philadelphia elections: Stephanie Singer, a mathematician and Center City ward leader who beat longtime incumbent Marge Tartaglione in the Democratic primary; and Al Schmidt, leader of an insurgent faction in the city Republican Party, who beat GOP incumbent Joseph Duda. They talked this week with staff writer Bob Warner about their hopes and plans for the office. Excerpts follow.   Question: What do you agree on most strongly as priorities for change?

VOTERS TODAY will cast ballots ranging from the state Superior Court to who represents them on Philadelphia's City Council. Mayor Nutter, up for a second term in today's General Election, wasn't taking any chances. He had former President Bill Clinton robo-calling voters yesterday. "He's got a great record," Clinton told voters who received the recorded call. "He's worked hard through tough times. " Nutter, a Democrat, faces Republican Karen Brown and independent Wali "Diop" Rahman.

Voters in 97 different divisions will be sent to new polling places for next Tuesday's general election. Gary Ferris, who arranges polling locations for the city commissioners' office, said about two-thirds of the new polling places were spurred by issues involving access for the disabled. In other cases, polling places had to be moved because the owners no longer wanted to rent them to the city, or because buildings were closed or undergoing repairs. A list of the polling places that are changing is available on the city commissioners' website: http://phillyelection.com/2011Changes.pdf . - Bob Warner

Five polling places are being relocated for the Nov. 8 municipal elections, based on a vote Tuesday by the Bucks County Board of Elections. Voting in Bristol Township's District 6-1 will move permanently from the First Presbyterian Church to the Greater Word to the World Ministries at 4117 Woerner Ave. The four temporary relocations are: Falls Township District 4-1, from St. Paul's Episcopal Church to Pinewood Pool at 1 Pinewood Dr.; New...

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvanians may soon find out whether voting will join buying a drink, boarding a plane, cashing a check, and purchasing a train ticket on the list of activities that require photo identification. The state House has approved the Republican majority's plan to require all voters to show a government-issued photo ID every time the go to the polls - a step that proponents say would prevent illegal voting. Democrats say that there is no evidence the state has a serious problem with voter fraud, and that the bill would only dissuade many voters, especially minorities and the elderly, from casting ballots.

Real-estate broker Barbara Capozzi, who finished 40 votes behind state Rep. Kenyatta Johnson in the May 17 Democratic primary for nomination to a City Council seat, has challenged those results in court. Capozzi, in a suit filed Monday, claims "widespread irregularities" in the 2nd District race "compromised the election so severely that the results cannot be trusted to reflect the will of the Democratic voters. " Capozzi complains that the name of attorney Damon Roberts, who withdrew from the race before Election Day but too late for his name to be removed from the ballot, was taped-over in some polling places.

By Robert M. Brandon Last week's relatively problem-free Pennsylvania primary was the latest to demonstrate that requiring photo identification at the polls is a solution in search of a problem. People simply don't risk prison time to impersonate other voters. In 2008, more than six million Pennsylvanians went to the polls for the presidential election, and only four were charged with misrepresentation. So why did the House State Government Committee recently approve a bill to require photo ID of Pennsylvania voters, a program that would cost more than $11 million to initiate and millions more to run each year?

The results of two races in Tuesday's primary - the Republican mayoral nomination and a Democratic nomination to City Council - won't be resolved until at least next week. Karen Brown, a Democratic committeewoman recruited by leaders of the Republican City Committee to run for mayor, held a 53-vote lead over John Featherman with 97.2 percent of the vote tallied. State Rep. Kenyatta Johnson held a 72-vote lead over real-estate broker Barbara Capozzi in Council's 2nd District - which encompasses parts of South and Southwest Philly and Center City - with 97.8 percent of the votes counted.