Polling Places

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.

WE ARE so very conflicted. After an odd primary election season that included contested races for mayor in the Democratic and Republican parties and tight races for City Council, we just sort of expected more campaign hijinks yesterday. It's a good thing that there were no serious, high-profile incidents, right? It feels wrong to us. Here's the run-down of what we heard yesterday. NIMBY & nasty in the 7th The battle in Council's 7th District, which runs from Hunting Park to Juniata Park and Frankford, turned nasty early when when an anonymous flier was posted at polling places accusing former Councilman Dan Savage of trying to force a methadone clinic into a neighborhood that didn't want it. "Say no to Danny Savage!"

A contentious race for Newtown Township supervisor in Delaware County created a brief ruckus when plain clothes sheriff's deputies showed up at a polling place in a fire house off Rt. 252 and demanded supporters for Republican Ed Partridge to remove a poster from the lobby. The deputies told Jan Elston, 82, who was also handing out ballots, to take the poster, which contained campaign information and news clippings, out into the rain. A nearby sign for the party's endorsed candidate, Linda Houldin, was not challenged by the deputies, who would not identify themselves when asked by a reporter.

A Philly cop pulled over a motorist who was driving in the wrong direction on a one-way street in Germantown shortly after midnight Sunday. To the cop's surprise, the driver turned out to be state Rep. Cherelle Parker. Also surprising: Her breath smelled like alcohol, police said. Parker, 38, failed a Breathalyzer test after she was pulled over on Baynton Street near Price and was arrested on charges of driving under the influence, said Officer Tanya Little, a police spokeswoman.

Jessie Jane Lewis, 63, of Manayunk, a performance artist who helped win voting rights for disabled Philadelphians through a federal lawsuit, died of the effects of multiple sclerosis Saturday, Feb. 26, at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. The 2003 settlement of the suit - filed in 2001 by the National Organization on Disability and nine disabled residents, including Ms. Lewis - laid out a three-year plan in which Philadelphia would make its voting machines and polling places more accessible to voters who are visually disabled or use wheelchairs.

HERE'S an odd postscript to last week's election: one voter complains that a poll worker made her place her hand on a Bible and swear to her identity before she could vote. Lindsay Granger put up an Election Day blog post, saying, "I had to lay my palm on the good book and state my name and address before I was allowed to sign my name in the voting log and enter the booth. They called it an affirmation. I call it creepy . . . and a little offensive. " Voters can be required to sign an "affirmation" document if they are listed as inactive or there are questions about their address.

A NOV. 3 editorial mentions the Committee of Seventy's recommendations for improving elections locally, repeating its complaint that "citizens have to link through to a state website to find their polling locations, and that location changes were not always posted. " We have voters connect to a state database because our personnel must use the same state computer system with a Harrisburg database to perform our daily work on all voter registration and election records. Federal law requires states to use a statewide system as the official database for voter registration.

U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach held a solid lead Tuesday night over his Democratic challenger, Manan Trivedi, a Reading physician, for a fifth term in the sprawling Sixth Congressional District. Gerlach, 55, made brief comments to supporters at Ludwig's Oyster House at Ludwigs Corner just after 10 p.m. and returned home to Chester Springs to watch the results with his family, press secretary Kori Walter said. She said Gerlach did not want to keep his supporters out late. Trivedi, 36, an Iraq war veteran from Birdsboro, Berks County, was making his first bid for elected office.

Pennsylvania stands squarely in the national spotlight as voters go to the polls Tuesday to elect a governor and U.S. senator, along with 19 U.S. House members. With sunny skies predicted from Philadelphia to Erie, from Pittsburgh to Scranton, 7,858 polling places will be open for the state's 8.5 million registered voters between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. In one of the country's most closely watched Senate races, Republican former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey of Allentown and Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak of Edgmont are battling to succeed Democrat Arlen Specter.