Voter Turnout

With all the attention being given to the presidential campaign, the question remains: How can voter turnout be increased? Bonnie Gilmour, a senior economics major at Ursinus College, has some answers. And they won her the top prize at the college's undergraduate economics conference Sunday. Her paper, "The Economics of Voting: Evidence from the 1988 U.S. Presidential Election," was one of about 30 presented at the third annual conference, which drew to Collegeville 100 students and faculty members from 12 Pennsylvania and New Jersey schools.

State Rep. Chaka Fattah received an urgent call from Mayor Goode's campaign manager, Reynard Rochon, at 6:30 last night. Rochon desperately needed drivers to transport people from the election courts at two West Philadelphia police stations back to their respective polling places so they could vote. "No problem," Fattah said as campaign workers mobilized the necessary drivers, even before he had finished his conversation with Rochon. Fattah's office, on 59th Street near Oxford behind Overbrook High School, was the headquarters for Goode's re-election campaign in six West Philadelphia wards.

Overall, yesterday's primary election in Chester County was marked by slates of uncontested candidates and benign ballots. Linda Cummings, director of county Voter Services, said early results also suggested a voter turnout that was slightly lower than average. The county normally gets 15 to 20 percent turnout in the primaries, she said. Still, at least one contest had the entire county buzzing. The race for the district justice seat in East Brandywine and Caln Townships has been one of the county's most turbulent since February.

A seat in the state House of Representatives empty since the death of political powerhouse Matthew J. Ryan was filled in a special election last night by an aspiring Delaware County politician. With 12 percent voter turnout, former Republican county Councilman Thomas H. Killion won 73 percent of the vote over Democrat William Thomas to take the 168th District seat, according to unofficial results. "I think there's a lot of things I can sink my teeth into once I get to Harrisburg," said Killion of Middletown, a stockbroker and small-business owner.

Too busy to vote, huh? You had plenty of company. Registered voters who skipped the polls during Tuesday's primary election set records for low voter turnout in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester and Delaware Counties. Statewide, only 15 percent of the state's 3.5 million registered Democrats cast ballots for the gubernatorial nomination. The GOP primary for U.S. Senate was decided by 19 percent of the state's three million Republicans. Those are the lowest numbers in three decades, records show.

Bucks County politics interrupts summer today to bring you a state Senate election that probably won't end up in a dead heat - no matter what it feels like outside. Voter turnout is expected to be about 15 percent for the special election to fill the 10th District seat, which was vacated in January when James C. Greenwood became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. But the race has plenty of political significance. The outcome will break a 24-24 deadlock in the state Senate, although the Senate will not be in session until November.

Despite a state recovery plan that removed much of elected city officials' power, a fight is brewing over whether to change Camden's municipal elections from nonpartisan to partisan. The dispute pits City Council members aligned with the powerful, cash-flush Camden County Democrats - who say partisan elections would increase voter turnout - against two of their frequent critics, Councilman Ali Sloan El and longtime activist Frank Fulbrook. The issue could be headed for a November referendum.

MONROVIA, Liberia - An election that was supposed to solidify peace in this nation emerging from war was marred by dismal turnout Tuesday, after the opposition went ahead with a boycott despite last-minute appeals from the United States and the U.N. Security Council. The move guarantees reelection for the continent's first and only female president, who was just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but country experts worry that the low turnout could discredit Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's victory and delegitimize her government.

BUCHAREST, Romania - Romanian election officials declared late Sunday that a referendum to impeach the nation's president on grounds that he overstepped his authority had failed because of low voter turnout. The Central Election Bureau put the voter turnout in Sunday's referendum on President Traian Basescu at 45.92 percent, with a 3 percent margin of error. By law, such referendums are invalid if less than half the electorate casts ballots. The bureau did not immediately give the outcome of the vote, but two exit polls showed more than 80 percent favored impeaching Basescu.

IFOUND a great deal of indignation but a greater lack of common sense in John Baer's column "Roaming Poll Watchers: Why?" For those of you who have never seen a Philadelphia election up close, here's how it works: One party (the Democrats) has thousands of paid workers manning the polls, standing watch over the voters coming and going, and handing out literature to folks coming inside. The other party (the Republicans) has a handful of poll workers, who, by law, can only watch the polls at one place, leaving hundreds of polling places with only one party watching over the activity.