Voter Turnout

WASHINGTON - Michelle Obama was once a reluctant campaigner, but there are plenty of reasons why she's primed to play a major role in her husband's reelection bid. She's more popular than the president. She's seasoned now. And she's so careful in her public remarks that even at campaign fund-raisers, she sometimes relies on a teleprompter. Observers said her top causes - getting children fit and embracing the nation's troops - were shrewd political choices, ones that have given her allies from coast to coast.

Should Pennsylvania spend $4.3 million to fix a problem that doesn't exist? That's what the Republican-controlled legislature is being asked to do. The House has passed, and the Senate is considering, a bill requiring voters to produce a state or federal photo ID before they are allowed to cast a ballot. Commonwealth Secretary Carol Aichele endorsed the ID requirement Tuesday. In June, the legislature estimated the bill would cost $4.3 million. It's money that would be spent on a problem that doesn't exist, according to those in a position to know-county election officials.

HARRISBURG - With a controversial voter identification bill set for approval by the Pennsylvania House, Democrats and advocacy groups from Philadelphia and around the state are voicing concern that the move could end up hurting voter turnout. House Democrats and Republicans debated the legislation for more than seven hours Monday and Tuesday. With a Republican majority in the House, the bill is expected to win final approval as early as Wednesday and be sent to the Senate. The action reflects a national trend - spurred by conservatives who won office in the 2010 midterm election - toward stricter election laws.

HARRISBURG - With a controversial voter identification bill set for approval by the Pennsylvania House, Democrats and advocacy groups from Philadelphia and around the state voiced concern that the move could end up hurting voter turnout. House Democrats and Republicans debated the legislation for more than seven hours Monday and Tuesday. With a Republican majority in the House, the bill passed a key hurdle Tuesday night and is expected to win final approval as early as Wednesday and be sent to the Senate.

HARRISBURG - The state House began debate Monday on a divisive bill that would require Pennsylvania voters to show photo identification every time they cast a ballot. The bill - one of many similar measures being advanced in GOP-controlled legislatures nationwide - could receive a final vote this week. Sponsor Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R., Butler) said the bill was needed to ensure tougher voter controls and protect the integrity of Pennsylvania's elections. "Every illegally counted ballot cancels out the vote of a legitimate voter," Metcalfe said.

Early on, most politicos were pegging Philadelphia voter turnout in Tuesday's primary at 10 percent to 20 percent - and they were right in the ballpark. With 96.44 percent of the vote counted as of midday Wednesday, 17.6 percent of total registered voters (Democrats and Republicans) had come out to cast ballots in the mayoral race. Those numbers may be dismal, considering that tens of thousands of people failed to vote. But consider this: In 2003, when John F. Street was seeking reelection and had no primary opponent, only about 13 percent of voters weighed in on the mayoral primary.

ANOTHER AWARD for Creative Problem Solving in Harrisburg this week goes to Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Butler, for a truly inspired entry: He proposes to fix a problem we don't have by exacerbating two problems we do have. Metcalfe is pushing a bill that would require voters to present a photo ID every time they vote. Now, voters must present ID only the first time they appear at a polling place, and can choose from a range of acceptable forms, including utility bills and paychecks. The Metcalfe bill would limit those options to a few forms of government ID. Metcalfe says this is necessary to reduce voter fraud.

DRIZZLY WEATHER and a dearth of exciting contests were helping hold down voter turnout in yesterday's primary as Democrats and Republicans picked nominees for a pair of statewide judgeships and numerous posts in county and local governments, according to spot checks with elections officials in more than a half-dozen counties. "Very slow," Ingrid Healy, the Blair County elections director in Hollidaysburg, said of the pace at the polls. "It's a closed primary and people don't take as much interest in the local races.

The polls were chilly, wet, and lonely Tuesday as few Philadelphians decided that races for mayor, Council, and other city posts were interesting enough to lure them to the voting booth. "It's as slow as cold molasses here today," Election Judge K. Helena Davis said inside the fire station at Chelten Avenue and Baynton Street in Germantown. "To a point where some of the poll workers already left. There is not any excitement here. " Reviewing the turnout about 5 p.m., Ellen Mattleman Kaplan, vice president of the watchdog group Committee of Seventy, called the turnout "anemic" and "pathetic.

With the witching hour in this election season fast approaching, the two Western Pennsylvanians vying for the governorship came east Sunday in their own version of a time-honored Halloween tradition. Republican Tom Corbett courted voters at stops in Philadelphia and its suburbs, aiming to pull off the trick of grabbing some votes in a corner of the state where Democrats and independents dominate. Democrat Dan Onorato, meanwhile, returned to traditional sources of support, hoping a last-minute surge in excitement could deliver an Election Day treat.