Voting Among Kegs and CasketsIf you stopped to vote Tuesday in the tiny borough of Callimont in southwestern Pennsylvania, you didn't go away hungry.
Jean Baer, whose dining room table becomes a polling place twice a year, puts out a spread of food among the pencils and paper ballots.
"We have homemade chicken noodle soup, and sandwiches and snacks," said Baer, 49, an election judge for the borough's 25 registered voters. "It's like a sit-and-visit thing."
Across the country, voters cast ballots at funeral homes, pubs, a Roman Catholic rectory and even an appliance repair shop.
About 900 polling places for Philadelphia's 1,681 precincts are in private buildings, in part because of state laws that regulate proximity, handicapped access and other factors.
"Here, we vote in our neighborhoods," said Fred Voigt, executive director of The Committee of 70, the city's non-partisan, election-watchdog group. "It's a constant battle to find places, particularly places that meet the criteria that you need."
A new addition to the voting scene emerged this year when the city's lone Krispy Kreme Doughnut store opened its doors to Northeast Philadelphia voters. Manager Jaime Rojas promised Tuesday that no edibles were being used to influence votes.
"We don't get involved in political stuff," said Rojas, who kept election workers buzzing with free coffee and honey-glazed doughnuts.
The store offered more parking than the previous site at an apartment complex, an election official said. In return, the yeasty aroma wafting past voters enticed more than a few to line up at the counter after performing their civic duty.
In San Francisco, where voters still press the flesh with each other at shops, firehouses and private homes, sponsors may find themselves playing host three times in about nine weeks -- for last month's gubernatorial recall, Tuesday's mayoral election and an expected mayoral runoff election next month.
"They might get some polling-place fatigue, given that there are limits to the value of having people tromping in your business," said Robert Richie, executive director of the Center for Voting and Democracy in Tacoma Park, Md.
A few blocks from the Krispy Kreme store, Philadelphia voters trekked to the Fluehr Funeral Home as they have every year since 1937. With a funeral underway in one part of the home, the neighborhood regulars lined up behind two voting machines in an attached garage.
"People are so used to it, it doesn't faze them," Joyce Fluehr said.
In the city's Bridesburg section, voters trickled in to Fibber McGee's Pub, though few bellied up to the bar, an employee said.
Polling-place hosts earn $90 for their effort in Philadelphia, while Baer said she'll get about $100, including mileage for the half-hour drive to Somerset, the county seat, to deliver the ballots.
"I already got that spent," joked Joe DiCarlo, 83, who welcomed voters at his DiCarlo Washer & Dryer Parts shop in South Philadelphia.
Election officials plan to move the site next year to somewhere handicap-accessible, he said.
The Help America Vote Act of 2002, designed to increase voter access, has inadvertently lowered the number of polling places in some communities because of its facility requirements, Richie said.
Some western states, including Colorado, Washington and Oregon, are trying an opposite tack to boost voting, allowing mail-in ballots, especially in off-year elections. In Michigan, party officials will experiment with online voting in the spring primary, Richie said.
"If we all just start voting by mail, treating it like another check we're writing, what does it mean? Would that, over time, actually weaken people's connection to the election process?" he wonders.
"Who knows. But it's something I think we can keep an eye on."
Jean Baer, whose dining room table becomes a polling place twice a year, puts out a spread of food among the pencils and paper ballots.
"We have homemade chicken noodle soup, and sandwiches and snacks," said Baer, 49, an election judge for the borough's 25 registered voters. "It's like a sit-and-visit thing."
Across the country, voters cast ballots at funeral homes, pubs, a Roman Catholic rectory and even an appliance repair shop.
About 900 polling places for Philadelphia's 1,681 precincts are in private buildings, in part because of state laws that regulate proximity, handicapped access and other factors.
"Here, we vote in our neighborhoods," said Fred Voigt, executive director of The Committee of 70, the city's non-partisan, election-watchdog group. "It's a constant battle to find places, particularly places that meet the criteria that you need."
A new addition to the voting scene emerged this year when the city's lone Krispy Kreme Doughnut store opened its doors to Northeast Philadelphia voters. Manager Jaime Rojas promised Tuesday that no edibles were being used to influence votes.
"We don't get involved in political stuff," said Rojas, who kept election workers buzzing with free coffee and honey-glazed doughnuts.
The store offered more parking than the previous site at an apartment complex, an election official said. In return, the yeasty aroma wafting past voters enticed more than a few to line up at the counter after performing their civic duty.
In San Francisco, where voters still press the flesh with each other at shops, firehouses and private homes, sponsors may find themselves playing host three times in about nine weeks -- for last month's gubernatorial recall, Tuesday's mayoral election and an expected mayoral runoff election next month.
"They might get some polling-place fatigue, given that there are limits to the value of having people tromping in your business," said Robert Richie, executive director of the Center for Voting and Democracy in Tacoma Park, Md.
A few blocks from the Krispy Kreme store, Philadelphia voters trekked to the Fluehr Funeral Home as they have every year since 1937. With a funeral underway in one part of the home, the neighborhood regulars lined up behind two voting machines in an attached garage.
"People are so used to it, it doesn't faze them," Joyce Fluehr said.
In the city's Bridesburg section, voters trickled in to Fibber McGee's Pub, though few bellied up to the bar, an employee said.
Polling-place hosts earn $90 for their effort in Philadelphia, while Baer said she'll get about $100, including mileage for the half-hour drive to Somerset, the county seat, to deliver the ballots.
"I already got that spent," joked Joe DiCarlo, 83, who welcomed voters at his DiCarlo Washer & Dryer Parts shop in South Philadelphia.
Election officials plan to move the site next year to somewhere handicap-accessible, he said.
The Help America Vote Act of 2002, designed to increase voter access, has inadvertently lowered the number of polling places in some communities because of its facility requirements, Richie said.
Some western states, including Colorado, Washington and Oregon, are trying an opposite tack to boost voting, allowing mail-in ballots, especially in off-year elections. In Michigan, party officials will experiment with online voting in the spring primary, Richie said.
"If we all just start voting by mail, treating it like another check we're writing, what does it mean? Would that, over time, actually weaken people's connection to the election process?" he wonders.
"Who knows. But it's something I think we can keep an eye on."
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.