Election Day, 2015: 'Quiet, quieter, quietest'

On an exquisitely pleasant first Tuesday in November, Pennsylvanians were making history by filling three Supreme Court seats, along with picking a mayor for the nation's fifth-largest city; county prosecutors; assorted judges; and a variety of key county and municipal officials.

But despite a promising turnout by the Election Day sun from Lake Erie to the Delaware River, it appeared that a healthy majority of those eligible to vote were not exercising that right.

In Center City, lunch lines were 20 deep at Chipotle and Popeyes, but there was no wait to vote at the polling place around the corner at the Land Title building on Broad and Chestnut Streets.

Statewide, voting problems were minimal, said Pennsylvania State Department spokeswoman Caitlin Murphy, with only "little issues" reported.

"The word is quiet, quieter, quietest," said David Thornburgh, head of the election watchdog group Committee of Seventy.

Appearing at a luncheon at the Relish restaurant, Gov. Wolf said the state Supreme Court races were the most important on the ballot, and Philadelphia mayoral candidate Jim Kenney himself said they were more significant than the mayoralty. Those races, however, weren't exactly voter magnets.

By midafternoon, decent turnouts were reported at precincts in Cheltenham, West Norriton, and Upper Merion Townships in Montgomery County, where a high-profile race for district attorney was underway between Republican Bruce L. Castor Jr. and Democrat Kevin Steele.

Countywide, turnout looked to likely equal the 32 percent it reached in 2011, said Montgomery County spokesman Frank Custer.

In the early going, the city polls evidently belonged to those with the voting habit, people such as Democrat David Paul, 69, of Society Hill, who said he simply liked to vote and saw no excuse for failing to do so. He said he pulled his party's lever.

"I don't know much about politics, but I like to vote," said Paul. "I feel good."

The morning belonged to people such as Joan Kane of Marple Township, Delaware County, who was spending her 65th birthday standing outside the Haverford Township Municipal Building, handing out campaign literature for a nephew running for commissioner.

"I'm a junkie for this," said Kane, a retired teacher who remembers attending a fund-raising dinner for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. when she was a teenager. "It is so critical to democracy. We have to be vigilant the whole time."

Voting in Cheltenham, Al Johnson, 85, said he came primarily to vote for the Democratic Supreme Court candidates. More than $15 million has been spent on Supreme Court campaigns, a national record for a state high-court race, according to the nonpartisan group Justice at Stake.

Despite the historic overtones, in places such as Society Hill and Rittenhouse Square, voter traffic was light at places that bustled with activity during the spring's intensely contested mayoral primary.

At one Society Hill location, regardless of the outcome of the Philadelphia mayor's race, Melissa Murray Bailey tallied one sure vote.

"I voted for myself," the Republican candidate said as she greeted her husband and daughter outside of the polling place at Second and Pine Streets.

Mike Wilson, 59, a paralegal and registered Democrat, said he would be open to voting for a Republican. But he voted for Kenney.

"Unfortunately, the Republican Party didn't put up much of a fight, not much of a whisper," he said.

In Manayunk, it clearly wasn't 2008 anymore, when the presidential race drew huge numbers of voters. "It was the most people we ever had in here," said poll worker Claire Dugan, "and they haven't been back since."

Among likely nonvoters was Frank Hughes, 22, who was walking his pit bull on Cedar Avenue. "It don't matter anyway," said Hughes, who works in a nursing home. "Our opinion doesn't matter. It's not going to make a difference anyway."

In Tredyffrin Township, Chester County, Emily Duffy, also 22, a student at Villanova University, embraced a different view:

"I want to dispel the whole stereotype about the 22-year-old person who's not involved."

twood@phillynews.com

610-313-8210@woodt15

Contributing to this article were Inquirer staff writers Michaelle Bond, Diane Mastrull, Justine McDaniel, Samantha Melamed, Jessica Parks, and Julia Terruso.

CORRECTION: This article is corrected from an earlier version that called Emily Duffy a first-time voter.