Let's call the whole thing off

Less than a year after they were chosen to run Philadelphia's elections, the bipartisan reform coalition of City Commissioners Stephanie Singer and Al Schmidt began to unravel.

In the high-turnout 2012 presidential election, about 27,000 unreliable paper ballots were used, in many cases because poll workers couldn't find voters' names in poll books.

Instead of jointly assuring the public that these problems would be fixed, Schmidt, a Republican, and Singer, a Democrat, battled for power. Schmidt eventually embraced the antithesis of reform to win control, joining forces with the third city commissioner, Democratic ward leader Anthony Clark, to vote Singer out as chairwoman.

Clark became the chairman, but Schmidt runs the operation. That seems fine by Clark, who is not often seen in his office or the voting booth: Though he's the city's top election official, he hasn't bothered to vote since 2011.

While Schmidt took control by means of a regrettable alliance, he does deserve credit for a job well done under difficult circumstances.

Singer, meanwhile, is locked in an embarrassing struggle to prove she obtained the required 1,000 valid signatures to stand for reelection. The case against her was brought by the city's Democratic machine, whose flagging support for longtime commissioners Chairwoman Marge Tartaglione helped Singer defeat her in 2011.

When three politicians run what is essentially an administrative office, the boss is politics. Schmidt and Singer ran for office as candidates who cared about policy, but they couldn't agree on how to proceed once elected.

Clark, meanwhile, doesn't seem to think running for office entails actually running an office. It's hard to believe voters might reelect him, nor should they. But too few pay attention to this race, which is why the agency can be run as a fiefdom that pays the commissioners at least $125,000 a year.

The commissioners oversee plenty of competent employees who make sure election laws are observed and voter rolls are kept up to date. But their work is often upstaged by the three-politician circus.

The staff can't even fire the sort of incompetent poll workers who didn't thoroughly check the poll books for voters in 2012. Poll workers are "elected," many with zero votes, simply for getting their names on the ballot.

A single administrator with the power to hire good workers, and perhaps with a fixed term to protect the post from politics, would run elections more effectively than a politician, let alone three. Boston and San Diego have administrators who run efficient election offices.

The next mayor and City Council should ask voters to change the City Charter to professionalize elections. Like the fabled scorpion who can't help stinging the frog ferrying it across a river, politicians can't be expected to overcome their political nature even if it hurts the democratic process.