Update: Rain, Lack of Contested Races Kept Voter Turnout Low

Editor's note: This story was updated at 10 p.m. from an earlier version posted Tuesday morning. 

With only one contested race among Lower Merion candidates and very few countywide, voter turnout Tuesday was as low, and perhaps lower, as expected, poll workers in Ardmore, Merion and Wynnewood said. 

“Our turnout in this particular ward is probably the highest in the township,” said Richard Simons, a Republican committee member in the township’s 4-2 district, outside St. Mary’s Episcopal Church on Ardmore Avenue at about 7 p.m.

The grand total with just an hour left to vote was 140 voters, in a district that is accustomed to seeing more than 700 people cast their votes.

“It’s the lightest I’ve ever seen,” Simons said, echoing comments made at polling places throughout the three towns all day Tuesday.

“It think it has been the combination of no ballot question and uncontested races,” said Democrat and Lower Merion Township Commissioner Steven Lindner. “And a lack of information, too. But there will be a race in the fall for sure, at least for folks even running a campaign.”

On top of that, there was the weather. At the Merion Tribute House, polling station for Lower Merion precincts 12-1 and 12-2, a steady downpour drenched the very few who cast their ballot in the early monring 7 a.m. hour. By 8 a.m., poll workers still outnumbered the actual voters by 8 a.m.

“In my seven years, we’ve never had so few voters at this time of the morning,” said Louise Haneman, a judge of elections for Lower Merion District 12-2. “We are traditionally, in Merion, a very high turnout community. We can get 80 to 90 percent for a presidential election. If we get 15 percent today, we’ll be lucky.”

In last year’s primary election, which included the gubernatorial race, the 12-2 district had a 38 percent turnout, Haneman said.

The rain kept up all day and through the evening. At midday, a flood watch was still in effect.

Democratic Lower Merion voters  did have a choice with one seat: Township Board of Commissioners President Liz Rogan is being challenged by fellow Wynnewood resident Ted Erfer. The winner will face Republican Beth Ladenheim in November.

Countywide, GOP voters are choosing between the recently appointed sheriff, Eileen Whalon Behr, and her challenger, Robert J. Durante.

A Useful 'Anachronism'

In Pennsylvania, only registered Democrats and Republicans can vote in the primary, further decreasing turnout, but at least candidates can “cross-file” to appear on both parties’ ballots.

“With Common Pleas Court, we do have some cross-filing of some of the Republican candidates onto the Democratic ballot, and one of the Democratic candidates onto the Republican ballot,” said Barbara Schick, Democratic committee member for the 12-1 precinct.

Cross-filing makes sense because many of local elected positions are “relatively non-partisan,” said Esther Hornik, also a 12-1 Democratic committee member. “Since in the primary you have to be registered either as a Democrat or as a Republican, unless the candidates are cross-filed, you wouldn’t have a chance to vote for them.”

That said, Hornik considers the practice an anachronism. “There are some people who are very disturbed to see Republican candidates on the Democratic side or [vice-versa]. But it’s only for the school board, or the judiciary” and other very local offices for which it can be done, she said.

Not far away, at the Maguire Campus of St. Joseph’s University’s on Latches Lane, things were even quieter. A little after 8 a.m., only 12 people had voted—including the seven people working at the polling station. 

A voter paused on his way out to chat with Joe Zebrowitz and Bruce Eisenberg, both Republican committee members for the Lower Merion 12-3 precinct. The voter said it’s been nice to not have the deluge of phone calls and campaign literature in the mail that accompany most elections. 

“Actually that’s been a little disappointing—I look forward to the demagoguery that comes along with elections,” joked Zebrowitz, with mock sincerity. “The circus of politics is entertainment. If you are deprived of it, it threatens our democracy!” 

That got a big laugh, with the voter reminding everyone of the old saw that “Washington is Hollywood for ugly people.”

It was that kind of day, and the laughter was as welcome as the hot coffee and bagels on a particularly dreary primary morning.

Patch will complete results of all races this evening as they are made available.