On a perfect day for voting, the Pennsylvania primary generates a 'super-low turnout'

Elsewhere in the county, enthusiasm appeared to be wanting, said West Chester Councilperson Sheila Vaccaro, who voted at West Chester University’s student center. “It’s not a thrilling one today,” she said.

She added that she was voting out of duty on a day that appeared to belong to the ritual voters, the kind who always show up. Among them were Judy McGullam, 77, of Langhorne, a “strong Democrat” who voted along with her husband, Dennis McGullam, 81, at Neshaminy High School. “If you want to speak up, you have to vote,” she said.

The lack of voter traffic was a leitmotif from opening to closing times all over the region.

At St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Forane Church in the Bustleton section of the Northeast, only seven people had voted by 8 a.m., vastly outnumbered by parishioners filing in for morning Mass.

It was a quiet morning in Wharton Square in Point Breeze, save for the sounds of sidewalk construction. By midmorning a mere trickle of voters had all but dried up.

At polling places in the City of Chester, Delaware County, poll workers outnumbered voters. Outside Chester High School, cars whizzed by, many with their windows open to take in the refreshing April air. Activist Zulene Mayfield shook a cowbell, trying in vain to get their attention. “It’s primary day. It’s time to vote. Let’s go!” she yelled. ”There’s no excuse, it’s a beautiful day,” she added

Party officials at the Mallery Recreation Center in Germantown were left to reminisce about the 2020 general election when Pennsylvania saw it’s highest percentage of voting-age population — 67% — cast ballots since the acrimonious 1968 election when Republican Richard M. Nixon narrowly defeated Democratic Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey to win the presidency.

In the 2020 November election, a line of voters six rows deep covered the basketball court. ”We hope to reenact that,” said Kevin Poole, a Democratic committeeman who has worked at this poll for six years.

The fate of presidency notwithstanding, Wesley Wheatley, 42, of South Philadelphia’s Whitman neighborhood, says that primary elections are the most important time to vote — especially on down-ballot races.

“These are the ones [that] keep our state representatives accountable to us,” she said.

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