On Tuesday, Pennsylvanians take to the polls to vote for many of the offices
connected to Philadelphia’s criminal justice system.
By Denise Clay-Murray
According to the Weather Channel app, Tuesday, May 20 will be sunny and springlike with a high of 70 degrees and a low of 52. There’s no rain in the forecast.
That’s important because May 20 is Election Day, and going to the polls is much nicer when you don’t need an umbrella.
Registered Democrats and Republicans will be voting for two citywide row offices — District Attorney and City Controller — statewide judicial races, and municipal and common pleas court justices. All registered voters will also be asked to vote on three ballot questions that would make changes to the City Charter.
According to the Philadelphia City Commissioners website, in 2021, the last year in which Philadelphians were asked to vote for the city’s District Attorney, City Controller, and judges — both citywide and statewide — only 21% of Philadelphia’s eligible voters came out to vote.
The Philadelphia City Commissioners recognize that this is a problem. So, they’ve been working on it.
We’ve been working strategically,” said Omar Sabir, chair of the City Commissioners.
“We’re being collaborative with our schools, and our faith-based organizations. We’ve been at transit stops, and we have the supermarkets. There’s a lot of fatigue from the presidential race. So people are saying that they’re tired. We’re trying to wake them back up and hopefully engage them.”
The race that’s getting the most attention is the Democratic primary between incumbent District Attorney Larry Krasner and former municipal court Judge Patrick Dugan. Krasner is attempting to win his third term, and Dugan is what stands between him and that goal. The winner will occupy the office, because the Republicans have chosen not to field a candidate.
In a lot of ways, the candidates aren’t all that different. Dugan, who started his career in the law as a child advocate, believes that while accountability is necessary, we don’t intervene in the lives of children and families at risk early enough to prevent some of the things that connect kids to crime. Krasner agrees with that, saying that his Emerging Adult Unit is working on that.
But where they differ is in what they believe the function of the District Attorney’s office is. While Krasner believes that the function of the office is to seek justice, and that seeking justice doesn’t always include prosecution, Dugan believes that accountability is at the center of what the DA’s office does, and while intervention is good, it has to be applied with common sense.
Also on the ballot are some of the people who will be charged with overseeing what happens with the cases the District Attorney brings to court, because Pennsylvania is one of eight states that select its judges via the ballot.
While the statewide Supreme Court retention votes won’t happen until November, there are special Democratic and Republican primaries for the Superior Court with Sheila Tsai running for the Democrats, and Joshua Prince and Matthew Wofford running for the Republicans.
There are nine Common Pleas Court seats and three Municipal Court seats up for grabs during the Tuesday primary. There are also judges up for retention in both sets of courts.
Controller Christy Brady is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. She will take on Republican Controller candidate Ari Patrinos in November.
But while the primaries require that you declare a party to decide who should be representing the city as District Attorney or controller, there are also ballot questions that voters — Democrat, Republican, Working Families or Independent — will be asked to consider on Tuesday.
Should they pass, these questions would essentially make changes to the city charter.
Ballot Question #1 would create an ombudsperson for the Office of Homeless Services if approved. Sponsored by Council Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson, the office would help the city’s homeless get fair access to resources, improve the quality of life in the city’s shelter system, investigate complaints from those who access services, and provide oversight and recommendations to the city’s homeless service providers.
Gilmore Richardson called for an audit of the city’s homeless service programs last year due to issues she had with how the Office of Homeless Services allocated its money.
If passed, Ballot question #2 would increase the minimum amount that the city has to appropriate to the Housing Trust Fund in the city’s budget every year. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, chair of Council’s Committee on Housing, wants to see the amount of money allotted to programs designed to build and maintain affordable housing increase as a percentage of overall city spending. The additional money would be the equivalent of what the city gets from developers for zoning benefits.
The ballot question, Ballot Question #3, would create an Office of Prison Oversight and an independent Philadelphia Prison Community Oversight Board. Sponsored by Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, the ballot question calls for City Council to decide the makeup, powers and duties of the office and board, should it pass. Under the current Home Rule Charter, the Board of Trustees of Philadelphia Prisons currently adopts the standards and guidelines for the City’s prisons. The city’s prisons have been under fire for the last few years due to issues including prison escapes and inmates dying from issues related to substance abuse.
If you are a registered voter, and have not applied for a mail-in ballot, you can vote at your local polling place on Tuesday, beginning at 7 a.m. when the polls open. If you do have a mail-in ballot, and have not put it in the mail in time for it to be counted on Election Day, there are drop-in boxes located at City Hall near the O.V. Catto statue and at other locations throughout the city.
To find your polling place, where you can drop off your mail-in ballot, and other information about the May 20 Pennsylvania Primary Election, visit: https://vote.phila.gov/.
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