Philadelphia candidates urge voters to vote the person, not the party: transcript

Key points

• Speakers said the next day's election was a general election, not a primary, so voters could choose candidates from any party.
• Lewis Harris said voters should research candidates and not hit a single lever, partly because retention judges appear on the ballot.
• Cheri Honkala, running for sheriff as a Green, said a straight-party vote leaves no way to also vote for her, and criticized the lack of media coverage of how to vote.
• Karen Brown, a mayoral candidate, said that voting the party line gives away your vote and asked Democrats to look at other parties.
• Speakers said there is no official Democratic or Republican ballot and warned against misleading information inside polling places.
• Meighan Dorr, an independent write-in candidate for mayor, explained the steps for a write-in vote on the voting machine.

Chapters

1. 0:00Why tomorrow's general election matters
2. 1:05Lewis Harris on researching candidates and retention judges
3. 3:39Cheri Honkala on straight-party voting and coverage
4. 7:02Karen Brown on giving away your vote
5. 8:07No official party ballot and voter misinformation
6. 10:11Candidates introduce themselves and ballot numbers
7. 10:50Meighan Dorr's write-in campaign
8. 14:46How to cast a write-in vote on the machine
9. 15:55Closing appeal to vote the person

Full transcript

0:00Tomorrow is an important election. Whether you know it or not, tomorrow is one of the most important elections we've had in a long time because we have a very competitive race for the mayor, for city council, for the commissioners, for almost every election that we're having this year. And there's really good slates on every one of the tickets. The Republican, the Democrat, the Green, the Independent. So it's important that you know whether you're a Democrat, a Republican, an Independent, or a Green. Tomorrow's election is not a primary. It's a general, which means you can vote for the person, not the party. And you should do your homework tonight and actually look up these people and see if the person that you're voting for is the person you want to vote for because they represent what you need. Take your time, check us out, check all of us out, and then vote for the person who really matters in your life. Don't vote party because party's not going to help you. Obviously it's not working. So let's try a different way. Let's try to make sure that we're voting for people that actually are going to represent themselves and represent each other. If you want to get somebody who has the same needs as you and will honor your concerns and take

1:05them seriously when they get elected. One of the things, my name is Lewis Harris and I'm running for that traffic court jury. But one of the things I'm stressing to my voters and all of us that are citizens of Philadelphia is that we now need to upgrade our intelligence in the political arena among the community-based folks. And what I mean by that is that we don't now have to concern ourselves with just hitting a one lever and walking out the door.

1:37We should be now beginning to understand that we have to start looking at individuals, not a party, but the individual. Look at their track record, look at their background, find out if they're on the website, how much information you can get about it, especially in the area of a mayor, of a sheriff, of a judge. You want to know these candidates. One of the good things about this election, which is exciting, is that for the first time I've heard Democrats in high position say to their committee people and their war leaders, Do not hit the one button. Take your time and read and hit names. Why are they doing that? Because this is also an election where there's a lot of retention judges going in and you have to say yes or no to them.

2:32So you just can't hit the one lever, because you may retain people that you don't want to retain. One of the things that we're trying to push for now on is that everybody should not concern themselves so much about what a political party indicates on a ballot, but more about the person. So what I wanted to do was support this effort here. I'm glad that Sherry had brought this up. It is an important election tomorrow. People need to know that they can vote for both Democrats.

3:03They can vote for Independents. They can vote for Republicans. And they can even do write-ins. There are some good write-in candidates that people don't know about. One of the write-ins is sitting in an audience. She's a write-in candidate for city council at large. So there are some good people out there. So I would suggest that you take your time, look through the category, and vote by person and not by party. Thank you. My name is Sherry Honkala, and I'm running as a Green for Philadelphia Sheriff.

3:39And as both Karen and Louis said, this is an incredibly important election. And for me, this is probably one of the most important press conferences, and yet I shouldn't say that I'm surprised, but I'm... I'm very concerned at the lack of coverage on such an important topic. I know that we're up against a great deal of things, one thing being the fact that I know President Obama is in town today, so that's a heck of a thing to compete with.

4:20But I do know that yesterday, while I was standing at one of the ward meetings that I was at, I heard one of the judges, one of the Democratic, he had historically run as a Democrat. And I heard him talk about literally pulling out a paper and saying, this is how to vote for me as retention judge tomorrow. I mean, on Tuesday.

5:00And that really concerns me. The fact that here we have judges, write-in candidates, myself, running on the Green Party ticket, and if people go into the polls tomorrow and just push the Democratic Party lever... And don't look next to it and push me as the individual, as the green, even though they want me, after they've pushed, you know, the straight Democratic Party lever, they can't vote for me.

5:37And the same is true for the judges and the same is true for other candidates as well. It's incredibly important, and there should be in every single newspaper and on every television station, something as basic as telling people how to vote. Because I still thought that we live in a democracy. And of course I'm very concerned, because I'm running on the Green Party, and I know that the majority of the polls in Philadelphia are polls that only have one-party representation in all of them.

6:21And I believe in fair elections. I believe in all of us having a fair shot. so I just want to encourage the viewers that are watching this to think very carefully to get the newspaper with the listing of the various different names but to do your homework tomorrow And to actually ask folks, how do I vote for these different candidates? You can't just go in and use all the misleading literature that's out there and just says, push straight, you know, just pull the lever for the party.

7:02Gone are those days where we can just pull the lever for the party. We've got to begin to vote for the person and the issues that they stand for and not just their political party. Thank you. And I wanted to say to my fellow Democrats, I'm running for mayor on the Republican ticket, but I was a Democrat for 31 years. And I made the time to take, when I ran candidates, I was behind the scenes of many candidates, both Republican, Independent, and Democrat. I took the time to get to know that candidate, and I'm asking you to do the same.

7:34Take the time to know not just me and Louis and Sherry, but all the candidates out there, in both the Republican, the Democrat, the Green, the Independent, because there's some really good candidates. And if you just vote the party line, you're giving away your vote. And in this city, especially with this mayor that we've had, and some of the other departments which are lacking in public servants, You're giving away your vote. It's time we turned it around and we took back our city and vote for the right people so that we make a difference in this city. We can't let this keep going on because our city is falling apart and it's time to take it back.

8:07And one of the things that I wanted to stress is that we've got to also understand, Hugh, we as a people have to understand that there does not exist in reality an official Democratic or Republican ballot. you will see a thousand different ballots and they all going to say official and what that official is is a guise a disguised way of getting people to feel that oh i'm obligated because i may get in trouble if i vote any way different the other side of the coin is that this is a general election a lot of our people are educated and this comes from the commissioners one of the responsibilities abilities of the commission is to make sure that they go from community to community to educate people to the different between a general election and a primary some of the people actually going to walk in tomorrow and believe they're in a primary election and that tells you that the the commissioner

9:07in itself has failed the community. Our only recourse to either retain Fire or hire new people to represent our community is at the polling place. And if we're at a point where it's circumvented by misleading information by people inside a polling place and then misleading information by city council, city committees, whether they're Democrat or Republican, what we find is that we wake up in the morning and say, we still got that same person. I didn't mean to have that person. I thought we were going to get it.

9:41And after a while, people get in a point where it doesn't matter. It's no sense voting because they're going to do what they want to do. And that's going to hurt these new little young candidates that I'm excited about. I'm seeing a lot of little young people. And what I want to say is that it's time that we move on beyond just hitting a straight lever. Start moving towards individuals. So the more I remember us, I'm Karen Brown.

10:11I'm running for mayor and I'm 1-1-17. And I'm Louis Harris from Traffic Court and I'm 1-1-6, 1-16 for Traffic Court Judge. And I'm Sherry Honkula and I'm running for... I'm a Philadelphia sheriff as a green. And my number is 321. And another mayoral candidate just walked in. If she could say a few things about herself and why it's important to know how to vote for her tomorrow.

10:50Hello, everyone. My name is Megan Doerr, that's M-E-I-G-H-A-N-D-O-R-R, and I am an independent writing candidate. It is very important that we take the right to vote seriously in this day and age. As an African-American woman, my ancestors have fought very hard for us to have the right to vote and we are losing the privileges that we once had and we need strong good leadership we need funding for education we need housing and we need jobs the casino did not bring any jobs into this city so let's get rid of these mayors who have left us out to drive the city is desolate. Please, write my name in, M-E-I-G-H-A-N-D-O-R-R. Now, I'm going to get the instructions to do a write-in, Kennedy. I've been active.

11:53I've been in four communities for 25 years. And so many of my friends have come up to me and said, Sherry, you're running as a Green. First of all, I don't know what a Green is. Is the Green the Tea Party? And then second, they've said to me, do I have to be a Green Party member in order to vote for you? And it's very important that people understand it doesn't matter what party you are.

12:26You can vote for whoever it is that you want to vote for. And that people, especially tomorrow, because of what's happening to our city, that they begin to vote the person and not the party. You were going to say something, Karen? And for my middle class, middle class Democrats out there that are feeling the pain from this mayor that we have, it's time you look at other parties. I'm not saying you should switch your party but vote away from vote Republican, vote Green, vote Independent, vote a candidate that's actually going to help you because voting the straight ticket has not helped you for the past four years and it's not going to help you for the next four.

13:03So you need to look around. I did. We all did. So it's time to turn around. Turn around and look. You don't have to change parties. Just give the other candidates a look over. And if we actually are saying what you need, then don't hesitate to vote for us. And you can. Democrats can vote for Republicans. Republicans can vote for Democrats. Everybody can vote for independents and greens. So just don't let that party block you. Do what you need to do. And the key is to not allow nobody inside the polling place to tell you otherwise.

13:33Because on the last one, there are people inside the polling place that are paid to persuade people to go one way or the other when it should be a bipartisan situation. One of the things that I want to reiterate is that we don't want to hurt the movement of young people such as Megan coming in. She's under a tremendous challenge when she's going to explain how to do a write-in. But that is another process that if we do not allow independents and people to be able to go into opponent places and represent themselves fairly, you're just going to lose it.

14:10And you're going to lose good young people that's trying to make a difference. So I just encourage everybody to understand in November, all November elections are general elections. All November elections are general elections. Mays are primary, but November's are always general. So everybody can vote for everybody. On a November election. So tomorrow, vote for Sherry. Vote for Karen Brown for mayor. Vote for whoever you want. But make sure you understand that you can't. Don't let nobody tell you otherwise. Megan, how are you going to explain that write-in?

14:46Yes, in order to do a write-in, you will find a box for mayor. So you want to press the write-in button where you find the box for mayor. Then you will see a large flashing red button at the top of the machine to open the write-in window. So when you see that, there will be a slot that will open, and you're going to write in Megan Dorr, M-E-I-G-H-A-N-D-O-R-R, on the exposed paper in the window.

15:16Then pull the black shutter down over the name you have written, closing this window. It is important, folks, that we go the extra mile to have new leadership in this city. Take the time and write Megan Doerr in for mayor. It's hard work to get the four years that we had Michael Nutter destroy the city back in place, but we can do it. It's going to take hard work. Go the extra mile. Write in Megan Doerr for mayor. Thank you. And I just want to say that lastly, and then we'll just open it up for a couple questions, and then we've got to go on.

15:55The most important thing is that people get out and vote tomorrow. Many people think that they already voted in May and that the election is already over. And we have a bunch of anointed people in Philadelphia. It's not the case. Men and women died for our rights to vote in this country. we have a responsibility to be educated voters and to go out tomorrow and vote.

16:27Vote your conscience and vote for the person, not for the party. Thank you. Any questions? Okay. Thank you very much. Okay.

Source and licence

Recording: File:Voter Education and Fair Elections in Philadelphia-.webm by Cheri4Sheriff (2011-11-08), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY 3.0.

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.