City commissioners approved a petition from a group of Penn students yesterday to increase the number of polling places on campus from two to six.
In an apparently quick decision, the commissioners sanctioned the addition of polling places at Harrison and Harnwell college houses, Houston Hall and Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, in accordance with a petition submitted earlier this month by a group comprising mostly of Penn College Democrats.
"In like five minutes they approved what we've been working on for two or three weeks," Penn American Civil Liberties Union President and College senior Michael Patterson said.
The new locations, approved by the University on Oct. 7, will operate in addition to already existing polling places at David Rittenhouse Laboratory and the Penn Center for Rehabilitation and Care, located at 3609 Chestnut St. University officials previously indicated that they would support these additions with the approval of the city commissioners.
The change only affects students who were originally slated to vote at DRL, some of whom will be redirected to the four new polling locations.
For about 10 years prior to this decision, students in five of the six districts on campus voted at DRL. According to Pennsylvania state law, the rights of voters in two of these districts were being violated, because their residence was more than one district removed from their polling place.
UA Chairman and College senior Jason Levine was pleased with the decision.
"The city agrees that we should be doing what we can to increase turnout -- especially turnout where there are a lot of young voters that in the past have felt disenfranchised," he said.
The UA recently passed, by a small margin, a proposal supporting the petition.
While most proponents of the petition consider the issue to be non-partisan, Republican leaders on campus felt differently.
"The commissioners did this at the behest of the Kerry campaign," Republican Ward Leader Matthew Wolfe said.
Penn College Republicans President and College junior Eric Rechtschaffen is also skeptical about the integrity of the commissioners' decision, as two of the three commissioners who approved the petition are Democrats.
"I find it very suspect that they were so quick to reverse so many years of voting tradition in under a quarter of an hour," he said.
According to Steven Kaplan, lead counsel to the Philadelphia Democratic Executive Committee, this decision can be appealed to the Court of Common Pleas.
Wolfe -- who was in court during most the meeting and arrived after the decision was announced -- said that he has no plans to appeal, noting that it is left to the commissioners' discretion to change the location of polling places.
"This isn't something that is insurmountable," Wolfe said.
Yet he believes that this change will result in confusion for voters and difficulty in adequately staffing all polling places during future, less popular elections.
However, College Democrats President and College senior Rich Eisenberg said that this decision is in the best interest of all students.
"I think students on campus, whether Democrat or Republican, are going to be happy that it's going to be easier to vote."
Advocates of the petition, as well as a few non-partisan voter mobilization organizations, plan to extensively publicize this change in polling places -- via signs, e-mails and word of mouth -- so as to reduce confusion as much as possible.
"We will now do everything in our power to make sure that all registered students know where to vote and know what to do on Election Day," Levine said.
Vice President of the Penn Office of Government, Community and Public Affairs Carol Scheman was pleased with yesterday morning's proceedings, specifically because it rewarded a group of students who advocated change.
"It's a wonderful exercise in democracy, and the students really made a big difference for themselves and for the campus."
Penn officials had originally endorsed the decision, but withdrew their support at the same time as the College Republicans.
Penn is located in the city's 27th ward. Students in on-campus residence halls live in one of the following six divisions:
Division 3: Sansom Place East and West and King's Court/English HouseVoting location: Penn Center for Rehabilitation and Care (3609 Chestnut St.)
Division 18: Hamilton and DuBois college housesVoting location: Steinberg-Dietrich Hall (3620 Locust Walk)
Division 19: Hill College HouseVoting location: David Rittenhouse Laboratory (209 S. 33rd St.)
Division 20: Gregory and Harrison college housesVoting location: Harrison College House (3910 Irving St.)
Division 21: Harnwell College House, Mayer Hall and Stouffer AnnexVoting location: Harnwell College House (3820 Locust Walk)
Division 22: The Quadrangle and Stouffer College HouseVoting location: Houston Hall (3417 Spruce St.)
