Penn Leads the Vote hosted Philadelphia City Commissioner Lisa Deeley at an event on Thursday to empower student voters.
Deeley was joined by Committee of Seventy Program Manager Brisa Díaz-Zorilla at the Oct. 23 event. Held in the Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics, the event, titled “Penn to the Polls,” drew an audience of about a dozen Penn students in the lead-up to the 2025 general election.
This year, several notable local positions are on the ballot, including the races for Philadelphia District Attorney and City Commissioner. Pennsylvanians will also be able to vote to keep or remove three current members of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and elect one member to the Superior Court and Commonwealth Court.
Díaz-Zorilla — whose organization goes into communities to educate constituents on the voting process — said that it’s important for voters to understand that judges in Pennsylvania “have a lot of impact” on the day-to-day lives of voters.
“In Pennsylvania, our Constitution protects our right to clean air and clean water, our right to privacy, our right to our reputation, our right to a good education,” Díaz-Zorilla said. “The Pa. Constitution protects a lot more rights than the nationwide constitution, and so the Supreme Court justices have a lot of impact on that.”
Deeley, who oversees elections and voting throughout Philadelphia in her capacity as City Commissioner, stated these elections are “historically the lowest turnout election in the cycle, which is frightening, if you think about what’s going on in the world.”
“A judge has a lot of power with a pen,” Deeley continued. “They can take a life, they can give life. They can take away your freedom. They can give you your freedom. It’s really important, but so sad that this judicial election has such a historic low turnout, because it’s so important.”
Both speakers emphasized the importance of voting and researching the candidates prior to the election, as the ballot can be confusing to new voters.
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“There are questions on the ballot that ask: yes or no should these judges be retained?” Deeley said.
“It’s important to understand that when judges run for office, they are categorized [as] Democrat or Republican because they choose to run in whatever party,” she added.
Deeley went on to explain that once elected, judges “no longer have a party designation because we expect that our judges are non-partisan.” The judges on the ballot for retention, for example, will not have party affiliations.
“All the mail and all the TV is very misleading, because you’re going to go in and you’re going to try to look for the Democratic judges,” Deeley continued. “They will not be in the Democratic column; they will appear in the question column. They won’t say Democrat [or] Republican. They’ll just have their name.”
Díaz-Zorilla told The Daily Pennsylvanian that she “would definitely recommend looking at the judges.”
“There’s seven justices in total. So having three up for re-election is a really significant number. It can really flip what the court looks like,” she said.
College first-year Ami Raithatha — who serves as the Partnerships Coordinator at PLTV and organized the event — wrote in a statement to the DP that the “goal with Penn to the Polls is to give students a chance to connect with civic leaders and learn how they can make a real impact in their communities.”
“At Penn Leads the Vote, it’s important to us that civic engagement be accessible and meaningful for every student,” the statement read. “It’s really inspiring that our three panelists are taking time out of their busy schedules to talk with us about such an important topic, and we hope this event encourages more students to get involved and use their voices.”
Election day will take place on Nov. 4.
