iriam Hill, Andrew
Seidman, and John Duchneskie, Inquirer Staff Writers
POSTED: Monday,
November 12, 2012, 5:30 AM
It's one thing for a
Democratic presidential candidate to dominate a Democratic city like
Philadelphia, but check out this head-spinning figure: In 59 voting divisions
in the city, Mitt Romney received not one vote. Zero. Zilch.
These are the kind of
numbers that send Republicans into paroxysms of voter-fraud angst, but such
results may not be so startling after all.
"We have always had
these dense urban corridors that are extremely Democratic," said Jonathan
Rodden, a political science professor at Stanford University. "It's kind
of an urban fact, and you are looking at the extreme end of it in
Philadelphia."
Most big cities are
politically homogeneous, with 75 percent to 80 percent of voters identifying as
Democrats.
Cities are not only
bursting with Democrats: They are easier to organize than rural areas where
people live far apart from one another, said Sasha Issenberg, author of The
Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns.
"One reason
Democrats can maximize votes in Philadelphia is that it's very easy to knock on
every door," Issenberg said.
Still, was there not one
contrarian voter in those 59 divisions, where unofficial vote tallies have
President Obama outscoring Romney by a combined 19,605 to 0?
The unanimous support
for Obama in these Philadelphia neighborhoods - clustered in almost exclusively
black sections of West and North Philadelphia - fertilizes fears of fraud,
despite little hard evidence.
Upon hearing the
numbers, Steve Miskin, a spokesman for Republicans in the Pennsylvania House of
Representatives, brought up his party's voter-identification initiative - which
was held off for this election - and said, "We believe we need to continue
ensuring the integrity of the ballot."
Larry Sabato, a
political scientist at the University of Virginia who has studied African
American precincts, said he had occasionally seen 100 percent of the vote go
for the Democratic candidate. Chicago and Atlanta each had precincts that
registered no votes for Republican Sen. John McCain in 2008.The absence of a
voter-ID law, however, would not stop anyone from voting for a Republican
candidate.
"I'd be surprised
if there weren't a handful of precincts that didn't cast a vote for
Romney," he said. But the number of zero precincts in Philadelphia
deserves examination, Sabato added.
"Not a single vote
for Romney or even an error? That's worth looking into," he said.
In a city with 1,687 of
the ward subsets known as divisions, each with hundreds of voters, 59 is about
3.5 percent of the total.
In some of those divisions,
it's not only Romney supporters who are missing. Republicans in general are
nearly extinct.
Take North
Philadelphia's 28th Ward, third division, bounded by York, 24th, and 28th
Streets and Susquehanna Avenue.
About 94 percent of the
633 people who live in that division are black. Seven white residents were
counted in the 2010 census.
In the entire 28th Ward,
Romney received only 34 votes to Obama's 5,920.
Although voter
registration lists, which often contain outdated information, show 12 Republicans
live in the ward's third division, The Inquirer was unable to find any of them
by calling or visiting their homes.
Four of the registered
Republicans no longer lived there; four others didn't answer their doors. City
Board of Elections registration data say a registered Republican used to live
at 25th and York Streets, but none of the neighbors across the street Friday
knew him. Cathy Santos, 56, founder of the National Alliance of Women Veterans,
had one theory: "We ran him out of town!" she said and laughed.
James Norris, 19, who
lives down the street, is listed as a Republican in city data. But he said he's
a Democrat and voted for Obama because he thinks the president will help the
middle class.
A few blocks away, Eric
Sapp, a 42-year-old chef, looked skeptical when told that city data had him
listed as a registered Republican. "I got to check on that," said
Sapp, who voted for Obama.
Eighteen Republicans
reportedly live in the nearby 15th Division, according to city registration
records. The 15th has the distinction of pitching two straight Republican
shutouts - zero votes for McCain in 2008, zero for Romney on Tuesday. Oh, and
13 other city divisions did the same thing in 2008 and 2012.
Three of the 15th's
registered Republicans were listed as living in the same apartment, but the
tenant there said he had never heard of them. The addresses of several others
could not be found.
On West Albert Street,
Duke Dunston says he knows he's a registered Republican, but he's never voted
for one.
The leader of the 28th
Ward is Democrat Anthony Clark, who grew up under the tutelage of the late
power broker and Democratic ward leader Carol Ann Campbell. Clark is also a
city commissioner, one of three elected officials who oversee Philadelphia
elections.
"In the African
American community from 33d to 24th between Ridge and Somerset, there is a
large population of Democrats and there are not many Republicans in there at
all. I think it's the issues. People are not feeling that Romney is in touch
with them," Clark said.
Despite the Democratic
advantage in the 28th Ward, Clark says he also makes sure party workers are
getting the vote out.
"People get out,
give out literature, talk to people about the issues. Also, they work the
polls," Clark said. "People know them in their divisions."
Clark struggled to
recall anyone in his area who ever identified as a Republican. Though that is
not something anyone would likely volunteer to a Democratic ward leader, Clark
eventually remembered Lewis Harris, the GOP leader in the nearby 29th ward, and
that rare species: an urban black Republican.
Harris, in an interview,
said he works for the GOP mostly because he believes city neighborhoods need
attention from both parties.
"I open the door to
the community and let them be exposed to diversity in the political
party," Harris said. "I want political community-based
leverage."
Harris cast his vote for
Romney, but he's also an Obama fan.
"I love both of
those people," he said.
Nationally, 93 percent
of African Americans voted for Obama, according to exit polls, so it's not
surprising that in some parts of Philadelphia, the president did even better
than that.
In the entire city,
Obama got 85 percent of the vote. His worst showing was in South Philadelphia's
26th Ward. There, the president garnered 52.3 percent of the vote, compared to
46.6 percent for Romney.
Paula Terreri, 57, a
26th Ward Republican who describes herself as a devout Catholic, said outside
the polls on Tuesday that she voted for Romney because she opposed abortion.
Many parts of
Philadelphia and other big cities simply lack Republican voters, a fact of
campaigning that has been true since Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, Stanford
University's Rodden said.
In 2008, McCain got zero
votes in 57 Philadelphia voting divisions. That was a big increase from 2004,
when George W. Bush was blanked in just five divisions.
As the first African
American president, Obama held immense appeal to black voters, but skin color
is only part of the story, said Mark Sawyer, a political science professor at
UCLA.
Previous Republican
candidates, including Richard Nixon and Jack Kemp, supported affirmative action
and urban development, but their party has abandoned those stances, Sawyer
said.
Romney's comments,
including talking about people who want "more free stuff from the
government" after a visit to the NAACP, only further distanced African
Americans who felt the comments played to stereotypes about welfare, Sawyer
said.
Inquirer Staff Writer Bob
Warner contributed to this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment