Return to Sender: The Democracy Edition

Dear Philadelphia Voters:

I hope you’re proud of yourselves.

No, really. I’m not saying that in the “Johnny, I hope you’re proud of yourself. Now your little brother has a black eye,” kind of way. I’m saying that in the most sincere way I can. Because whether you’re happy with the results of Tuesday’s Primary Election or not, you should still be happy about the day itself.

I grew up in a very political family in West Texas. I started attending campaign fundraisers before I even turned nine. But never, until this primary election, have I seen such a motivated, organized, inspired community of both voters and under-18 non-voters campaigning for their candidates, and campaigning hard. When I say that I hope you’re proud of yourselves, it’s for your efforts on and leading up to April 22.

Walking up the Avenue of the Arts after casting my vote—the vote I only recently registered to cast, having been voting absentee in my home state since 2002—I was amazed at the number of satellite-equipped news vans lining the west side of the street. For the first time since at least 1984, the PA Primary mattered, and international news agencies had turned out in full force to cover it. You did not disappoint the media, showing them long lines at voting precincts and motivated campaign volunteers. The sound bites that I’ve seen largely indicated that they found in Philadelphia a community of intelligent, well-informed voters who had managed to rise above the superficial issues of snipergate and pingate and were supporting your candidates for the reasons that you believed were the right reasons, not because you were forced to choose the lesser of two evils: black man or white woman. You represented us well to a media that too often focuses on Philadelphia’s crime rate instead of its burgeoning arts community; on its allegedly corrupt former administration rather than the number of nonprofit organizations dedicated to making Philly a better place.

But even if we hadn’t been descended upon by a slew of news teams, you’d still have reason to be proud. From the group of teenagers on the median just south of City Hall waving homemade signs and yelling “O! Ba! Ma! He’s our man! If he can’t do it, no one can!” to the large group of Hillary supporters assembled under the clothespin at Centre Square with “Honk for Hillary” signage, you, the Philadelphia voting public, acted in stark opposition to all those who say that people just don’t care about politics these days. If the groups handing out flyers and stickers didn’t prove it already, how’s this statistic? In a year of record-breaking Primary Election voter turnout, Pennsylvania is only behind California, Ohio, and Texas for ballots cast, with a whopping 2,269,156 votes cast. That, friends, is an increase of 37% over our previous high in the aforementioned 1984 Primary of 1,656,294, and double the 2004 turnout. (Yes, we know that by the time of the 2004 Primaries, the Presidential nominees had already been decided—but let's not forget that there were local and state-wide positions on the ballot, too.) Judging from the long lines we saw at many precincts, we’re guessing that Philadelphia was no exception to the rule.

So congratulations, Philly voters, on a job well done. No matter what party you were voting for, and whether you like the outcome or not, you deserve a pat on the back for performing your civic duties to their fullest. Now let’s one-up ourselves in November, hmm?

Image via Flickr user billaday.