February 23, 2024
Chris Compendio/PhillyVoice
A satellite office at 40th and Market streets (above) is scheduled to open ahead of Pennsylvania's primary election on April 23.
Philly will have 10 new election offices for mailing ballots, registering to vote and more as the 2024 races heat up.
The offices, which were approved at last week's city commissioners' meeting, will be permanent fixtures for the upcoming election cycle and beyond. Each council district will get an office, said City Commissioner Omar Sabir, with the first one scheduled to open in West Philadelphia ahead of the 2024 primary.
Voters will be able to do "pretty much everything" they can do at the Office of the City Commissioners in Center City, Sabir said. Those services include voter registration, mail-in voting, absentee application processing, community outreach, requesting a replacement ballot and submitting mail-in or absentee ballots. The offices will be open all year, not just during election seasons, and will feature drop box locations for 24/7 ballot drop-offs. Resources will be available in multiple languages.
In 2020, Philadelphia opened 17 satellite offices to help voters access resources and drop off ballots during the height of the pandemic. The offices, Sabir said, will hopefully remove some barriers for voters, like needing to commute downtown to go to the commissioners' office, which can be costly and time-consuming.
"It's not just about the 2024 election, it's about beyond," Sabir said. "It's about making a serious commitment for the citizens of Philadelphia that we're going to make voting as easy and accessible as we can."
Officials have signed a lease for the first office, located at 4029 Market St., which is scheduled to open ahead of the primarily election on April 23. The sites, which will be staffed by the Board of Elections, were chosen based on data and recommendations from the council and community.
Sabir said the primary goal of the offices is accommodation, making it easier for voters to reach the resources they need. But he also hopes it could increase voter turnout, which he said helps the city receive more resources from the state and federal government. If successful, he also hopes more offices will open going forward.
With these initial offices, though, Sabir said it's about removing barriers to vote and streamlining the process as much as possible.
"People have the option not to vote — if they don't want to vote, they don't have to," Sabir said. "But if you do want to vote, you don't have to go through any hard barriers to do it. It's easy for you."
