Every four years, registered Philadelphia Democrats and Republicans get to elect and re-elect their city committee people. If you’re one of those people who believe that all politics is local, then you should know: Pushing a button for your committee person is pushing a button both for your neighbor and for a small, essential cog in the big wheel of U.S. democracy.

And yet … Chances are, you have the barest inkling of what a city committeeperson does, and even less of a glimmering of why you should throw your hat in the ring for the job. Don’t worry. We got you.

Philadelphia has more than 6,800 elected city committee people who represent the Democratic and Republican parties in their respective neighborhoods. City committee people are not public or government officials. Their role is solely in service to their political party. Their responsibilities include helping to turn out the vote for the respective parties and, in some cases, choosing ward leaders who endorse local, state and national candidates in primary and general elections.

If you believe deeply in the Democratic or Republican Party, and if you want to test your toe in the water of local politics — and maybe even making trying to make politics and elections run better, running for city committeeperson is a pretty good place to start.

Your voting division

Philadelphia consists of 66 political wards (more on the ward system here) comprising 1,686 geographically-based divisions or precincts. Two Republican and two Democratic city committee people represent each division.

If you’ve ever voted in person in Philadelphia, you’ll recall entering a high school gym, or rec center, or some such polling place, walking up to a table at the front, and looking at a map of your neighborhood for your block, which was inside a numbered area. That number indicated not just where you were supposed to go in that room to vote. It was also the number of your voting division, which typically consists of 500 to 1,200 voters, but no less than 100.

The role of a city committeeperson

The job of a city committeeperson, according to nonprofit voter engagement organization Committee of Seventy, is “as big or as small as you want. Some committee people just choose to work on Election Day. But many committee people are in touch with their party and their neighbors all year long.” If you’ve accepted a sample ballot recommending certain candidates from someone standing outside your polling place, chances are, that person is a committeeperson.

Again, to be clear, the role is not governmental or taxpayer-funded. A city committeeperson may not perform their duties inside a polling place. They are not poll workers, who are members of the Election Board.

A city committeeperson receives no salary. Some, however, receive “walking around” or “street” money from their ward leaders, ostensibly to repay costs incurred while fulfilling responsibilities.

Generally, a city committeeperson will:

• • • Attend Ward “Executive Committee meetings” with the rest of your ward and party’s committee people. These meetings occur regularly (some are monthly) and, in the runup to an election, often include meetings with candidates.
    • If your ward is one of the city’s 11 “open wards,” then you can vote for a ward leader. If it’s a closed ward, you’re mostly following the leader.
    • Lead or assist with voter registration drives.
    • Go door-to-door (or visit SEPTA stops, libraries, rec centers, other public spaces) within a division to ask voters to sign petitions for party candidates, to help register to vote, or to answer questions about voting.
    • Distribute voting information about how to vote and who’s on the ballot.
    • Recruit Election Day poll watchers to represent division candidates.
    • Bring voters to the polls, including voters in need of transportation.
    • Work alongside others — including election and party leaders — to help solve various voting problems before and during Election Day.

How to run for committeeperson

Every four years — including 2026 — the City of Philadelphia officially holds elections for city committee people during the primary only. Each division puts up two candidates per party.

Qualifications:

• • • Registered voter in the division you wish to serve
    • Registered to the party you want to represent
    • Not a city employee or unelected city official

In order to get your name on the ballot, you circulate a nominating petition to get at least 10 signatures of registered voters in your party and in your division. Ward leaders often have these nominating petitions; the City Commissioners and Board of Elections offices always have them.

There are rules around petition gathering: Who can sign, what information they need to fill out, even who can help you circulate petitions. And then there’s a rule of thumb: Gather at least twice as many signatures as necessary.

2026 deadlines:

• • • February 17, 2026: First day to circulate and file petitions
    • March 10, 2026: Last day to circulate and file petitions
    • March 17, 2026: Last day to file objections to petitions
    • May 19, 2026: Primary election

Don’t feel like doing all that? You could also press your luck and run as a write-in candidate. Or …

There are so many vacancies for this role that Committee of Seventy suggests contacting your ward leader to see if they’d simply like to appoint you to the job — for up to four years, until the next election cycle. City committee people do not have term limits.

They do, however, help keep our democracy alive in the place it was born.

MORE ON HOW THE CITY WORKS