Yesterday, in case you just woke up from a long slumber, was Election Day in America. And here in Philadelphia, we voted strong. (Well, relatively.) We did it in schools, and firehouses, and Mummers clubs, and barber shops, and garages, and … well, anywhere within five blocks of our houses where the Election Commission could put up a couple polling booths. It was a nail-biter of an election, and it’s safe to say that everyone is happy to see it end.
But you know what? The voting was spectacular, as it always is. Because even if you didn’t like the choices on the ballot Tuesday, one thing is unassailably true: That we had any choice at all, and could freely make it at the polls, is something to celebrate.
We sent photographer Sabina Louise Pierce—and others on our team—around Philadelphia to capture some of our city’s unique polling places, and the voters who went out to be counted. We traveled from Northwest Philadelphia to Port Richmond and everywhere in between, bringing back these gems that show just exactly what we were hoping for: long lines, (mostly) enthusiastic voters and even a dog or two.
South Philadelphia voters lined up well before 7 a.m. on November 8 to cast their vote at Saint Maron’s Maronite Catholic Church at 10th and Ellsworth. Photo by Josh Middleton
With four spots to vote in the Mifflin School in East Falls, crowds were brisk but not heavy after 9 a.m.
A local news agency interviews a female voter waiting in line at the Department of Health at Broad and South streets. She was waiting in a line that stretched around the corner at 10 a.m. Photo by Josh Middleton
Polling station at the Penn Charter squash courts.
A voter arrives to her polling spot at Tony’s Glass Works in Manayunk.
Golf clubs and voters fill the Walnut Lane Golf Course clubhouse in Manayunk/Roxbourgh.
Folks can cast their vote and get a tuneup at Derkas Auto Body in Port Richmond.
Painted Bride Art Center in Old City, perhaps the most ornate of voting centers.
It was a little early for this poll worker at the Saint Monica Bowling Lanes in South Philly.
At High Point Café inside the Mt Airy train station, where coffee, crepes—and voting—abounded.
#WoofsWithHer in South Philly.
Temple students waited for over an hour Tuesday afternoon at their polling place at 10th and Oxford streets. This photo was taken around 4 p.m. Photo by Gillian McGoldrick
Header photo by Sabina Louise Pierce
