AT LONG LAST, local political mavens can get detailed Philadelphia election results online. But not, unfortunately, on any Web site run by city election officials.
Stephanie Frank Singer, a computer-savvy activist with a nonprofit organization dedicated to "election transparency," recently paid $195 to the city commissioners to buy six years' worth of Philadelphia election results, and she's making them available to the public - for free - through her Web site, www.campaignscientific.com. (Look down the list on the left-hand side for "Phila election results".)
The data include division-by-division results on every Philadelphia election beginning with 2002. For people interested in just a couple of wards or divisions, Singer created an easier search device at www.philadems.org/results.shtml.
None of this is rocket science. Singer got the results for 15 elections on the Web within an hour after buying the data from city election officials. She estimates that she spent eight hours creating the search device.
Which raises the question: Why didn't city election officials do something like this years ago, at least posting division results like the county election officials in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Scranton?
"There are other priorities in this department," said voter-registration administrator Bob Lee, citing thousands of new voter applications still to be processed. "We're busy doing everything else."
Starting with this year's general election Nov. 4, the city has committed to providing public access to unofficial returns as votes are counted on election night, responding to a complaint from another citizen activist, Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg.