When I look at the gallery of images below showing Election Day in Philadelphia (and similar places), I am struck by the number of people out on the street. Today, the definition of who is an “eligible voter” has expanded and voting is safer. These changes are essential for a true democracy. But have we lost something?
In some ways, the reform movement dating to the early 1900s has succeeded in making voting a ritual of civic duty performed by informed citizens. It’s rational, mechanical, an obligation. And it can leave many of us voters feeling cold, like a cog in a machine that has little to do with our daily lives.
Couldn’t Election Day still be safe and inclusive, and still feel like a celebration? My Google search for “where is election day fun?” came up with a depressing list of “fun facts” and grade school lesson plans.
Legislators like Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT ) and Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) have been trying to pass a bill that would make Election Day a national holiday. The rationale is that by making it a public holiday, we could increase voter turnout, which is pretty low, around 50%. The U.S. ranks 31 out of 50 democracies for voter turnout.
Election Day is a state holiday in New Jersey, Delaware, and New York. Not in Pennsylvania.
Our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico celebrate Election Day as a national holiday. Stores are closed. People vote with their families. They gather with neighbors to await election results. Voter turnout there is over 80%.
It looks like a lot of fun.
Election Day, Philadelphia, 1764 (Library of Congress)
High (Market) Street from the Country Marketplace with the procession in commemoration of the death of General George Washington, December 26, 1799 by William Birch.
Members of political factions, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, would have been recognizable to the crowd based on the ribbons they wore. (Library Company of Philadelphia)
Second Street North from Market Street towards Christ Church by William Birch, 1800
This was the intersection where elections were held in colonial Philadelphia. At this point elections were no longer held here. Also, note that the stairs are now gone at the old courthouse building on the left
(Library Company of Philadelphia)
Election Day 1815 shows scene on Chestnut Street outside the State House (now Independence Hall) by John Lewis Krimmel (Winterthur Museum)
Election Night Anti-Black Violence, Attack on the California House 1849 (Library Company of Philadelphia)
At the Polls on Election Day, Harper’s Weekly, 1857 (Library of Congress)
Scene at the polls, NYC, Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly, 1856. This shows the crowds, the ticket booths, the social atmosphere. (Library of Congress)
Election Day posters plastered on wall at 1118 Chestnut Street, 1861 (Free Library of Philadelphia)
Election Night Bonfire by Bernard Uhle, 1864. Bonfires were reported in Philly neighborhoods on Election Day night up until the 1930s. (Atwater Kent Collection)
A heated moment at the polls in Philly between a man who’s son died in the war and a Democratic ticket pusher in 1864 (Library of Congress)
Election day ticket that was printed by the political party and could be cast as an individual ballot at the polls
Union Party Ticket 1864 for the 20th Ward (Library Comapny of Philadelphia)
Ticket captain handing out party tickets and touting partisan rhetoric. He may be offering “pasters,” strips of paper that you could paste onto a party ticket to cover one of the candidate’s names and customize the ticket.
Politician, 19th Century “Vinegar Valentine.” These were often sent anonymously by the haters of the Gilded Age. (Library Company of Philadelphia)
Another “Vinegar Valentine” shows a corrupt politician, armed with a pistol, a cutting sword of argument, a ready bribe, and a lucrative contract. (The creepy couple, I can’t explain.)
Politicial, 1880 (Library Company of Philadelphia)
Women at the polls in Wyoming. Women had been voting in Wyoming since 1870.
Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 1888 (Library of Congress)
Woman at the polls, 19th century “Vinegar Valentine”, c. 1870-80
Suffragettes, and then women voters, were a popular trope c. 1880-1920. See the collection on the History website.
(Library Company of Philadelphia)
More troubling signs of women “out of place” at the rowdy polls.
19th century “Vinegar Valentine,” c. 1870-80. For more about this phenomenon, and other women voting cards, see the collection on the History website.
(Library Company of Philadelphia)
Election Day Night, crowds gather to watch returns projected onto buildings on Broad Street outside the Union League, 1875 (Free Library of Philadelphia)
Political rally outside McKinley’s headquarters. Man stands on a window sill to address the crowd. May have transparencies hanging over second floor windows. Philadelphia, 1896 (Library Company of Philadelphia)
Black men waiting to vote outside the polls in Wilmington, DE, 1907 (Library Company of Philadelphia)
17th Amendment makes U.S. Senators elected by popular vote, rather than selected by state legislators, Corporations, political machine politicians, and big business trusts look on in dismay decrying “mob rule!” while the reformers’ ideal voters cast their ballots. The “common people” are all well-to-do, white men doing their civic duty.
(Cartoon 1913, Free Library of Philadelphia)
Election Night, Philadelphia 1914, by Frank Taylor. View is looking north towards the brightly-lit Bulletin’s newspaper building at Filbert and Juniper Streets (where the Municipal Criminal Justice building stands today). The Masonic Temple sits in the dark to the left of the Bulletin building. City Hall is just to the left, out of the picture, (Library Company of Philadelphia)
Police are required to remain 30 feet away from the polls. The police were seen as part of the corrupt party machine.
This cartoon appeared in the reformist Evening Public Ledger 1919. It includes a racist depiction of a Black policeman, which tells you all you need to know about how the Reformers felt about people of color. (Free Library of Philadelphia)
Cartoon marking West Virginia’s ratification of the 20th Amendment giving women the right to vote, 1920 (Free Library of Philadelphia)
Automatic Voting Machine 1936
Bibliography
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