First, some of those who want this info for free are opportunists who will repackage it and resell it to candidates who are too lazy to do the research themselves, and don't want to deal with the ward leader electoral process.

If some people want to repackage the election results, so be it. Isn't what the newspapers are doing repackaging the results in the sense that they are publishing the data in different formats and context and selling the results via people who pay for the newspapers? Why should repackaging the results and reselling it be seen as a bad thing if people are willing to pay for it. People often pay for repackaged public data, such as census data. Some others may want to do free web mashups of the data and place the data on maps. Why should someone have to deal with a ward leader to help get the data or results?

Don't take cheap shots at the city commissioners while charging taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars to run voting ads in your paper for the benefit of the citizens. Yet you want the election results distributed free. Run the election ads free, as a public service for the benefit of the city taxpayers who otherwise would foot the bill.

In the sense of keeping the editorial and advertising sides of the press separate and with the poor financial state of newspapers, I do not see the newspapers giving up this source of revenue.

The media, candidates, political opportunists and maybe some political junkies would be the only ones viewing these results. Most normal people watch the late news or wait until the next morning and read the paper over coffee, or on their way to work, to find out what happened on election night.

I do not see why it matters who would view the results, be they normal people, abnormal people, political opportunists or axe murderers.

Third, is this issue really a distraction for the failures of city government, while children are dying at the hands of DHS? The school system produces illiterates. Murder and mayhem run rampant. Drugs flow in and out of the city like a sieve. Vacant buildings burn. Potholes appear and expand. Section 8 housing still destroys neighborhoods.

Scam artists scam and swindle. Foreclosures leave families on the street. Gas and food prices increase. Utilities shake us down for more of our money. Oh, and let us not forget Mayor Nutter, wanting to institute a new fee for trash pickup. Is that why we pay some of the highest taxes in the country already, just for basic services? Yet, everyone believes that Internet access to election results is a top priority.

The last time I checked, the City Commissioners were not charged with dealing with the issues of scam artists, gas prices, food prices, utilities, trash pickup, or taxes. Also, I do not know if anyone is saying to deal with internet access of election results at the expense of ignoring other important issues.

Once upon a time, intelligent, hardworking reporters, politicians, and consultants knew where and how they could access election results, campaign expense reports and any other public documents in our inventory.

Once upon a time the internet did not exist and public information was hard to access and tightly controlled by those in power. That time has passed us by.

Great post. But, presumably because it is still a county function, the Commissioner's office doesn't even seem to appear in the City Charter.

Does anyone know what changing the office would take? A Charter change? A state bill? A Constitutional ammendment?

A late 1967 Supreme Court decision--in the case of Arlen Specter refusing to resign as District Attorney in order to run against incumbent Mayor James Tate--established that the country offices were now covered by the city charter.

Therefore the city has juridisction over them.

In terms of the issue of the openness of election results, an ordinance of City Council should suffice.

The media, candidates, political opportunists and maybe some political junkies would be the only ones viewing these results. Most normal people watch the late news or wait until the next morning and read the paper over coffee, or on their way to work, to find out what happened on election night.

Who are the political opportunists in this quote exactly? People who want to double check that the results they saw posted at their polling place match the official results? People who want to get detailed access to the election results they paid for as taxpayers? People who don't understand why voters in Chester County can access information about how the election in their neighborhood went while voters in Philadelphia County can't?

Or is it "opportunistic" for a generation of D.I.Y. election analysts to take a swing at possibly helping aspiring candidates make more educated choices about when and how to run for office? Is that the whole idea? Reduce ease of access so as to reduce participation? "Leave elections for the professionals, never you regular voters and community activists worry your pretty little heads about the electoral process, now. We have the whole business of running government worked out for you so just lie back and let us 'pros' run your 'democracy' for you." How very reassuring.

This quote runs 180 degrees from the stated purpose of the City Commissioner's office in so many ways its simply silly.
-Sean
MrLuigi, my cat, actually only types half as badly as I do.