'Sparse' Scarcely Describes Voter Turnout in Narberth-Bala Cynwyd Area

Tuesday's primary election, with its lack of locally contested races, elicited little enthusiasm from voters in Narberth, Bala Cynwyd, Belmont Hills and Penn Valley.

In Narberth's second of three wards, barely 100 of about 1,500 registered voters had come through by 3:30 p.m., said Wendy Flegal, the judge of elections there.

Turnout was "horrible," roughly 8 to 9 percent by 4 p.m., at Lower Merion Precinct 3-2, stationed at Welsh Valley Middle School, said Steve Selinger, the precinct's judge of elections.

"I'm closing in on 30 years here, and this is the worst I've ever seen. I never expect less than 10-12 percent, even in an off year," Selinger said. "There's no interest. We are running under one voter per worker-hour. It took us 40 minutes to get our first voter."

At the Belmont Hills Library—Precinct 3-1—turnout was "maybe a third of what we would get at a general election," said elections judge Eileen Rideout.

By 4:30 p.m., 104 voters of 1,100 registrants had cast ballots at Precinct 13-2 headquarters in the gym of Bala Cynwyd Middle School, elections judge Harold Goldner said.

"This is a predominantly Democratic precinct, and on the Democratic side, there are no contested races," Goldner said.

He said the turnout was probably the worst of his 25-plus years working the polls, although "one year, it was so bad, (election inspector) Cindy (Loffel) and I were playing basketball," Goldner added.

Donald and Nancy Lawler of Bala Cynwyd cast their votes at BCMS in the late afternoon, as they said they have done in every election since they were able to vote. Donald usually goes Republican and Nancy Democratic, but not always. Certainly, they always consider it worth voting, no matter how few choices the ballot offers, Donald Lawler said.

"It's a shame there isn't much interest," Lawler said. "But you've still got to go out and let these (candidates) know you know they're out there."