PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Tuesday, October 4, 1994 Page: A01 Edition: FINAL Section: LOCAL ONLY HERE: POLLS SET UP IN HOMES OF POLITICIANS By Mark Fazlollah, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER New York City doesn't allow it. Nor does Chicago. Or Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Boston or Washington. On Election Day, Nov. 8, Philadelphia will again distinguish itself. It plans to establish the polling places for hundreds of voters in the homes of Democratic and Republican committee people and ward bosses. That's the way it has been done in Philadelphia as far back as anyone can remember. That's not the way it's done in most of the United States, private watchdog groups say. Most of Philadelphia's 1,600 polling sites are in schools, hospitals, union halls, churches, businesses, nursing homes, recreation centers and other public buildings. But in more than three dozen divisions, voting machines are set up on the porches, in the basements, and in the living rooms and dining rooms of committee people and ward leaders. Frequently, the machines are in the homes of committee people who themselves are candidates for re-election. Those political leaders often spend Election Day outside their homes, distributing literature for their party's candidates and for themselves. Sean Duffy, president of the Pennsylvania Leadership Council, a Harrisburg- based government watchdog group, said putting voting machines in the homes of political officials undermines the public's confidence in the electoral system. "They should stop it," Duffy said. "Cynicism about government is at a high-water mark. This is clearly breaking faith." Camden County's deputy election superintendent, George C. Fallon, had a simple explanation for why voting machines should not be in committee people's homes. "It's like putting the fox in the chicken coop and expecting him not to eat the chickens," Fallon said. The Boards of Elections in Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, Burlington, Camden and Gloucester Counties said no polling sites are set up in private homes. In Delaware County, election officials said they put some in private residences, but did not know if the residents are committee people. The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania said a number of counties outside the Philadelphia area put polling places in homes because not enough schools and public buildings are available on Election Day. It had no details on whether the homes of committee people were used elsewhere. Allegheny County uses private residences, but not the homes of committee people. "That's not a good policy. We stay away from that," said James Risoleo, who supervises polling sites for Allegheny County's Board of Elections. New York, Washington, Boston and Baltimore do not place voting booths in any private homes. Chicago's Board of Elections allows a small number in private residences, but said it ensured they were not homes of committee people. All together, 176 private residences were used for polling sites in the May primary in Philadelphia. An election reform task force that Mayor Rendell headed when he was district attorney in 1979 recommended that all polling places be moved out of private homes. In last year's general election, the city commissioners, who act as Philadelphia's Board of Elections, put voting machines in the home of Barbara Landers, a 43d Ward committeewoman. Landers was later convicted of 30 counts of election law violations for aiding in an absentee-ballot scheme that favored William G. Stinson, the Democratic candidate for the Second District state Senate seat. In this year's primary, voting was moved out of Landers' home, but machines were left in the homes of 40 other committee people - 8 Republicans and 32 Democrats. Two of the Democratic committee people also are ward leaders. All of the polling sites used in the May primary will again be used in November, unless the city commissioners vote to change them. The city pays property owners $90 for the use of their homes on Election Day. Among the sites used in May was the home of Gregory C. Hampson, a 62d Ward Democratic committeeman, who is awaiting trial on 35 counts of violating state election laws during the November 1993 campaign. Hampson is accused of participating in the Second District absentee-ballot scheme to help Stinson. A federal judge nullified Stinson's election in February after finding that City Commissioners Margaret M. Tartaglione and Alexander Talmadge Jr. and the city's election supervisor, all of them Democrats, "engaged in a covert process specifically designed to assist the Stinson campaign." The same judge seated Republican Bruce S. Marks in the Senate. Neither Tartaglione nor Talmadge responded to requests for comments. Last month, Rendell said he would appoint a new committee to study the problems of Philadelphia's elections and the Second District race. He said he expected to name the committee by Sept. 19, and said it would use his 1979 study as a basic working paper. On Sept. 19, Rendell spokesman Kevin Feeley said the naming of the committee would be postponed "a couple of days." Yesterday, Feeley said the appointment of the committee would be "very soon. I can't tell you when." In the May primary, the practice of putting the voting machines in the homes of committee people was most concentrated in the city's 34th and 57th Wards. In the 57th Ward, five of the 28 polling sites were in the homes of committee people - three Democrats and two Republicans. One of the polling places was in the home of Francis R. Conaway, the Democrats' 57th Ward leader. In the 34th Ward, where city Democratic chairman Robert A. Brady is ward leader, four of the 41 polling sites were in the homes of Democratic committee people. Tomorrow the City Commissioners' Office will consider relocating some of the city polls. Tartaglione, who also is the 62d Ward Democratic leader, is scheduled to preside at the meeting. On the agenda is a proposal to move the polling place for the Ninth Division of the 56th Ward to the home of the local Democratic committee person. Copyright 1994 PHILADELPHIA NEWSPAPERS INC. May not be reprinted without permission.