the citizen-viewer

There’s only a week to go before Philadelphia’s primary elections on May 15.

Sure, you got your guys running for mayor and city council. Sheriff too. But the most exciting contest isn’t on the ballot. Not exactly on the ballot, that is.

That’s because the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided that letting Philadelphians vote whether casinos should be built within 1500 feet of their neighborhoods would violate the rights of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to be the only entity that can decide anything about where casinos can go in the state.

On your waterfront? If we say so. In your back yard? If we say so. In your bathtub with you while you’re soaping up? That’s right, if we frigging say so!

Normally, you would think the courts would step in if Philadelphia actually passed and tried to enforce a law that said, in effect, “no, you can’t build them there even if you do frigging say so.” In this case the court stepped in to say that Philadelphians are forbidden from even expressing their will on the issue.

Well, that’s not precisely true. Rather than actually decide, and have to explain its reasoning, the court ordered the question struck from the ballot while it takes its sweet time to decide—and while the election in question passes right on by, into the pages of history.

This after 27,000 Philadelphians signed a petition to put it on the ballot, and after city council voted twice, unanimously, to put it on the ballot. The law says the question goes on the ballot, and the ballots were duly printed up, when the courts made their non-decision on behalf of the gaming board, backed by Foxwoods and SugarHouse. Those are the two well-connected gambling companies that won the licenses to build their giant slot parlors on the city’s waterfront, right next to tight-knit, 150-year-old neighborhoods.

And why did the casinos and their friends in Harrisburg put a stop to the referendum? Maybe because they knew they would lose, and lose bad? No, they say. Because they wanted to save the city from losing money on a referendum that its residents obviously want to vote on, and chose to vote on. Seriously, that’s their reasoning. I’m not kidding.

Whaddaya figure those scrappy Philadelphians did? They said: You won’t let us vote? No, you can’t stop us from voting!

And that’s where the excitement comes in. Can these meddling kids really set up a citywide election in less than three weeks from start to finish? The citizen-viewer is pulling for them. Partly because what they’re doing is ballsy, potentially history-making, and way cool. And partly because this particular citizen-viewer is one of them.

So click on Philly’s Ballot Box and see how it works. Volunteer — hundreds already have, but more are needed to staff the boxes, tally the votes and throw a hellacious victory party when it all comes off.

This is a citizens’ ballot, after all. And if you can’t volunteer, at least vote (yes, you have to be a registered voter in Philadelphia — and in this Philly election you only get to vote once).

This is the people taking democracy into their own hands. And that’s where democracy feels so right.

PS: The new video “Church Casinos” is here.