{"id":257248,"date":"2026-08-01T17:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T17:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/257248\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T17:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T17:35:09","slug":"philadelphia-beyond-the-ballots-series-expands-voter-outreach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/257248\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Beyond the Ballots series expands voter outreach"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia City Commissioners\u2019 Office is betting on the power of Philadelphia\u2019s neighborhoods to help register more eligible voters and keep residents engaged between elections. Through a new initiative called \u201cBeyond the Ballots<\/a>,\u201d the office is bringing free food, music, giveaways and voter education to satellite election offices across the city this summer.\n<\/p>\n

According to recent Census data, <\/a>just above 94% of Philadelphians are eligible to vote. But the city estimates there are still 65,000 eligible Philadelphians who are not currently registered to vote. While Philly voter turnout has remained high<\/a> in presidential elections, participation in off-year contests drops sharply<\/a>, prompting the office to look for ways to connect with voters outside the traditional election season.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought about a way to bridge the gap between an election and an election cycle, and we know that Philly summers are legendary,\u201d said Kalia Baker, the office\u2019s director of communications. \u201cThere are block parties and events everywhere. Especially this summer, we had so many monumental events happening in our city, and we wanted to do our part to offer something free and exciting to our Philadelphia voters at our satellite election offices.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

The 10 Satellite Election Offices <\/a>provide permanent spaces for Philadelphians all over the city to register to vote, drop off or receive election materials like mail-in ballots, and update their registration.\n<\/p>\n

The office\u2019s new initiative<\/a> is increasing programming at these spaces to draw more Philadelphians in. Participants at each event<\/a> can register to vote, explore voter resources, learn how to become a poll worker and connect with community partners.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want voting to feel less like a chore and more like people are really getting their voices heard,\u201d Baker said. \u201cAnd Satellite Election Offices exist for that purpose. We have people who walk in off the street every single day to ask questions or voice concerns. And so this series of events all summer is all about fun, but also our civic duties.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,7573],"class_list":["post-257248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-voter-turnout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}