PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia City Council President Darrell Clarke has yet to make a decision on whether to hold a special election to fill four recently vacated Council seats.
Three of the four former members have announced plans to run for mayor next year, but there are specific rules that have to be followed during the process. The Home Rule Charter requires any officer or employee of the city to resign from their job before running for public office.
With four seats vacant, it’s up to Clarke to decide if they need to be filled right away.
“There is no requirement for him to do it, however, and there is no requirement the Council president call that election at this particular November general election,” explained Philadelphia election attorney Charles Gibbs.
“One of the things that is helpful right now,” he continued, “is that we are having a citywide election because of the governor’s election, the U.S. Senate race, and the state House and the Senate race. So in theory, it would not be a huge burden for the Board of Elections to add in these races onto to a special election ballot.”
Clarke could also push a special election to the same time as the Democratic primary in May 2023, which would not be unprecedented.
“When John Street left City Council in 1998, Darrell Clarke was on the ballot twice in 1999, once running in the primary and also running for the special election to fill the unexpired term,” Gibbs said.
Al Schmidt is the president and CEO of the political watchdog group Committee of Seventy, but he served as a city commissioner for 10 years prior, whose duties included running elections in Philadelphia. He said the commissioners, if they haven’t already, will indicate to Clarke when the “absolute last possible day” will be to call for a special election.
“The one thing you don’t want is a special election or any other factor resulting in a delay of voters’ ballots being mailed out to them or a delay of voters’ votes being counted,” Schmidt said.
Special elections do not have to coincide with regularly scheduled elections, but it is cost-effective.
“Running elections is expensive,” he said, “and you want voters to show up and vote, so it makes sense both in terms of voter turnout and in taxpayers’ dollars to have those elections coincide with elections that are already scheduled.”
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While a special election is not unusual, having four out of 17 City Council seats vacant is, with possibly more to come.
Councilmembers Maria Quiñones Sánchez, Derek Green and Cherelle Parker resigned earlier this week to run in the 2023 mayoral race. Allan Domb stepped down last month but has yet to commit to running for mayor.