City leaders push to get people registered to vote ahead of deadline

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The line of cars backed up a block, but it wasn't because of a traffic jam.

"This is voter registration weekend," said Pennsylvania state senator Vincent Hughes to a crowd of people.

Hughes helped organize a 'votercade' parading around West Philadelphia Saturday to get the community registered to vote.

"With a special message that real black men vote," he said.

The crowd of state reps and senators was also celebrating the opening of one of the city's newest satellite election offices at Alain Locke School, where Philadelphia 76ers' guard Matisee Thybulle cast his ballot.

"This is the most important election of our lives. We are fighting for our health, we are fighting for investment in cities, we're fighting to be free from white supremacy, and we're fighting to protect our democracy," said councilmember Jamie Gauthier. "All of it is on the line."

In South Philadelphia, Chef Nia Minard and the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Program handed out free food to voters waiting in a long line at the high school for performing arts.

"There's a lot of important things to decide, and we want people to come out, and we want to make it fun and enjoyable to vote and participate in our democracy," said Andy Toy of the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Program.

The long line was duplicated at City Hall, where Pride at the Polls hoped to encourage the LGBTQ+ community to get registered before the deadline.

"The difference between the republican and democratic winner last time in pa was 68,000 when there were more than 150,000 unregistered LGBTQ+ people in the commonwealth. We're not going to let that happen this time," said Jonathan Lovitz, who helped found phillyvoting.org.

While Monday, October 19, is the last day to register to vote, the city's satellite election offices will be open through election day.