Thank You, Comissioner Schmidt!

I just voted thanks to the hard work of a public servant who clearly knows the meaning of constituent service.

The City Commissioners' office had mailed me a ballot on May 1, but it never arrived. I'd repeatedly tried to contact them about it but, until a couple days ago, I hadn't reached anyone who could help me.

Then I got a text from Joanne Beer with Philly for Bernie checking on whether I'd voted yet, and I explained my situation to her. She gave me a different number from those I'd tried up to that point.

The first time I tried it I was promised a follow-up from someone who had just come in but never actually called back. When I tried again later, I got their voice mail, from which I learned it was Republican City Commissioner Al Schmidt's office. I've met him a couple times.

This time, however, I did get a call back Friday evening, from Commissioner Schmidt himself. He said he could come by where I live today and give me an emergency ballot to go fill out in private someplace nearby, then seal and give back to him.

I started to get anxious as five o'clock came and I hadn't heard from him. He informed me his operations had been greatly hampered by effects of the rioting last night. But he arrived at about 6:40 with my ballot.

Except for the state house offices, I'd already had a chance to see who and what was on the ballot so I didn't need to ponder much as I was actually filling it out on a bench outside my residence. Since I saw no challenger to stinker Josh Shapiro, I wrote in my friend Chris Votey for state Attorney General.