Committee people are elected every four years during the Pennsylvania primary. The next election of committee people will take place in 2026. An easy way to remember when committee people get elected is to think of it in terms of the Pennsylvania Governor’s nomination – if you are voting to nominate a candidate for Governor in the primary, and you are a Philadelphia resident, chances are there are also committee people on the ballot.
The elected committee people meet after the primary and elect the ward leader, and then the newly elected ward leaders elect the chair of the party for Philadelphia.
The main duty of a committee person is to represent the party to the division. A committee person does this a number of ways. First, they communicate party endorsements to the voters. They do this by canvassing the registered voters before election day, and working as a poll worker outside the polling place handing out literature promoting party choices.
The second way a committee person represents the party is through recruitment. Some wards and candidates hold voter registration drives designed to convert individual voters from one party to their party.
The third way a committee person represents the party is through constituent service. Voters sometimes contact committee people for all sorts of issues that a committee person may be able to solve with an email, letter, or phone call.