The winning U.S. Senate candidates didn't even bother to stop in the city, either. Democrat Bob Casey spent the day in Scranton, according to his spokesperson, Doug Anderson. Virginia Davis, press operative for unopposed Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum never said where her boss was all day.

Voters were so scarce in Bella Vista's Second Ward that Democratic committeemen dozed off in front of the Palumbo Recreation Center. Those who showed up were given ward leader Tony Palmiere's sample ballot. Palmiere, who works for U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, was pushing Lawrence Farnese for the 182nd District house seat.

Farnese, a Center City attorney, unsuccessfully tried to unseat longtime incumbent Babette Josephs. (On Wednesday morning, the Pennsylvania Department of State's Web site had Josephs winning 3,192 to 2,999.) Brady, who is also chair of Democratic City Committee, was unopposed in the primary so he stayed at his ward headquarters all day.

Even the election-day lunch crowd at Famous Deli at Fourth and Bainbridge streets was light. Brady and Gov. Ed Rendell, also unopposed, weren't there, nor was State Sen. Vincent Fumo, who usually takes up several tables. (Rendell, however, had a gaggle of cameras following him around the polling place at East Falls' Mifflin School around 9 a.m.)

The three Democratic candidates for the 175th house district had a presence, though.

Michael O'Brien commandeered a large table in the back of the main dining room, while Terry Graboyes lunched with her crew and Anne Dicker stood around with Vernon Anastasio. O'Brien, who was endorsed by the party, won and will all but assuredly succeed his former boss, State Rep. Marie Lederer, who is not seeking re-election.

O'Brien was supported by John Dougherty and his IBEW Local 98. Even union members, usually a massive presence on the Election Day streets, were scarce. Seems as if Dougherty, a probable 2007 mayoral candidate, was keeping a low profile.

Rendell and Fumo bucked the party and supported Graboyes. Rendell sent out a letter to 175th voters offering his support for her, but apparently O'Brien's slogan, devised by media consultant Elliott Curson, "The experience and the moxie to make things happen," went over bigger. Dicker, said to be in the first wave of new candidates trying to chip away at the party machine, got more votes then Graboyes. (O'Brien had 1,784 votes to Dicker's 1,480 and Graboyes' 1,351.)

Voting machines also had an impact. At the Mayfair School in the 55th ward, Republican ward leader Chris Vogler said he was very concerned that machines were malfunctioning.

"Thank God this isn't the general election," said Vogler, who called election officials with his concerns. "The tape in the voting machines was jamming in several of machines in many divisions."

The city's voting machines were changed from a mechanical lever system to touch screens several years ago and have been problematic since.

But in Lancaster County, home of the horse and buggy, voting machines were a turn-on. Explaining high turnout there, Republican committeeman John Rebman said voters were coming out just to use the newfangled electronic machines.

"We used to have 900-pound lever machines," said Rebman. "The county officials would bring in prisoners on a work program to haul them in to the polling places. But not anymore."

The Swiss Charter of Confederation, the Bundesbrief, will arrive in Philadelphia on June 10 for a special, three-week exhibition of "Sister Republics" at the National Constitution Center (NCC).

The Bundesbrief—a precursor to the Declaration of Independence—was drafted in 1291 during a time of strife in the country; the main cantons of Switzerland had declared themselves an independent country. America's forefathers Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson also used parts of the Bundesbrief as an example before the U.S. Constitution was drafted.

Housed in a museum in a town called Schwyz, the document is written in Latin, and will arrive here in a special bullet-proof case. Some were concerned about the ancient document traveling abroad and resisted the trip, according to the Bundesbrief Museum curator Michel Kaspar, but Swiss officials prevailed. The Bundesbrief visit is part of the Swiss Roots project, an initiative that promotes relations between Americans with Swiss ancestry and the land of their lineage. More than one million Americans are of Swiss decent.