Committees
The two major parties structure themselves into “committees” based on geography.
For this discussion, we’ll focus on the Democratic party (but the Republican party operates in the same way).
In PA, there is a Democratic State Committee, and in Philly there is a Democratic City Committee. Each committee has a committee chair. The Chair of the State Committee is Marcel Groen, and the Chair of City Committee is Bob Brady (who is also an elected government official! Confusing, right?)
In Philadelphia, the City Committee endorses candidates, fills vacancies when government officials can’t run or need to leave office, and nominate candidates in special elections. These are the people who control the direction of the Democratic Party in Philly.
Wards
So, in Philly—how do we get from Democratic voters to the Democratic City Committee Chair?
The City of Philadelphia is broken down into 66 wards, and each of these wards is broken into around 20 divisions.
Divisions
Divisions, also called precincts, define where you vote.
You’ve probably heard reporters on election night saying something like, “with 90% of precincts reporting, the winner is so-and-so”? Well, that’s what these entities are.
There are 1686 voting divisions in Philly, each of which is around 8 square blocks. These divisions are the smallest political units in the City—by law they contain between 100 and 1200 people.