Thomas Fitzgerald

Philadelphia Enquirer

The ad was seductive, and meant to be: seven women, all Hollywood stars, talking about "My First Time."

"I did a lot of research on the positions I liked," actress Angie Harmon said.

The women were talking about their first voting experiences, and how satisfying they were, as part of a campaign by Women's Voices. Women Vote, a group devoted to increasing the number of single women who go to the polls.

An estimated 20 million unmarried women did not vote in the 2004 presidential election.

In Pennsylvania, the group targeted 40,046 single women in Bucks and Delaware Counties who, records showed, had rarely, if ever, voted. Each woman received two pieces of mail and two phone-bank reminder calls. In addition, slightly more than 6,000 of the targeted women received two visits from canvassers.

Did it work?

The national exit poll conducted for the networks and the Associated Press found that 18 percent of those who voted in Pennsylvania last Tuesday were unmarried women. That was right at the national average, and several percentage points higher than in states where there were no special efforts to entice unmarried women to vote.

For the record, unmarried women here favored Democrat Bob Casey Jr. over GOP incumbent Sen. Rick Santorum, by 69 percent to 31 percent. (Exit polls were conducted in only statewide elections, not in congressional races.)