Active LWVEF Seeks to Educate and Engage

EF outreach programs and publications available to Leagues
Report on National Ed Fund Activities from LWVUS Council, Summer 2005

LWVEF Programs

There were four main areas of discussion of LWVEF programs.

• Voter outreach
• Election reform activities
• Civic engagement
• Global Democracy outreach

Voter Outreach

1.  There were several publications made available to Leagues for public outreach:

·         Vote! Brochure - This compact, tri-fold brochure is a step-by-step guide to voting and Election Day, especially designed to reach out to new young voters. It covers the five basics: Who can vote, what we'll vote on, when we'll vote, where we'll vote and why we should vote. It also includes registration, absentee ballot and Election Day information, along with a brief list of our Election Day rights. View the brochure on the "E-Library," click on "Publications," then click on "Voter Information." While supplies last, brochures in English (Pub. 2062) and Spanish (Pub. 2063) are available only for $.12 a piece.

·         Citizens Building Communities:  The ABCs of Public Dialogue- This new LWVEF booklet is a first-of-its-kind, designed to share some of the basic principles involved in public dialogue processes and to acquaint the reader with what is needed to organize various types of gatherings, from small- and large-group interactions to online formats. Included are some basic planning questions as well as resources to help the reader conduct citizen engagement through dialogue at the community level. This publication (Pub. 2070) is also available to view in the E-Library. $4.95.  (Note:  Publication includes a discussion of the benefits of both Kettering Foundation formats for discussion - the formal and informal or community conversation discussions.)

·         "5 Things You Need to Know on Election Day" These handy post card sized documents list the basic rights that all voters need to know when voting and were made available to state and local Leagues for distribution to the public.

·         Choosing the President 2004: A Citizen’s Guide to the Electoral Process - The latest edition in the respected League tradition of citizen tools for elections. "Choosing" is an up-to-date, thorough discussion, a nonpartisan and voter-friendly guidebook to the players and events. Especially valuable for students and first-time voters. 2003. (I use this publication to teach my students)

·         Navigating Election Day - This revised edition (2004) of Navigating Election Day is a comprehensive and user-friendly, guide to voting and Election day. Available in PDFs (English and Spanish).

                                                                 

2.  Status of DNet

·         DNet - DNet was a rousing success in 2004, getting nearly 50 million page views! However, because Capitol Advantage does not have the ability to cover local races at this time and nearly all 2005 races are local, DNet will not be operational this year. Because the LWVEF Trustees have a firm commitment to maintaining a nationwide online presence, we are introducing an interim online project for the 2005 election cycle. This project, the Online Voters Guide, will help the League maintain our role as a leading and reliable source of online candidate information. The Online Voters Guide will be a resource where you can make your traditional comprehensive candidate and ballot measure information available to people throughout your state and across the country. The information will be part of the Voter Information section of the LWVUS Web site.  Each League is encouraged to compile a voter's guide for their races and they are uploaded to the LWVUS web site and included in the voter information section of the page.  There are only three state Leagues listed with guides currently on the page.

3. Post-Election Symposium at the National Press Club - Participation in a very high profile post-mortem discussion of the election.

4.  Other Outreach Activities

·         Smackdown Your Vote Coalition

·         PSAs in Spanish

Election Reform Activities by LWVUS

HAVA Related Activites

·         Top 5 Risks to Eligible Voters

·         "Helping America Vote" monograph series for election officials

·         HAVA Implementation Survey was conducted of all states through the state Leagues to determine the status of implementation of HAVA.

·         Participation in the Election Protection Coalition hotline to gather complaints of election irregularities.

·         Participation in the "Future of Education Reform" conference

     Campaign Finance Reform

·         "Our Democracy, Our Airwaves" Program

     Judicial Independence Projects

·         Online and paper voter guides for Judicial Candidates

·         TV Debates for candidates for State Supreme Court positions.

                                                                                   

Civic Engagement Projects

CIVIL LIBERTIES

n       "Local Voices:  Citizen Conversations about Civil Liberties and Secure Communities"**

n       Materials on website

o      Booklet:  "Citizens Building Communities:  The ABC's of Public Dialogue"

o      "Campaign for Civic Mission of Schools*" - *External Support available

o      Preview Forum - Local Dialogues

o      Global Democracy Dialogues**Pass thru grants for Leagues available

     GLOBAL DEMOCRACY-DOMESTIC - Helping understand America's role in the world today

     COMMUNITY FORUMS **Pass thru grants for Leagues available

o      THE PEOPLE SPEAK - Better World Foundation

o      WOMEN ENGAGING GLOBALLY - Open Society Institute-DC

o      BY THE PEOPLE-  McNeil/Lehrer Productions

 GLOBAL DEMOCRACY - INTERNATIONAL -Strengthening Grassroots Democracy Abroad 
**Pass thru grants for Leagues available

o      ELECTIONS AND POLITICAL PROCESSES**

o      HOSTING FOREIGN VISITORS**

o      WOMEN IN GLOBAL LEADERSHIP **

o      GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY**

o      CIVIL SOCIETY - TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY**

 GLOBAL DEMOCRACY-INTERNATIONAL -Strengthening Grassroots Democracy Abroad

The following programs were implemented in international locations:

Latin America	Caribbean	Africa	Europe and Eastern Europe
Brazil* Women  Leaders/Elections	Jamaica* Advocacy	Malawi* Elections	Russia* Visitors
Chile* Transparency		Kenya* Transparency	Ukraine, Lithuania** Visitors
Paraguay* Transparency		Nigeria** Elections	Uzbekistan** Visitors
Cuba*** Women Leaders			Azerbaijan** Civil Society
*Have worked or continue to work in these countries	**Proposals submitted decision pending	***Proposals in progress

NEW INITIATIVES AND POSSIBILITIES

o      DNet -

o      Other technologies for voter information

o      Poll worker recruitment and training

o      Polling place management and operations

o      New citizens education

o      Judicial Independence - new phase

o      Redistricting

o      Civil Liberties/Homeland Security

LWVUS Election Issues

Gracia Hillman Chair, US Election Assistance Commission discussed HAVA issues, non-voting, and citizen engagement.  

o        HAVA helps address the issues of voters but does not address the issues related to non-voting by large numbers of eligible citizens.  Encouraged LWV to continue work in this area.

o        Use of college and high school aged poll workers - Workers were trained and the benefit was they had "ownership" in the political process beyond voting.  Can stress the service aspect for high school students as they are most active in this area these days.  This was a very interesting idea. 

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS HONORS SIX SCHOOLS, LOCAL LEAGUE WITH NATIONAL STUDENT/PARENT MOCK ELECTION AWARDS

Six schools from across the nation and one local League were recently presented the National Student/Parent Mock Election Awards.  The groups that received the award include: The Albany Park Community Center of Chicago, Illinois; Bassett Elementary School of Van Nuys, California; Brighton Central School District of Rochester, New York; Jackson Street School of Northampton, Massachusetts; League of Women Voters of Moscow, Idaho; St. Paul Lutheran School of Grafton, Wisconsin and The Oakland School of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The awardees went above and beyond in their Mock Election efforts:

• The "Albany Park Votes!" project combined child and adult education with registration of hard-to-reach new voters.
• Bassett Elementary School students learned about several elements of the electoral process, including debate, democracy, polling and voting.
• Brighton Central School District students wrote and starred in public service announcements encouraging students to take an active role in the democratic process.
• Jackson Street students created a City Hall exhibit on voter registration and held a candlelight vigil encouraging voter turnout.
• The LWV of Moscow turned its local fairground into an "Election Headquarters" where over 2,000 students voted.
• The St. Paul Lutheran School students scripted and filmed a news broadcast, canvassed voters and held a Town Hall meeting.
• The Oakland School students learned about the electoral process through workshops with elections officials and participated in get-out-the-vote activities in their community.

Election Reform in the States

This was a very interesting discussion, though we had to leave before I was able to give our report to the group.  We had very little to report in comparison to the problems being discussed by Georgia and Ohio. 

Ohio

Of course Ohio became the Florida of 2004 when the judge attempted to restrict voter registration by restricting registration forms to a certain paperweight.  The Ohio delegate discussed this at great length adding that the Judge’s office itself had the wrong weight paper to meet the requirement.  The Ohio League sued over several issues:  the registration paper, absentee ballots for example.  They won lower court decisions in the case of the absentee ballots that were not being counted if they were cast in the wrong polling place, but lost the appellate case. 

Georgia

The Georgia LWV president indicated that Georgia may become a plaintiff in a suit against the state due to the new voter identification bill.  See information below.

The Georgia General Assembly passed a new voter identification bill despite protests from Democrats, especially African-American lawmakers. Black Democrats walked out of the Senate and House when early versions of the bill initially passed. The measure would require voters to show one of six forms of government-issued photo identification at the polls. Previously, voters had been able to show 17 forms of identification, including utility bills, hunting and fishing licenses, and bank statements. The bill also allows voters to cast an absentee ballot for any reason.

Black lawmakers, civil rights groups, AARP, labor unions, the League of Women Voters of Georgia and the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund lobbied furiously against the bill, saying it could turn elderly, minority and poor voters away from the polls.

This may be of concern in Alabama - we should be vigilant.  We currently accept many different forms of identification and some legislators would prefer that we revise our law in a similar fashion.

Submitted by

Scarlett Gaddy,

Director, LWVAL-EF