| November 2022
Editor Jennifer Bales
communications@lwvbc.org
| | | |
for November 2022
By Elizabeth Crowe | | |
Hello everyone -
We're in the final week of voting for the November 2022 election, and I'm thankful for League members who worked so hard the past few months to enable Boulder County voters to be informed and vote smart! This includes our Ballot Issue Team, led by Judy Mares-Dixon, Voter Outreach led by Pirie Jensen, VOTE411 led by Carol Brown and Candidate Forum Team led by Jo Porter. Emma Piller, our Voter Services Director helped track and tie these activities together along with Ana Lemarque, our Operations Coordinator who provided logistical support and coordination for so many activities including arranging for Spanish language interpretation for each of our virtual events. Shout-out to our Election Timing Study Team for providing public fora for understanding the City of Boulder even-year election ballot issue as well.
To ALL of our 2022 election season volunteers: THANK YOU!
One of our final election season activities is to determine our own organizational position on 2022 ballot issues. And boy, is it a full ballot! For members not familiar with this process, League draws upon our decades of national, state and local policy positions -- which we call Program Positions -- as the basis for supporting or opposing issues that appear on the ballot. We need to have a relevant, existing position in order for LWVBC to take a support/oppose position. If we don't have such a position already, or we have multiple, relevant positions that contradict each other, we remain neutral. In past years, there have been many high-profile and highly-contentious ballot issues for which League remains neutral. Not because we shy away from tough issues, but because it's most important that we follow League process with integrity. Remaining neutral is not a bad thing, and each League member can and should exercise their own judgment and right to vote how you choose.
To see where LWVBC landed on 2022 ballot issue positions -- and for all the ballot issue write-ups in English and Spanish -- visit our Election 2022 page. If you haven't voted yet, or if you know others who have not yet cast their ballot, please share this and ALL League resources from our website or the bilingual VOTE411.org site.
Last but not least: a huge thank you to the Fund Development team and other members who recruited Election Season Sponsors to help cover expenses for our 2022 efforts. What an amazing group of generous donors! We've nearly met our $5,000 fundraising goal and have a wonderful set of new partnerships to deepen in coming years. Check them out on our 2022 Election webpage.
| LWVBC Candidate Forums and Issue Presentations | The League of Women Voters of Boulder County held three ballot issues forums and seven Candidate forums online for this year's election. We had a record high webinar attendance of 75 for Superior Forum, and collaborated with Sergio Angeles of Longmont Public Media, Suzanne Crawford of Sister Carmen, and Suntali Donahue of Lafayette Youth Advisory Commission. You can watch the forums and presentations in English and Spanish on our YouTube channel here. Below is a screenshot of our City of Longmont candidate forum - one of our most popular this year.
In addition, we held an in-person ballot issues forum at Frasier Meadows with an attendance of over 100 people! And a community conversation on the timing of elections was held at Elevations Credit Union, diagonal branch.
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LWVBC members Emma Piller, Judy Dixon, and Celeste Landry (left to right) were hosted by KGNU's Shannon Young on October 5 for a call-in show to discuss the 2022 election. Listen to the show here. | | | Access for Voters with Disabilities | | Voters with visual, perceptual, reading, and eye-hand disabilities can now vote an electronic ballot from their own home or another location. See who qualifies and full details on the Colorado Secretary of State webpage here. Thanks to the DDRC for the information. | | | |
By Jeannette Hillery and Debby Vink | A dozen Leaguers toured the Eco-Cycle Recycling Center on October 18th. This center that was built using recycled materials for benches, paint for walls, and carpets made from recycled plastic, handles 60,000 tons of recyclables a year. This is handled in one 10 hour shift per day. They receive funding from hauler fees and end markets. The center became single-stream to encourage more people to recycle. Only 11% of the material collected ends up in the land fill. They recover 89%. The process is impressive. It uses a combination of people, machinery, magnets for steel and robots to process and sort.
| | Some of Ecocycle's equipment for sorting collected materials for recycling | | Left to right: Kay Meyer, Taylor Ladenburg, Chandra Valenza, and Jackie Pine | | |  | LWVBC member Celeste Landry (center in the above photo) attended the Washington, DC Women’s Wave March on October 8, 2022 while in the area visiting family. Not surprisingly, this year’s march focused much more on abortion rights than the Women’s Marches of 2017 to 2020. Many people wore t-shirts emblazoned with 1973, the year of Roe v Wade. Much of the language on signs seemed cruder or more vulgar – less League-like – than in past years. Here is a sampling of some of the milder “Public Cervix Announcements”:
Regulate Guns – Not Ovaries
We are NOT Ovary-Acting
18 and Ready to Roe Roe Roe My Vote
Roe-vember is Coming
Nurses for Safe Abortions
Abortion Bans = Unsafe Abortions
This was also the first big Women’s March since Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. Some signs referenced her:
Ruth Sent Us Here
We Are Now Ruthless – Act Accordingly
Some marchers showed support for Iranians protesting women’s hijab requirement and the recent death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old, in the custody of the Iranian Morality Police (see below).
Many of these signs no doubt also appeared at marches in Colorado. The Washington, DC march also featured calls for statehood.
Enjoy the rest of the photo gallery here.
| Welcome to these new members who joined in October: Bourke Kennedy, Anita Frant, Hazel Cope, Brooke Tellinger, Kristen Young, Jess Alschuler, Joanna Barnes and Carol Charles.
Thank You for Your Membership Longevity. The following members were recognized at the Fall Kick off for their loyal membership over the years.
Life Members (50 years or more): Louise Lindsey, Joanne Turner, Laurene Thompson, Leatrice Segel, Joyce Davies, Virginia Boucher, Janet Gollin, Alice Wallace, Anne Norwood, Anne Holmes, Louisa Young, Ellen Gille, Flodie Anderson, Marsha Caplan, Karlene Ferguson, Joan McConkey, Betty Wickstrom, Deborah Hayes, Lynn Whitman, Lois Linsky, Judith Reid and Nancy Allen.
45 Year Members: Louisa Matthias, Elizabeth Nick, James Saunders and Elinor Baron.
25 Year Member: Frieda Holley
15 Year Members: Elizabeth Valent and Susan Saunders
10 Year Members: Judy Bicknell, John Dunn, Catherine Harada, Maribel Williams, Laura Coates, Frank Venturo and Ruth Stemler.
5 Year Members: Eric Cornell, Gretchen Diefenderfer, Sharon Malloy, Lori Peddie, Geneva Fisher, Marta Lindrose, Susan Perrins, Paul Monkman, Jennie Arbogash, Anne Bryan and Mary Ann Watson.
Website Tip of the Month: How to change the Interests (Climate Action, Gun Safety, etc.) you have selected:
1. Login to lwvbc.org
2. Click the down arrow to the right of your name in the upper righthand corner of the screen.
3. In the dropdown menu click on “Profile.”
4. Locate the box with the title “Your Website Functions” and click within it.
5. Click on “Interests.”
6. Click on those Interests you choose or uncheck Interests you no longer choose.
7. Be sure to save your change(s).
The leader of the Interest you have selected or unselected will be notified of your Interest change. You should no longer receive emails regarding an Interest you have unchecked, but should hear from the leader of any Interest you have added. While you are in your profile, notice the other items available for you to view and update, such as “Additional Member Data” and “Basic Member Information.”
| Thanks to our Election Sponsors | This is [Not] Who We Are Documentary | |