April 2025
Editor Jennifer Bales
jbales@me.com
| Co-Presidents Susan Saunders and Peggy Leech | | By Peggy Leech and Susan Saunders | Some of you may be wondering where our “Annual Meeting” materials are, which usually come out in the April Voter. This year, we decided to put out a regular April Voter early in the month, and then the Annual Meeting materials, such as Nominating Committee report and Budget, later in the month. The slate of officers is in this newsletter and will be included in the Annual Meeting materials.
See other articles in this issue of the Voter, for upcoming events on April 26, May 1, and May 31, plus some recaps of March activities from Holly Monkman. In addition, rumor has it that there will be a Drinks and Dialog event in June or possibly July, for the first time in over 5 years.
All these opportunities through LWVBC help to provide a sense of camaraderie during the barrage of news we have all experienced for the last few months. LWVUS and LWVCO are both encouraging members to participate in the “Hands Off” protests on Saturday, April 5. There are events scheduled in Boulder, Longmont, and at the state capitol in Denver. See more details at the Hands Off website. | May Fundraiser: Carter Center's Jonathon Stonestreet on
"Building Civic Engagement Abroad and in the U.S."
| | Be sure to join us for LWVBC’s fundraiser on Thursday May 1 from 6:30 - 8 at the Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder. We are honored to have as our speaker Jonathan Stonestreet of The Carter Center! Mr. Stonestreet, Associate Director of The Carter Center’s Democracy Program, will speak on Building Civic Engagement Abroad and in the U.S. He has worked with leaders in many countries throughout Eastern Europe, Asia and Northern Africa on building democracies and securing elections. | | | This is the first fundraiser LWVBC has held since 2020! With the changes LWVUS has made in the dues structure, LWVBC will be losing 16 percent of the dues we have depended on to support our frugal budget. Seating on May 1 will be limited so buy your tickets soon! Register Here.
On another fundraising note, happily I can report that income from grocery cards has been rising. Thank you to all who have signed up to take advantage of the donations Safeway and King Soopers send to LWVBC from each of your shopping trips.Sign up details here.
It’s so easy to sign up for automatic donations to LWVBC. See several donation options here.
| Climate Action Team Is Planning a Trash Cleanup Day | What with all the winds that we’ve had this winter, there seems to be trash, including huge amounts of plastic, scattered everywhere throughout the county. The trash is an eyesore, but the plastic can be a killer.
In the elements of wind, heat and cold, the plastics break down into tiny plastic particles (microplastics) less than 5 millimeters in length. Microplastics are found in the water, soil and air and kill living things. For example, birds consume the microplastics and then ingest or feed the particles to baby birds, which results in a horrible death. Eventually, microplastics break down into even smaller sizes (i.e., nanoplastics) which, studies have shown, affect the respiratory and cardiovascular health of humans and animals.
Consequently, we humans must make a concerted effort to limit our use of plastics. But we also need to make it a habit to collect and dispose of plastic littering our roadways, trees and fences. This must be an ongoing activity, not just something we just do on Earth Day each year.
The Climate Action Team (CAT), in partnership with Eco-Cycle, will be conducting a trash cleanup day on April 26, 2025. We are still working out the details as to the exact time and meeting place in the Boulder area, but please save the date. In a week or so, check the lwvbc.org website, click on “Get Involved” and “Attend an Event” to see the complete information on how to sign up and attend the April 26th event.
Even if you can’t help on April 26th, please consider joining the CAT team. Alternatively, please help with other CAT or Eco-Cycle events in the future.
|  | Organizations Urge Commission to Ignore
Trump’s Executive Order on Elections | | By Celeste Landry, co-leader of the LWVBC Voting Methods Team | On March 25th Donald Trump signed an executive order entitled, “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.” Executive Order here. The Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold immediately put out a press release stating, “Trump’s executive order is unlawful.”
On March 27th LWVUS, the Brennan Center for Justice, the ACLU Foundation, the NAACP and its Legal Defense Fund sent a Joint Letter to the US Election Assistance Commission to “urge the Commission to take no action in response to the Executive Order.”
You can read the executive order and the joint letter in response at the respective links above, but one important paragraph from the letter is copied below:
The Order purportedly directs the Commission to: (1) amend the federal voter registration form to include a requirement for “documentary proof of United States citizenship;” (2) withhold funding from states that do not include a documentary proof of citizenship requirement as set forth in the Order, or that do not reject mail ballots received after Election Day even if timely under state law; and (3) amend the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines, including to prohibit the use of certain voting systems, and rescind all previous certifications of state systems. These directives are unlawful and the Commission should take no action in response.
| | The joint letter points out that “if the Commission acts to amend VVSG 2.0 in accordance with the Order, any changes must follow the specific timelines and processes for adopting VVSG guidelines set by federal law.” The LWVBC Voting Methods Team participated in the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines (VVSG) comment process in 2020 and 2021 prior to the adoption of VVSG 2.0 and again in 2023 during a review process. The LWVBC Board approved the submission of the team’s comments. | LWVCO Religious Freedom Position & LWVUS Judiciary Study
Consensus Meeting Report
| The LWVBC March 2025 Consensus Meetings for the Proposed LWVCO Religious Freedom Position and the LWVUS Judiciary Study were held on Thursday, March 13th and Sunday, March 16th. They were hybrid meetings and there were 23 members in attendance, not counting members at both meetings twice.
Holly Monkman introduced the purpose of the meeting, reviewed League terminology, and presented the proposed religious freedom position. Jennifer Bales and Louisa Young led the discussion for the 12 consensus statements for the judiciary study.
Proposed Religious Freedom Position: While most members generally approved of the proposed position, some edits were suggested and raised the level of member support for the position statement. In particular, the term “religious nationalism” was not well-defined and might not have a widely accepted definition into the future.
Judiciary Study: LWVUS provided 12 consensus statements related to Federal Judiciary independence for Local Leagues to weigh-in on. Members could express levels for consensus from strongly agree, moderately agree, moderately disagree, strongly disagree, or no consensus. Additionally, comments & feedback were recorded and were submitted to LWVUS via the survey form on March 24th. There was moderate or strong consensus on most of the statements, in some cases with recommended edits.
| If You Missed the Screening of Counted Out…
| On Sunday, March 9th LWVBC co-hosted a screening of Counted Out - Math is Power, with Longmont Public Media and the Longmont Museum. Catherine Carter, with PhET Interactive Simulations, led the discussion after the film. A fellow LWV member forwarded feedback that she received, "The National Numeracy Network has managed to schedule a couple of online screenings of Counted Out, but thanks to LWV, I was able to catch it ‘live’ today in Longmont. Excellent documentary, good attendance, great audience response and great facilitation. Thanks!" Check out the shout-out we received from the film team on Instagram! (Crowd shown at left below; Instagram post at right).
If you missed it or want to recommend it to a friend, look for upcoming screenings on the film’s website. Many Colorado schools are hosting the film and the next screening in Boulder County is April 22nd at the BioFrontiers Institute, open to the public with registration required.
| |
By Susan Curtis
Membership count: 215 | | | Welcome to these new members who joined in February: Gabriella Subia Smith; Janel Williamson; Noelle Silva; Krista Nordback; Alice Ierley; Eleri Robinson; Deborah Jenkins; Katie Torres; and Patricia Wetherbee. We are so happy you have joined us!
Annual Meeting, Saturday, May 31
Please mark your calendar for our Annual Meeting, Saturday, May 31, at Rule4, 3002 Bluff Street, Suite 100, Boulder, Colorado 80301. The meeting begins at 9 a.m. with coffee and social time. At 9:30, the keynote speaker, Stacy Feldman, founder and publisher of the Boulder Reporting Lab, will speak about the importance of local journalists in our democracy. The business meeting will follow Stacy’s presentation.
We recognize the difficulties many in our community are having in providing food for their families. Please bring canned or nonperishable foods to the Annual meeting. These donated foods will be given to EFAA (Emergency Family Assistance Association).
Membership Management Systems Difficulties Continue
We are experiencing an extremely low rate of membership renewals which we believe is linked to the new system not sending renewal notices as we expected would be done. You, our members, are our lifeline! If you are unsure of your renewal date or have tried to renew and been unsuccessful, please reach out to the Membership Team, membershipdirector@lwvbcv.org.
We so appreciate your patience and understanding as we continue to juggle data integration and communication problems. Please reach out to Susan Curtis, Membership Director, if you are unsure of your membership renewal date, have difficulty logging in or have questions. Susan’s email addresss is membershipdirector@lwvbc.org. A Membership Team member will get in touch with you.
| LWVBC Petition Now in Boulder City Council’s Hands
| | By the LWVBC Voting Methods Team | In the March VOTER newsletter, we reported on an LWVBC petition to Boulder City Council asking the council to hold a comprehensive study session on proportional representation in city council elections. We surpassed our goal of 500 signatures within two months of beginning the petition drive, ultimately turning in almost 600 signatures at the March 20th council meeting.
| | | Boulder’s current multi-winner council elections are winner-take-all, meaning that the largest bloc of voters can elect all the council members. Proportional representation would mean that every sizable bloc of voters – dog lovers, renters, east Boulderites, cyclists, whatever – could elect a person who most closely represents them. The more seats being filled in the election, the smaller the voting bloc need be to fill a single seat.
Thanks to all who signed the petition! If you run into any Boulder council members, please reiterate our request for a study session on proportional representation.
We’d also like to especially thank a couple of students who each collected 50 signatures: Boulder High student Rafael Hernandez Guerrero, who did a science fair project on the effect of winner-take-all council elections on Latino representation, and CU student and RCV for Longmont co-founder Dillon Rankin.
RCV for Longmont is also collecting signatures on a petition to ask Longmont to consider using “Ranked Choice Voting” for their municipal elections – specifically, Instant-Runoff Voting for any single-winner contests, such as mayor, and electing several council members in a proportional Single Transferable Vote multi-winner contest. Longmont residents can contact LWVBC member Gaythia Weis to sign the petition or go to https://www.rcvforlongmont.org/ for more information.
Speaking of websites, the directions to our Voting Methods Team’s webpage are slightly shorter now. Find us at lwvbc.org > Teams > Voting Methods.
| | For a belated tribute to Women’s History Month, check out this 30-minute video featuring a few residents of Frasier Meadows, including LWVBC member Kay Forsythe. Residents share stories from their personal lives that show we’ve come a long way, but there is still work to do.
| | | Officer Slate for Annual Meeting
| | Materials for the Annual Meeting to be held on May 31, 2025, will arrive in a separate document. The proposed officer slate is also shown below. | In Memory: Gwendolyn Wharton
1943-2025 | | LWVBC member Gwen Wharton passed away on February 1 of this year. Gwen had been a League of Women Voters for over thirty years, the last fourteen years since moving to Boulder County. Linda Hultman, a long-time LWVBC member, recalls bonding with Gwen over their shared experience as school nurses and former residents in Illinois. Gwen participated with the LWVBC Schools Team and with Voter Service. Gwen’s husband Bill said that in Illinois Gwen helped the League of Women Voters organize candidates to speak at League events. Please see Gwen’s obituary here. | | | In Memory: Joyce Davies
1926-2025 | Joyce Davies, a LWV life member, died on March 11, at the age of 98. She is widely known as the co-founder and longtime leader of the nonprofit Historic Boulder who ensured the preservation of many of Boulder’s beautiful buildings. In interviews in 2011 and 2012, Joyce attributed her success to her LWV experience in the 1950s and 1960s.
Born in Rhode Island in 1926 and educated there, Joyce was teaching home economics in Providence, RI, in 1958, when her husband took a job at the National Bureau of Standards (now National Institute of Standards and Technology). In Boulder, Joyce joined LWV and discovered the excitement of effective civic engagement. Three women had particular influence on her: Janet Roberts, who was elected to City Council, an unusual role for women at that time; Ruth Correll, the city’s first woman mayor; and Ruth Wright, environmental activist, later elected to the state legislature. | | | Joyce served a term as Boulder LWV president, 1967–1969. She was a unit (member meeting) leader and held other positions on and off board—“everything but board secretary,” she told an interviewer. “I wanted to participate, not listen and take notes.” In 2011, when she perused LWV Member Handbooks from the 1960s and 1970s, she noticed that the officers “were all women who continued in Boulder’s development.” In the 1970 handbook, women acquired first names—“Mrs. Kenneth Davies” was now "Joyce Davies (Mrs. Kenneth)."
From among the many local issues, Joyce was drawn to environmental planning and growth management. The population was rapidly increasing. How could the natural environment and mountain backdrop be protected? She joined the PLAN-Boulder County group and served as its president. She was appointed to Boulder’s Greenbelt Advisory Board, which became the Open Space Board of Trustees.
But she also saw a need to preserve the built environment. She had grown up with old buildings and loved them. Drawing upon her League experience, she organized ways to raise public awareness and support. Historic Boulder, formed in 1972, drafted a historic preservation ordinance, which City Council unanimously adopted in 1974 as Chapter 11 of Title 9, the Land Use Code.
Thank you, Joyce Davies.
For more information about Joyce:
Obituary
Oral History Interview, January 11, 2011, for the Oral History Program at Carnegie Library in Boulder.
50+ Years in the League - Stories From Our Life Members
| |