| September, 2020
Editor Jennifer Bales
communications@lwvbc.org | | A PDF version of this newsletter is available here. Please allow a day or two from this mailing for the PDF to be uploaded. | | | | It’s Fall Kickoff time for LWV of Boulder County: an annual event for members and friends to celebrate our work, acknowledge our mission and goals, and get energized for the busy League year ahead. Please mark your calendars for Sunday, September 13, 1 – 3 PM and register for this virtual event today! |
The Kickoff is the gateway to our election season activities, and there are a lot of them. Our local League has seven more registration drive events; research, write-ups and virtual public presentations about initiatives appearing on the ballot; 10 or more candidate forums to schedule, host and provide video online. Our members are working hard to promote National Popular Vote (and you can too!), and inform community members about use of alternative voting methods.
| | |  | Support LWVBC
As we move through this critical election season – in League’s 100th Anniversary year! – we’re reaching out for your help to provide quality voter services and advocacy in Boulder County. Your support will mean we can confidently invest in voter service and advocacy activities, even with challenges posed by the pandemic.
Recurring Donations
We need your support! Please help LWVBC reach our fundraising goal. We've had 12 members respond to our monthly recurring donation campaign already, as well as raising over $2000 in one-time gifts. As we move through this critical election season – in League’s 100th Anniversary year! – we’re reaching out for your help to provide quality voter services and advocacy in Boulder County.
We’re continuing our 100 Years Strong fundraising campaign this summer with a goal of 100 people committing to recurring monthly donations of at least $20.00 per month for a year. Will you make a monthly donation to LWVBC in 2020? The first 25 donors who sign up for a monthly recurring donation of $20.00 or more will receive a special 100th Anniversary pin to mark this milestone year!
You can sign up to make monthly recurring donations online at lwvbc.org (if you are a member of LWVBC—be sure to login as a member to see this option). Click on the schedule recurring donation option under LWVBC General Fund. Need help? Contact Mandy at 303.499.4544 or mandynuku@lwvbc.org
King Soopers and AmazonSmile Loyalty Rewards
Support the LWVBC with purchases you already make. Designate us for donations at AmazonSmile and link your King Soopers loyalty card to LWVBC. Detailed instructions here.
|
100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment: A Virtual Panel Discussion
LWVBC is collaborating with the CU University Libraries on an event September 15. Panelists from LWVBC will include Rachael Willihnganz, Hannah Crowe, Jackie Alderete, and Rossana Longo.
| | | August 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women’s right to vote. Join the University Libraries, the League of Women Voters Boulder County, and Associate Professor Celeste Montoya on Tuesday, September 15 at 4:00-5:30 to celebrate the anniversary with a virtual event.
Our panelists will discuss the history of the long struggle for women's suffrage, the challenges in the years since the Amendment was passed, and the League of Women Voters’ “She is Me” project. Please join us and engage in the discussion.
Registration is free and open to all. Connection information will be shared via email following registration.
https://colorado.libcal.com/calendar/events/19th-amendment-100 |
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
How can you commit to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in LWVBC? Working on your personal equity journey? Here are some resource recommendations to get you started.
Books:
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Video: The Urgency of Intersectionality
Podcast: Code Switch
|
LWVUS Take Action
The League of Women Voters of the United States provides information on activities and issues as well as opportunities for members to take action on the Take Action page. For example, the Protect the Postal Service page provides background on the importance of the USPS and a form to contact your Senator directly.
| Vote411 in Spanish
Supporting Spanish-speaking voters through VOTE411 has long been a dream at the League, and we are so grateful to the strong partnership of the NALEO Educational Fund (National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials) team in making this a reality. Together, we’ve made the critical election information that voters rely on available in both English and Spanish.
| She Is Me at LWVCO Website
Explore diverse stories of those who have shaped past and present progress for voting rights, and join us in this movement as we celebrate 100 years of fighting for democracy. The She Is Me is online campaign celebrates 100 years of League work through the inter-generational stories of our real League of WomenVoters members.
LWVBC member Hannah Rain Crowe profiled League members local to Colorado. Ranging in age from 16 to 95 years old and from many diverse backgrounds and identities, these League members exemplify the strength, passion and tenacity of our organization. Read their stories here! Includes Shiquita Yarbrough, Eva Muniz Valdez, Jessica Hoke, Molly Saunders, Rossana Longo, Florence Field, Sarah Shuwarger, and Jeanine Pow.
|
“Yes on National Popular Vote, Prop. 113” – Help Spread the Word
The League of Women Voters of Boulder County has partnered with Yes On National Popular Vote to help promote a Yes vote on Proposition 113 to keep Colorado in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. We started off with our postcard writing campaign & so many of you stepped up to help out that LWVBC completed 10,000 postcards! Thank you so much! I thought it was a stretch to set the goal at 10,000 but you made it happen.
But our work isn’t done. It’s time for the next phase. Here are 4 ways you can continue to help get National Popular Vote across the finish line in November:
- Sign up to send texts.This is a fun way you can help us connect with individual Colorado voters about Proposition 113, at times that are convenient for you. It is completely anonymous, except for using your first name, because we supply the number you are texting from. If you are interested in joining the texting team please click here to get started.
- Request a yard sign. Yard signs will be available soon. We will have 3 yard sign distribution sites for LWVBC: Longmont, Louisville & Boulder. Contact your closest distributor/team leader listed below to find out when & where to pick up your signs.Be sure to grab a few for friends & family too.
- Know a local elected leader that might be willing to endorse Prop. 113? If so, would you introduce them to Senator Mike Foote? (mjbfoote@gmail.com). He was the State Senate sponsor for the National Popular Vote bill & has joined Yes On National Popular Vote to help it pass in November.
- Address & stamp postcards.In September we will be kicking off the effort to get the NPV postcards to voters addressed & stamped.Addresses & stamps will be provided.Let Peggy, Ruth or Holly know if you’d like to help & we’ll contact you when we’re ready.
National Popular Vote Team Leaders:
Longmont - Ruth Stemler, rjstemler@gmail.com
Louisville – Peggy Leech, pegleech@aol.com
Boulder – Holly Monkman, hmonkman7@gmail.com
| | From Membership
By Debby Vink
Renew, Renew, Renew!! Please renew your membership as soon as you receive an email notice that it is due! Click the link in the email, or you may mail a check (click Read More below for address). Since the majority of us renew on September 30, most of you will have already received one notice the first of this month to remind you to renew. If you delay renewing, you’ll receive two more notices. The last one is mailed to you. | | | How well do you know our website? There are interesting spots on our website that you may not have found yet. Do you know where to find a video of Mike Foote talking about National Popular Vote?
Virtual Member Coffees! The Fall Kick-Off Meeting will replace the Virtual Member Coffee for September. The next Virtual Member Coffee will be Saturday, October 17 at 10:00am.
Welcome to our newest members! Karen Cronin, Aimee Kane, Tracy Sondeen, Tiffany Hays, Leila Vale, Jeanne Capachin, Morgan McGarvey, Dee Parker, Elisabeth Bowman, Leila Vale, Naomi Uesaka, Jennifer Kaaoush, Laurel Herndon, Linda Wolpert, Shelby Bates, Priscilla Newbury and student members Anjali Velamala and Helen Reed Bryan.
| Census Updates
by Peggy Leech
In these days of the pandemic, volunteers from LWVBC have been involved in the 2020 Census in different ways than we had originally envisioned. Thanks to all who have participated!
- Throughout the summer, volunteers at voter registration drives have been reminding people about the Census. For those who have not yet completed their census, our volunteers hand out information in English and Spanish about how to complete the census online or by telephone.
- In early August, approximately 15 LWVBC volunteers helped with a texting campaign to 3 low-responding demographics, sending over 28,000 texts to residents of Boulder County.
On July 30, census enumerators started their work knocking on doors, and this work will continue through September 30. It is not too late to self-respond, to avoid a knock on the door.
Once the counting ends on September 30, the Census Bureau will have until December 31 to deliver the apportionment counts to the White House. These are the counts of each state’s population, which determines the number of seats in the U.S. Representatives for each state.
Self-response rates as of 8/27/20:
- National: 64.6 %
- Colorado: 68.0%
- Boulder County: 75.9%
| |