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League of Women Voters of Boulder County
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Empowering Voters. Defending Democracy
 Serving the People of Boulder County, Colorado
Date: 10/31/2020
Subject: LWVBC Voter November 2020
From: Jennifer L Bales


Voter Header
November, 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.
Looking for website talent - no experience needed
By Deborah Hayes
webmaster@lwvbc.org


Do you like writing about League issues? Can you write persuasively? Do you have an eye for design? Would you like to know more about how website design is evolving — and take part in the design yourself? Our current website coordinator, Deborah Hayes, is looking for more LWVBC members to help maintain our website. Training is of course provided!
Three years ago, LWVBC contracted with the software company ClubExpress to build a new, comprehensive website. Other Leagues also signed on. Now ClubExpress is proudly announcing that the LWV at the national, state, and local levels “has partnered with ClubExpress to provide an option for Leagues that simplifies how they run their operations and improve communications with members, prospective members, and the public.”   
Many LWVBC members help manage our Club Express “operations”—membership and financial transactions, events, volunteer sign-ups. Where we could use more people is on the “communication” side. LWVBC helps inform members and the public about issues on the “Teams At Work” pages. The “Your Elected Officials” page needs updating after any change. We post new messages and graphics on the Home page. In short, our website is our League’s communications hub. We invite members to come lend your ideas to this effort! Interested? Contact Deborah Hayes.
PRESIDENTS' LETTER
October 2020
Elizabeth Crowe
Susan Saunders

Presidents' Letter for November 2020
by Elizabeth Crowe

Election Day: Patience and Vigilance 

 

Election Day is nearly upon us, a culmination of months of voter service and advocacy activities that are the League’s hallmark. We’ll have more voter service and advocacy activity results to tally, but this fall our amazing League members logged 76 voter registration tables, registering more than 230 voters! We held online candidate forums for 11 races, with Spanish translation for all but one of those forums, and partnerships with three local organizations. We held two virtual presentations covering eight ballot initiatives. Our VOTE411 team populated the website with questions for each candidate, all the ballot issue information and much more. To advertise the VOTE411.org site we used flyers, hand-held posters, website, social media and voter guide ads, and radio spots on KGNU. To support National Popular Vote, our members generated thousands of hand-written and stamped postcards and even marched between Front Range communities. We should all be proud of these efforts!

 

Now, we wait for the results. This year, due to the surge of states newly experiencing mail-in-ballot methods and the predicted longer wait times for in-person voting due to COVID-19 precautions it is unlikely we will have key election results until much later. LWV has been preparing for this situation by encouraging voters and political leaders to exercise and encourage patience, so that every vote can be counted accurately. Democracy is worth the wait! 

 

Unfortunately, patience is not the the only virtue we’ll need. We must also be vigilant as we watch carefully for signs of voter intimidation or discrimination. To prepare for this possibility, LWVUS and partner organizations provides resource including an Active Bystander Intervention Training and Election Security talking points that we can all use to help secure everyone’s right to vote.

 

To help spread the message of Election Day patience and vigilance, check out the League’s Facebook page and ‘share’ posts and videos; tell your friends, neighbors and colleagues to check out VOTE411.org; and watch for alerts from our local, state and national League regarding any post-election urgent action opportunities. 

Elections We’re Monitoring in Conjunction with Other Leagues

By the LWVBC Voting Methods Team  

Webpage: lwvbc.org > Teams at Work > Voting Methods

 

Colorado – Elect the Mayor?

City of Boulder 2E – Our Voting Methods Team held a July forum on a variety of electoral options for the city of Boulder with 4 speakers, including a 2E leader and an organizer for an unsuccessful 2003 ballot measure.  The VM Team also sent a letter to city council encouraging improved voting methods whether or not 2E passes and offering our expertise toward that effort.  As many of you know, passage of 2E would mean that Boulder directly elects its mayor for 2-year terms beginning in 2023 and uses instant-runoff voting* (IRV).  Potential problem:  The county which would normally “coordinate” (aka conduct the election) is not authorized to use IRV, and the city is not capable  of conducting an IRV election with current funding and staff.  LWVBC is neutral on 2E.  

 

Littleton 3A – Should Littleton change the city charter to directly elect the mayor for 4-year terms?  No change from “regular” plurality voting proposed.

 

Maine – Awarding Electoral College Votes

Maine will use instant-runoff voting* (IRV) for the presidential election.  Maine and Nebraska are the only two states that award their Electoral College votes both by congressional district (CD) and by the statewide vote so Maine’s IRV ballots will get tallied twice – once statewide and once for the relevant CD.  Although unlikely this year, an IRV ballot could theoretically cast different votes in the two final tallies!  More likely, some IRV ballots will be exhausted (meaning all the voter’s choices are eliminated in the tabulation process) and no candidate gets a majority of the votes cast.

Other Interesting US Elections – Adopt a Better Voting Method?


Massachusetts Question 2 – Use instant-runoff voting* for statewide non-presidential elections, for state legislative offices and “certain other offices beginning in 2022.”  Supported by LWVMA.
St Louis Prop D – Change from a partisan to a non-partisan primary and use approval voting (vote for as many candidates as you support).  The top two vote-getters proceed to the general election.  Strongly supported by LWV Metro St Louis.
Albany, CA, Measure BB – Use the proportional single transferable vote* (STV) voting method to elect city council and school board members.  [STV was used in the city of Boulder from 1917 to 1947, and the Boulder City Council recently expressed interest in options to achieve proportional representation.]  Supported by LWV Berkeley Albany Emeryville.
*IRV and STV are the two traditional and best-known forms of what has become branded as Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in the 21st century.  Colorado statute allows municipalities and special districts to adopt single-winner IRV and multi-winner STV.

From Membership

By Debby Vink

membership@lwvbc.org

Virtual Member Coffee on Saturday, November 14, 10 am

I hope to see you at the next Virtual Member Coffee on Saturday, November 14, at 10 am.  Watch for an email with details.  We will be discussing the aftermath of the 2020 Election and what are our next steps.  

 Welcome to Our Newest Members!

Welcome to new members since our last newsletter in September:  Lynne Deane, Lydia and Alex Linke, Jeanne Clelland,  Valerie Clelland, Norm Peddie, James Vink, Dana Pine, Nick Salter, and Maria Salter. 

 Over 300 Members

Yes, we are actually at 308 members!   I hope those of you with your memberships expiring in September and October will renew so that we keep above that coveted 300 goal.  

ClubExpress Goes National with the League of Women Voters

The League of Women Voters of the United States and ClubExpress have entered into a partnership to offer ClubExpress as a recommended association management platform to more than 750 state and local League of Women Voters chapters.  Your Boulder County League has the distinction of being the second local League in the U.S. to adopt ClubExpress member management software.

Video: “Member Self Management”

I encourage you to view this video from ClubExpress to help you use our website as a member.  
Go here for more, including information on how to sign up for our coffees and renew your membership.

Voter Services Activities in 2020

by Jeanine Pow

 
Over the course of the 2020 election season, which included two primaries and the General Election, we conducted a total of 76 voter registration/information tables and registered/updated the records of 232 voters - this even though our VRD work came to a complete standstill for three months due to Covid19.  We conducted our final 2020 VRD on Monday, October 12th.  Below is a summary of the LWVBC 2020 VRD activity:

                      VRD Tables        #Registered/Updated 

January              2                          4 

February          11*                        33 

March                 5**                        7 

April                    3***                       0 

May                      3***                       0 

June                       9                           32 

July                      8                            13 

August              16                           51 

September      20                           69 

October            12                           23  

TOTALS            76                          232 

 

*3 of which were canceled due to weather 

**4 of which were canceled due to Coronavirus (CV) 

***All were canceled due to CV 

Read More Here

Apply to be on One of Colorado’s Redistricting Commissions


Redistricting takes place every 10 years to gather data to inform the process to draw boundaries for Congressional and state legislative seats for each state. Colorado will soon receive data from the 2020 Census, including information about the population, age and race of residents, and the redistricting process will begin in early 2021.

The application process is now open to anyone who has voted in the last two Colorado general elections – 2016 and 2018 – and hasn’t changed their party affiliation (or non-affiliation) for the last five years. Applicants that are selected to serve on the commissions will receive a $200 per diem and additional reimbursements. Applications for the Congressional and Legislative Redistricting Commissions can be found here  and must be submitted by Nov. 10, 2020.

A symposium on Colorado redistricting a couple of weeks ago was cosponsored by the LWV of Colorado. New member Jeanne Clelland gave a talk about ensemble analysis with a specific focus on Colorado’s Congressional districts. The video of the entire day is here. Jeanne's talk starts just after the 2-hour mark.

 

Support the LWVBC Today!

 Choose one of the easy ways to donate and make a significant difference!

  • Make a monthly donation to LWVBC in 2020 
  • Link your King Soopers loyalty card to the League  

  • Load up your Safeway card
  • Choose LWVBC  for your Amazon Smile Program donations


For detailed instructions on how to set up any of these donation methods please go here or contact Mandy Nuku at mandynuku@lwvbc.org  or at 303.499.4544

 
Sign up for this training here.
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