Summary
The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization encouraging informed and active participation in government. It influences public policy through education and advocacy.
MISSION STATEMENT: Empowering Voters. Defending Democracy.
VISION STATEMENT: We envision a democracy where every person has the desire, the right, the knowledge and the confidence to participate.
VALUE STATEMENT: We believe in the power of women to create a more perfect democracy.
OnAir Post: League of Women Voters of Fairfax
About
Source: Wikipedia
Overview
The League of Women Voters (LWV) is an American civic organization that was formed to help women take a larger role in public affairs after they won the right to vote. It was founded in 1920 to support the new women suffrage rights and was a merger of National Council of Women Voters, founded by Emma Smith DeVoe, and National American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Carrie Chapman Catt, approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote. The League of Women Voters began as a “mighty political experiment” aimed to help newly enfranchised women exercise their responsibilities as voters. Originally, only women could join the league; but in 1973 the charter was modified to include men. LWV operates at the local, state, and national level, with over 1,000 local and 50 state leagues, and one territory league in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The League of Women Voters is officially nonpartisan–it neither supports nor opposes candidates or parties. It does, however, support a variety of progressive public policy positions, including campaign finance reform, universal health care, abortion rights, climate change action and environmental regulation, and gun control.
one territory league in the U.S. Virgin Islands.[4]
The League of Women Voters is officially nonpartisan–it neither supports nor opposes candidates or parties. It does, however, support a variety of progressive public policy positions, including campaign finance reform, universal health care, abortion rights, climate change action and environmental regulation, and gun control.[4][5]
Activities
The LWV sponsored the United States presidential election debates in 1976, 1980 and 1984. On October 2, 1988, the LWV’s 14 trustees voted unanimously to pull out of the debates, and on October 3 they issued a press release condemning the demands of the major candidates’ campaigns. LWV President Nancy Neuman said that the debate format would “perpetrate a fraud on the American voter” and that the organization did not intend to “become an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.”
In 2012, LWV created National Voter Registration Day, a day when volunteers work to register voters and increase participation.
The League sponsors voter’s guides including Smart Voter and Voter’s Edge, which was launched in collaboration with MapLight.
Policy views
The League lobbied for the establishment of the United Nations, and later became one of the first groups to receive status as a nongovernmental organization with the U.N.
The League has opposed voter ID laws and supported efforts at campaign finance reform in the United States. LWV opposed the decision in Citizens United v. FEC. The League supports increased regulation of political spending.
The League pushed for adoption of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which requires states to offer voter registration at all driver’s license agencies, at social service agencies, and through the mail.
The League endorsed passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, which banned soft money in federal elections and made other reforms in campaign finance laws.]
LWV supports the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Kyoto Protocol. LWV opposes the proposed Keystone Pipeline project.
In January 2013, the League of Women Voters in Hawaii urged President Obama to take action on climate change under his existing authority, the Clean Air Act of 1990, which the League supported.
The League supports the abolition of the death penalty.
LWV supports universal health care and endorses both Medicaid expansion and the Affordable Care Act.
The League supports a general income tax increase to finance national health care reform for the inclusion of reproductive health care, including abortion, in any health benefits package. The League supports abortion rights and strongly opposed the passage of the Partial-Birth Abortion Act.
The League actively opposed welfare reform legislation proposed in the 104th Congress.
The League opposes school vouchers. In 1999, LWV challenged a Florida law that allowed students who were attending failing public schools to use school vouchers to attend other schools.
The League supports a system for illegal immigrants already in the United States to earn full citizenship. It lobbied for passage of the DREAM Act.
The League advocates gun control policies including regulating firearms and supporting licensing procedures for gun ownership by private citizens to include a waiting period for background checks, personal identity verification, gun safety education and annual license renewal.
Governance
A national board of directors consisting of four officers, eight elected directors, and not more than eight board-appointed directors, most of whom reside in the Metro Washington D.C. area, govern the League subject to the Bylaws of the League of Women Voters of the United States. The national board is elected at the national convention and sets position policy.
Local Leagues and state Leagues are organized in order to promote the purposes of the League and to take action on local and state governmental matters. These Leagues (chapters) have their own directors and officers. The national board may withdraw recognition from any state or local League for failure to fulfill recognition requirements.
Notable members
- Inez Mee Boren, president of the Northern Section
- Woodnut S. Burr, president of the Los Gatos Branch
- Becky Cain, former organization president
- Frances St John Chappelle, State president of the Nevada League of Women Voters[
- Minnie Fisher Cunningham, first executive secretary
- Naomi Deutsch, early member
- Nan B. Frank, very active in California League of Women Voters, president of the San Francisco Center of California League of Women Voters
- Edith Jordan Gardner, member of the Oakland Forum
- Betty Gilmore
- Harriet A. Haas
- Fanny M. Irvin, drafted a resolution to Congress which was passed by the State Legislature, endorsing Woman’s Suffrage, and lobbied for the passage of the Constitutional Amendment
- Achsa E. Paxman, president of State League of Women Voters
- Leonora Pujadas-McShine, founder of the Trinidad and Tobago affiliate
- Edith Dolan Riley, chairman of the Spokane County Democratic Central Committee
- Zelia Peet Ruebhausen, longtime LWV observer at the UN, appointed 1946
- Orfa Jean Shontz, member
- Mary Jane Spurlin
- Helen Norton Stevens, treasurer
- F. Josephine Stevenson, State Chairman of Uniform Laws of the National League of Women Voters (1920-21).
- Reah Whitehead, prepared the Drafts of Bills for and assisted in procuring passage of laws for Women’s State Reformatory and Filiation Proceedings
- Wilhelmine Wissman Yoakum, treasurer of the California League of Women Voters
- Valeria Brinton Young
- Juanita Jones Abernathy, member of the board of directors of the Atlanta Fulton County League of Women Voters
Contact
Email: Office
Locations
VA office
1011 E. Main Street, Suite 214A
Richmond, VA 23219
Phone: (804) 447-8494
Web Links
Videos
2018 LWV Convention: Creating a More Perfect Democracy
December 29, 2018
By: LeagueofWomenVoters
LWV Fairfax City Candidate Forum
By: cityoffairfaxva
Virginia Officers & Board Members
| President | Sue Lewis | president@lwv-va.org | ||
| First Vice President | Linda Garvelink | firstvp@lwv-va.org | ||
| Second Vice President | Lynn Johnston | secondvp@lwv-va.org | ||
| Secretary | Martha Rollins | secretary@lwv-va.org | ||
| Treasurer | Pat Hurst | treasurer@lwv-va.org | ||
| Arrangements | Lynn Johnston | events@lwv-va.org | ||
| Communications | Carol Lindstrom | communications@lwv-va.org | ||
| Action Coordinator | Deb Wake | actioncoordinator@lwv-va.org | ||
| Legislative Coordinator | Valarie Fillgrove | legcoordinator@lwv-va.org | ||
| Voter Editor | Carol Lindstrom | votereditor@lwv-va.org | ||
| Voter Protection | Vacant – if you are a member who is interested in this position, please contact the nominating committee (email below) | voteprotect@lwv-va.org | ||
| Voter Services | Maggi Luca | voterservices@lwv-va.org | ||
| Membership | Andrianne Konstas | membership@lwv-va.org | ||
| Public Relations | Adarsh Trehan | publicrelations@lwv-va.org | ||
| Facebook Coordinator | Carolyn Caywood | facebookcoord@lwv-va.org | ||
| Twitter Coordinator | Carol Lindstrom | twittercoord@lwv-va.org | ||
| Program Director | Anne Smith | programs@lwv-va.org | ||
| Administrative Assistant | Laura Graham | adminassist@lwv-va.org | ||
| Nominating Committee | Kathy Matusiak | nominating@lwv-va.org |
National League of Voters
Website: lwv.org
Address: 1730 M Street NW, Suite 1000,
Washington, DC 20036-4508
Phone: 202-429-1965
Since 1920 we have been an activist, grassroots organization whose leaders believed that voters should play a critical role in democracy.
The League of Women Voters was founded by Carrie Chapman Catt in 1920 during the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The convention was held just six months before the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote after a 72-year struggle.
The League began as a “mighty political experiment” designed to help 20 million women carry out their new responsibilities as voters. It encouraged them to use their new power to participate in shaping public policy. From the beginning, the League has been an activist, grassroots organization whose leaders believed that citizens should play a critical role in advocacy. It was then, and is now, a nonpartisan organization. League founders believed that maintaining a nonpartisan stance would protect the fledgling organization from becoming mired in the party politics of the day. However, League members were encouraged to be political themselves, by educating citizens about, and lobbying for, government and social reform legislation.
This holds true today. The League is proud to be nonpartisan, neither supporting nor opposing candidates or political parties at any level of government, but always working on vital issues of concern to members and the public. The League has a long, rich history, that continues with each passing year.
