by Martha Goralka, LWVDV Voter Service Chair
In January CCTV, the Elections Department, and the Leagues of West Contra Costa and Diablo Valley cosponsored both taped and live roundtables for Measure J, Assembly District 16, Senate District 7, and Contra Costa Supervisor Districts 3 and 5. Our League timed, coordinated and provided a lunch break during this long, but productive day! You can view the taped versions on CCTV and on VotersEdge.org.
In February we followed up these successful CCTV Roundtables with another joint effort by CCTV, the Elections Department, and the Leagues of Women Voters of West Contra Costa and Diablo Valley, this time adding the Contra Costa County Library to our partnership to produce an additional two live-taped forums.
The West County League took the lead with the first forum at the Hercules Library for Contra Costa Supervisor District 5 candidates. For the first time ever, we tried a satellite viewing party location at the Pittsburg Library where attendees could also submit questions which a library employee forwarded to the main event. We had seven voters attending this viewing party, plus three LWVDV members -- Eileen Hinds, Jan Berckefeldt, and Martha Goralka -- handing out question cards. We also checked three voter registrations for accuracy.
The Diablo Valley League took the lead for the second forum, held at the Brentwood Community Center for Contra Costa District 3 candidates. Thirty-six people attended. Ann Flynn was the amazing moderator with Linda Soliven and Jan Berckefeldt timing, Stephanie Williams-Rogers sorting questions and Martha Goralka handing out question cards. We also checked two voter registrations that evening.
We had hoped for a San Ramon library partnership location – but were unable to secure the candidates for any of the available evenings. Gail Murray had volunteered to moderate that forum.
Our final cosponsorship was with the Contra Costa Industrial Association Monday, February 10th at the IBEW local 320 Union Hall in Martinez. Association Executive Director Mark Hughes and Martha both counted 71 attendees, which included Industrial Association members, community members, political activists and others. In addition to the audience we had seven League volunteers: Ann Flynn, fabulous moderator, who kept things on a civil discourse path, timers Marian Shostrom and Mary Schreiber, question sorter Ashley Coates, and our president Suzan Requa, who tabled for us, promoting VotersEdge and potential memberships. Martha Goralka handed out question cards. We didn’t check any registrations during this forum.
VotersEdge: Marian Shostrom has done a stellar job encouraging candidates to post their information on VotersEdge, as well as posting all of our taped forums and ballot issue information.
Pros & Cons: The Diablo Valley League decided not to do ballot issues pros & cons for the Primary Election. When Diablo Valley Chair Kay James received requests for presentations she recommended they view the material on VotersEdge – and encouraged them to call back for the general election presentations.
Voter Registration: Shawn Gilbert and Janet Hoy registered 88 students at Antioch High school on January 28th. Shawn had such a huge turnout at Pittsburg High School on February 10th that she recruited Suzan Requa, who dropped everything to help register 381 more students. Shawn went back to Antioch High School on February 13th and registered even more students. Shawn and her team are reaching out to other schools as well.
Diablo Valley College Student Election: Once again our members will assist with the student elections at Diablo Valley College, April 7th through April 9th. Karen Dolder, Ken Coates, Evelynn Graetz, Mary Schreiber, Ling Hunger, Colleen Coll, Martha Goralka, and Nancy Thursby have already signed up to help, with slots still available on April 8 and April 9th. We’ve traditionally done this as a fundraiser – although no one signing up is required to donate their earnings. There will be a training session in advance, although many of our volunteers are repeat participants.
