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September 2022

Table of Contents

Voter Education Related Work
Election Protection
Legal concerns about candidate forums...
Advocacy and Program
Post Board Summary

LWVC Address Change... Again!

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have to change our mailing address again. Apologies for the inconvenience! Please update your records to the following mailing address for us:

League of Women Voters of California (and Education Fund)
500 Capitol Mall, Suite 2350 #5001
Sacramento, CA 95814

President's Letter

Dear League Leaders,

Didn’t we just have a statewide election? Oh…that was last year.  Now we are in the midst of the 2022 statewide election season.  I want to thank all of you and your League members for the work you are devoting to voter registration, candidate forums, and ballot measures.  This is an exciting, yet sometimes stressful time.  I appreciate your dedication to empowering voters and defending democracy.

Voter Service/Engagement

As always, the League seeks to empower voters with accurate, easy to understand information. Take a look at the Voter Service/Engagement section to learn where to find the LWV standards of Easy Voter Guide and the Pros & Cons of Statewide Ballot Propositions.  Voter’s Edge is up and running thanks to the hard work of local League members across the state.  You can pose questions about voter service on the LWVC Voter Service Google Group.  Email me at cmoongoldberg [at] lwvc.org (cmoongoldberg @lwvc.org) if you wish to be added to the group.

There are a couple of innovations in the LWVC voter service/engagement work in this election cycle. 

• The LWVC, in partnership with NALEO Education Fund and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus, offers the General Election Outreach Toolkit.  It features plain language information and social media content, plus much more.  It is available in Spanish as well.  Please use it to help increase voter turnout and to counter mis/dis-information about the election. 
  

• Speaking of mis/dis-information, the LWVUS is partnering with the News Literacy Project to provide resources to help people be careful consumers of media.  As part of the partnership, a series of public service announcements (PSAs) are available for use by all Leagues.  You can find them at the link above. They are in Spanish as well.

• For the first time, the community health network AltaMed has partnered with the LWVC Education Fund and is using LWVC produced material in their clinics in English and Spanish to provide their patients with election information. Their medical staff will be trained to encourage patients to vote. One on one engagement from trusted messengers like this is so important in encouraging civic engagement and helping to close the participation gap in voter turnout.

• This election, as with the 2020 election, the LWVC is entering a new frontier in voter engagement work. The League is using TikTok and SnapChat to target voters ages 18-34, predominantly Black or Spanish speaking, to encourage registration and voting. Instead of creating messages and just sending them out into the internet in the hopes that someone will notice and respond, this project uses “influencers” who are well known and followed by people of the targeted groups. If you are curious about how it all works take a look at this video of LWVC Executive Director Stephanie Doute describing the project for the Future of California Elections Conference.  Go to the 10 minute, 20 second mark to see it. The work and thought behind the project is fascinating. The potential to motivate young people who rarely vote is exciting.

Election Protection

Many members ask what they can do to protect elections on election day.  Our frequent partner and collaborator Common Cause has run a program in Southern California counties for 10 years and welcomes League members to participate.  This year the program includes Kern, King, and Tulare Counties.  Go to the Election Protection section for the details and sign up information.

Advocacy Work

Vote with the League

Our Vote with the League Ballot Recommendations have been published online. As you will read, the LWVC took “neutral” positions on three propositions.  Neutral positions can be the result of conflicting League positions.  Click on the “Read More” under the neutral positions to understand the analysis that led to the stance.  The hallmark of the League advocacy work is thorough, thoughtful analysis of all aspects of a proposition or legislation.

Legislative Work

The California legislative session ended two weeks ago.  Many bills, including the Racial Justice for All Act and a bill designed to protect voters from being dumped from the voting rolls without notice, are sitting on the Governor’s desk. These two bills were cosponsored by the League.  Action Alerts to our members went out as soon as the bills passed to the Governor’s office.  Thank you to all who responded and shared the Alerts with their networks via social media. For a more complete rundown on advocacy efforts please click here.

There is good news on the legislative front.  The bills that create independent citizens redistricting commissions in Fresno, Kern, and Riverside Counties were signed by the Governor.  So League members in those counties, you have a redistricting education project ready for you in 8 years!  You will get plenty of support from the LWVC and League members who have been through the process in their own counties.  

Convention

There is life after elections for the League of Women Voters. The statewide Convention of the LWVC is scheduled for May 18-21, 2023 in San Francisco.  The Convention will be in person at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, Downtown Soma. (Soma means south of Market Street.)  We are planning an inspiring, uplifting convention. Mark your calendars!

League life is never dull, is it?  It’s part of why we remain dedicated to it.  Once again I thank everyone for their passion and hard work. 

Please take care of yourselves.
Carol

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Voter Education Related Work

Election related work on the November 8, 2022 general election is well underway.  Voter’s Edge is up and running.  The Voter’s Edge widget is on the websites of public radio stations and the Los Angeles Times.  

The Easy Voter Guide in five languages is online. Print copies in all languages were made available to local Leagues. Unfortunately, this year all copies must be purchased because the funding is not adequate to offer free copies.  Public libraries receive free copies.

The Pros & Cons of the 2022 Ballot Propositions and the accompanying In Depths are online. The Pros & Cons will be translated into Spanish. Please remember that the In Depths are for the use of League presenters, not for the general public.

Thanks to the hard work of our staff there will also be a slide presentation of the Pros & Cons for use by local Leagues and a voice over version of them as well by the end of September.  These are designed to be used in conjunction with Leagues offering campaign finance information and answering questions.  

The LWVC offers the California General Election Outreach Toolkit, a plain language messaging & graphics kit for the November 8, 2022 General Election. The toolkit is packed with social media messaging and graphics that will help you cover key voting topics with accurate, plain-language content. The toolkit also includes many voter resources, including links to the Easy Voter Guide, social media content, accessible alt text, hashtags and handles, and links and hotlines where voters can get help. This toolkit was created by the LWVC Education Fund in partnership with the NALEO Education Fund and Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus.

For those of you in the counties that have adopted the Voters Choice Act style of elections, the Secretary of State's office created an Ambassadors program to help those counties spread the word about "More Days; More Ways to Vote" .  Please check this site and your county elections offices to see if they are participating in this program.

Don't forget the League's own VCA Toolkit that provides resources and lessons learned from previous years to help you in crafting messaging, guide your elections office, and work with other community groups to ensure that each voter in your counties understands how to cast a vote.

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Election Protection

Many of our members ask what we can do to help protect elections and voters.  Our friends and collaborators at California Common Cause have been running an election protection program in Southern California for many years and are doing so again for this election. We encourage you to share this information with your members and networks! Below is the message from Common Cause.

“For over a decade California Common Cause has led the Southern California Election Protection program every election cycle, and this year for the November 2022 general election, the in-person poll monitoring efforts is expanded into the lower Central Valley counties of Kern, Kings, and Tulare for the first time.

We’ll be deploying volunteer poll monitors to voting locations on Election Day, November 8th, and/or during the early voting period on November 4th, 5th, and 7th. Volunteers will be in the counties of Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, San Bernardino, Orange, Kern, Kings, or Tulare. Our volunteer sign up link can be found here: https://protectthevote.net/ 

Before we deploy volunteers, we will be hosting three poll monitor trainings on October 18th, 20th, and 22nd. Volunteers are only required to attend one training. Folks can register to attend HERE. We will provide a $50 stipend for volunteers who are students.

We’ll also be offering a ‘Social Media Monitor’ role where volunteers will be trained to search for social media posts that share issues at the polls, connect voters to resources and support, and report election-related mis- and disinformation. The sign up link for social media monitoring training is HERE.”

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Legal Concerns about Candidate Forums Sponsored by Leagues that LWVC is Fical Sponsor of

Every election season the question of an “empty chair” at candidate forums comes up. This is a situation in which only one candidate agrees to appear in a forum or in which only one candidate is actually running for the office. The guidance from LWVUS and LWVC is that an empty chair forum should not be conducted. This is an issue because 501 (c )(3) organizations cannot contribute to or make expenditures on behalf of a candidate.  Offering a single candidate the platform of a forum can be construed as a contribution. This could threaten the 501 (c)(3) status of the Leagues, should someone bring legal action or challenge the status.  

Guidance from the IRS on this is ambiguous and it has not been particularly active in terms of enforcement.  However, these are fraught political times.

Recently a question about conducting an empty chair forum in which there is an unopposed candidate came to LWVC from a League that is fiscally sponsored by the LWVC.  Money donated to the “education funds” of the 30+ Leagues that are fiscally sponsored is handled by the LWVC which can give “grants” to the Leagues for legally permissible purposes consistent with the (c)(3) status. 

It was concluded that the LWVC should not take on the risk.  The LWVUS has a similar policy. There is much to be concerned about, including impact on donors who give to the League because of being able to deduct the gift from their taxes and, most concerning, the reputational harm that could impact the League of Women Voters.  If the 501 c3 status is threatened and removed, not just what some think of as the state League, but also the 30+ other Leagues is impacted. The latter, in this highly partisan time, is the biggest concern right now.

A 501 (c)(4) could conduct forums without using any EdFund dollars. There is no enhanced risk to the state League because it is conducting the activity as a 501(c)(4) org.  There is however still a risk to the League.  Again, as pointed out above there is no definitive guidance from the IRS on this issue and this should not be construed as any sort of legal advice from the LWVC or LWVC Education Fund.  If you require legal advice, please contact an elections attorney.

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Advocacy and Program

The LWVC acted on 113 bills in the current two-year legislative session. Check out the Bill Status Report to see where each bill is in the process and links to advocacy letters. The blue shaded bars indicate bills that are in front of the Governor, green shaded bars indicate bills that have been signed, and red shaded bars indicate bills that have been vetoed.

Co-Sponsored Bills 

These are bills in which the LWVC is a cosponsor, meaning that the League is involved in authoring, setting strategy, building support among stakeholders, lobbying legislators and the Governor, pushing the bill through each committee, providing testimony, and other forms of advocacy to move the bill.  A cosponsor does not merely send a letter supporting or opposing a bill. 

• AB 256 (Kalra), Racial Justice Act for All, a bill to ensure that all impacted people have the opportunity to challenge criminal convictions or sentences when they have been tainted by racial bias, is on the Governor’s desk for signature. An Action Alert has gone out to urge the Governor to sign, this press release has been issued, and we have published numerous tweets that can be promoted through retweets (like this one)
• AB 2841 (Low), the bill we co-sponsored with the ACLU to prevent erroneous voter registration cancellations and to protect the voting rights of people with disabilities. An Action Alert is out urging the Governor to sign and we continue our advocacy with his office. An opinion piece co-authored by the LWVC and the ACLU was just published in CalMatters - California’s eligible voters need protections to ensure they can cast ballots.

Other Bills of Note

Governor Newsom signed three bills to establish independent redistricting commissions in Riverside - AB 1307 (Cervantes), Fresno - AB 2030 (Arambula), and Kern - AB 2494 (Salas) counties. These were bills both supported by and testified on by the LWVC (testimony begins 46 minutes in). And here’s a Tweet from the Equitable Maps Coalition and one from Assemblymember Cervantes, thanking us for our advocacy.

One significant voting and elections related bill that the LWVC is supporting is SB 1131 (Newman). Election officials across the nation are resigning due to threats and harassment. California officials have also been threatened. SB 1131 allows all public employees experiencing intimidation because of their job to enroll in California’s Safe at Home, the address confidentiality program. It protects poll workers by ending the requirement to post full names of elections workers while retaining the requirement to post party affiliation.

Vote with the League

Our Vote with the League Ballot Recommendations have been published online. Here’s a link to the printable flyer.

The Vote with the League Toolkit, that serves as a mini action guide for local Leagues, is posted on MyLo.

Planning Ahead

The Legislative Interview Kit for 2023 interviews, and the Program Planning Kit for the 2023 LWVC Convention, will both be posted on MyLo by December 5, 2022.

If you want to get an early start you can take some of the preliminary steps of setting up your team described in the 2021-2022 kit. Once the election is over you can start scheduling interviews.

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September 2022 Post Board Summary
LWVC/LWVCEF Boards of Directors Meetings
September 10, 2022 – Electronic Meetings

IMPORTANT DATES TO CALENDAR:

• Available now Online: Pros & Cons, Easy Voter Guidefor the November 8, 2022 election.
• September 20, 2022 – National Voter Registration Day
• November 8, 2022 – General Election
• January 31, 2023 – Local League Membership Information due to LWVUS
• May 18 to May 21, 2023 – LWVC Convention 2023, Hyatt Regency San Francisco

LWVC MEETING SUMMARY

The LWVC Board of Directors met virtually and acted as follows.

GOVERNANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

Ratification of LWVC Special Meeting Actions

• June 29, 2022 LWVC Board – Meeting held to consider ballot measure positions, and potential litigation

• July 7, 2022 LWVC Board – Meeting held to consider potential litigation

• July 20, 2022 LWVC Board – Meeting held to consider ballot measure positions.

LWVC Resignations

• Astrid Ochoa as a Member of the LWVC Board of Directors, effective September 9, 2022.

LWVC Board Committees and Task Force Appointments

• Darlene Evans (LWV Pasadena Area) to DE&I Committee

• Laura Hernandez (LWV Ventura County) to DE&I Committee

• April Oquenda (LWV Eden Area) to DE&I Committee

• Adena Ishii (LWVC Board) to Strategic Planning Task Force.

LWVC Legislation Committee Appointment

• April Oquenda (LWV Eden Area).

Local League Coaches Program (LLCs) Appointments

• Jackie Jacobberger (LWV North and Central San Mateo County).

Task Force to Recommend Possible Consultants to aid Board

• Approved creation of task force to recommend possible consultants to aid the Board in creating safe spaces and cultural change. Strategic Initiative Fund monies will fund the ultimate process.

FINANCE

• Received and filed the LWVC Balance Sheet as of June 30, 2022; Budget by Class July 2021 to June 30, 2022; Budget vs. Actuals July 2021 to June 30, 2022; and Investment Report as of June 30, 2022.

LWVCEF MEETING SUMMARY

The LWVCEF Board of Directors acted as follows.

GOVERNANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

LWVCEF Resignations

• Astrid Ochoa as a member of the LWVCEF Board of Directors, effective September 9, 2022.

LWVCEF Board Committees and Task Force Appointments

• Darlene Evans (LWV Pasadena Area) to DE&I Committee

• Laura Hernandez (LWV Ventura County) to DE&I Committee

• April Oquenda (LWV Eden Area) to DE&I Committee

• Adena Ishii (LWVC Board) to Strategic Planning Task Force.

FINANCE

• Received and filed the LWVCEF Balance Sheet as of June 30, 2022; Budget by Class July 2021 to June 30, 2022; and Budget vs. Actuals July 2021 to June 30, 2022.

Caroline de Llamas
LWVC/EF Secretary
cdellamas [at] lwvc.org

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