SOCIAL POLICY

GUN SAFETY

The League’s Position Statement of Position on Gun Policy, as adopted by 1990 Convention and amended by the 1994 and 1998 Conventions:

The League of Women Voters of the United States believes that the proliferation of handguns and semiautomatic assault weapons in the United States is a major health and safety threat to its citizens. The League supports strong federal measures to limit the accessibility and regulate the ownership of these weapons by private citizens. The League supports regulating firearms for consumer safety.

The League supports 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. The license fee should be adequate to bear the cost of education and verification. The League supports a ban on “Saturday night specials,” enforcement of strict penalties for the improper possession of and crimes committed with handguns and assault weapons, and allocation of resources to better regulate and monitor gun dealers. (“Impact on Issues 2020-2022: A Guide to Public Policy Positions” LWVUS, p144)

Click here to learn more about LWVPA’s position on gun safety.

In an average year, 1,628 Pennsylvanians die by guns, of which 60% are firearm suicides. Gun violence costs Pennsylvanian taxpayers $567.4 million each year and disproportionately affects Black and brown communities (source:  EveryStat.org). The League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania is proud to be part of the CeaseFirePA Common Agenda to End Gun Violence which supports extreme risk protection orders, closing the gap in our background checks system, and reporting lost or stolen guns. At the local level, we focus our advocacy work on educating voters, collaborating with local gun safety advocacy groups, and working with our local PA representatives to pass responsible gun safety legislation.

What you can do: 

• Write a letter or call your state lawmakers and ask them to support meaningful gun violence prevention reforms, such as:
• House Bill 1846 and Senate Bill 855, which propose that all new gun owners be required to successfully complete gun safety training prior to making their first gun purchase
• HB 235 and SB 88 which will improve the process of background checks for gun purchases
• SB 1300, legislation proposed by Bucks County’s Senator Steve Santarsiero, which aims to ban future sales of assault weapons, outlaw possession of body armor, and require individuals to obtain a firearm eligibility license prior to purchasing a gun.
• Visit CeaseFirePA to learn more about the issue and how you can take action. Sign up for the newsletter to receive updates on their advocacy work.

• The League of Women Voters of Bucks County is looking for interested members to work on our Advocacy/Social Policy Task Force. This group will focus our efforts on:
• Educating Bucks County voters on this issue
• Tracking legislation
• Develop messaging that we can use in print and social media

• Join our Outreach Circle to get notified of new action alerts and other actions you can take to advocate for gun safety.

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EDUCATIONAL EQUITY

LWVPA supports equal access to quality public education, to be achieved by participation of government and citizens at all levels and by adequate financing based on an equitable and flexible tax system. (Where we stand)

LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD CRISIS

Over the last few election cycles, school boards across the country have begun instituting policies that LWV views as dangerous to the education of our children.  Our local school boards are no exception  In Bucks County, school boards have begun to remove books from library shelves and censor the content of our students in ways that marginalize at-risk students.   

LWV Bucks county has signed on to support the Fair Funding Lawsuit which is trying to make educational funding equitable for all students in PA.  This historic lawsuit is attempting to end the funding formula which systematically underfunded schools in low income and minority areas.  

https://www.elc-pa.org/resources/current-law-policy/

We support legislation working on creating and improving education for all of our students.

We are in support of PA Hunger Free Campus Grant

SB 719 in the Senate and  HB 1363  in the House are intended to address the food insecurity crisis on our college campuses.  A recent survey indicated that 39% of respondents on college campuses are food insecure.  https://hope4college.com/realcollege-2020-five-years-of-evidence-on-basic-needs-insecurity/

We were also in support of The Promise Act S1396 which would have offered up to two years of tuition to students whose families earn under $110,000.00/year.  It has not moved forward in the US Senate, but would benefit our most vulnerable citizens.

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REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

For anyone who experiences pregnancy, our basic freedoms depend on our ability to control our reproductive health.  Our reproductive choices impact our physical and psychological well-being, our financial resources, and our capacity to gain and maintain employment. Not only is the right to a safe and legal abortion a matter of personal freedom, it’s also a major factor in the movements for racial and economic equality. Black, brown and low income communities already experience unfair barriers and limited access to adequate health care services.

The League of Women Voters has held a position on Reproductive Rights since 1983.   As stated on page 56 of  Impact on Issues: A Guide to Public Policy Positions 2022-2022, “The League of Women Voters of the United States believes that public policy in a pluralistic society must affirm the constitutional right of privacy of the individual to make reproductive choices.”   The League of Women Voters of the United States, believes in, and continues to support, a woman’s right to personal choice and the right to privacy as stipulated in Amendment 14 of the Constitution of the United States.  LWVPA states their position in their policy book, Where We Stand, pledging to “Protect the constitutional right of privacy of the individual to make reproductive choices.”  As an ally of reproductive rights organizations, such as the Bucks County Women’s Advocacy Coalition, we know that safe access to health care, including abortion, is essential to our democracy.

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COUNTERING MIS- AND DISINFORMATION

Mis- and dis-information are two of the most insidious tools used to undermine our democracy and the value of every person’s voice.  Misinformation is inadvertently sharing false information without intent to harm.  Disinformation is intentionally sharing false information with the intent to harm.  Mis-and disinformation have eroded the public trust in our democracy and the electoral process. 

Several polls have found a decline in the confidence in our election systems:

• An ABC NEWS/Washington Post survey conducted in the days following the January 6th insurrection found that only 20% of Americans feel “very confident” in the integrity of the U.S. election system.
• 56% of respondents of a CNN poll taken in early 2022 said that they have “little or no confidence” that the elections represent the will of the people
• 42% of the Spring 2022 Harvard Youth Poll participants believe that their vote does not make a difference.

In 2021, LWVUS launched a new programmatic focus - Women Power Democracy  to support initiatives that will help us realize a stronger, more representative American democracy.  The Democracy Truth Project is one of the four programs under Women Power Democracy and is aimed at countering mis- and disinformation and advancing better public understanding of the democratic and electoral process.  The Democracy Truth Project will provide the public with the information and the tools to participate in our democracy and work to restore trust in the political system. 

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GOVERNMENT POLICY

RULES REFORM IN HARRISBURG

Rules reform in Harrisburg is getting more and more attention. At the start of each legislative session, elected officials vote to approve the “rules” for the entire session.  These rules determine the procedural rules for that session. This includes determining what bills get a vote.  Under the current rules, a few party leaders get to decide what bills will be voted on. The rules, as they currently exist, do not allow public referendums or other forms of public input to the legislative process.

The current process discourages bipartisan cooperation and gives a few party leaders a disproportionate amount of control.  Bills that are supported by millions of citizens can be held in Committee indefinitely by one party leader.

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VOTER ACCESS

LWV PA Supports no fault necessary absentee voting and other changes to simplify PA’s absentee voting process.  LWV PA supports the use of ballot drop boxes,  early voting and expanded hours for voters to access voter services.

In 2002 LWVPA was instrumental in forming a statewide coalition of voting and citizen’s rights organizations called the Pennsylvania Voter Coalition. Through the coalition we successfully fought legislation to require voters to present a photo ID at the polls. The bill would also have denied voting rights to paroled ex-felons. In 2011-12 LWVPA again carried out an aggressive campaign in opposition to legislation requiring all voters to present government issued photo identification at the polls in order to cast a ballot. In 2012 the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed one of the country’s most restrictive voter ID law that would require voters to have specified types of photo identification before they could vote.  ( Where we Stand 2022)

This proposed amendment is completely contrary to previous court decisions and the LWV position on this issue.

For more information on this issue you can consult:

Oppose Voter ID Legislation - Fact Sheet | American Civil Liberties Union

Voters and Civil Rights Organizations Take Legal Action Challenging Trump Campaign's Voter Suppression Efforts in Pennsylvania

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PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS(S B106)

This past summer, PA legislators voted on a constitutional amendment package that would dramatically shift the balance of government power in Pennsylvania and call multiple rights into question, including the right to abortion healthcare. The passage of Senate Bill 106 is emblematic of how broken the legislative process in Harrisburg is. Legislative leaders manipulated long standing procedural rules to ram through a bill with multiple contentious topics after 11 pm at night, late in the day, just before summer recess, with no public hearings, no genuine minority party input, and little opportunity for the public to engage or even see what was taking place.  The bill contains FIVE proposed constitutional amendments which would greatly impact Pennsylvania citizens.  These amendments would:

• Declare that the state constitution does not grant any right relating to abortion, including no right to public funding for the procedure.  Currently in PA, public funding is available for abortion only in cases of life endangerment, rape or incest. This amendment not only adds a funding ban to the state constitution, but removes the right to abortion altogether. The Pennsylvania constitution is meant to grant rights, rather than explicitly remove them for over half of the population.
• Give the legislature power to stop any regulation with a simple majority that is not subject to governor signature or veto. Currently, regulations are crafted through a multi-step process that involves public and legislator input. This change would substantially alter the separation and balance of powers, as defined in the constitution.
• Create additional voter ID requirements in a state with already strict voter ID law: Pennsylvanians must currently present a government-issued or student ID when they register to vote, or vote at a new location. As such, there is already a system in place to confirm voter identity. The justification for tightening voter ID rules is to prevent fraud. But significant voter fraud, especially voter impersonation, is virtually nonexistent. Furthermore, requiring voter ID does not require a constitutional amendment. Voter ID can - and should be - a change that is legislatively enacted by amending the Election Code.
• Imposes stricter residency and age requirements on new voters: The latest version of SB106 requires a 90-day residency within the Commonwealth (changed from 30 days) to vote. This means anyone who moves to Pennsylvania between August and November of an election year is denied their right to vote in a general election.
• Require that elections be audited by the PA Auditor General: The Pennsylvania Department of State is the office with election oversight. They already conduct risk-limiting audits to help affirm the integrity of the process. This amendment reinforces a lack of trust in election administration at both the county and state levels, and aims to shift power away from actual election officials and place it under the authority of another agency.

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ELECTORAL COLLEGE REFORM:  ELECTING THE PRESIDENT BY POPULAR VOTE

The League of Women Voters of the United States believes that the direct-popular-vote method for electing the President and Vice President is essential to representative government. The League of Women Voters believes, therefore, that the Electoral College should be abolished. We support the use of the National Popular Vote Compact as one acceptable way to achieve the goal of the direct popular vote for election of the president until the abolition of the Electoral College is accomplished.  (Statement of Position on Selection of the President, as announced by the National Board, January 1970, revised March 1982, updated June 2004 and revised by the 2010 Convention. Source: LWVUS Impact on Issues: a Guide to Public Policy Positions 2022-2022)

The League of Women Voters of Bucks County supports Electoral College reform to make voting in presidential elections more fair, democratic, inclusive, and more representative of the US voting population. This is a nonpartisan issue as all citizens, regardless of political party,  are adversely affected under the current system.

The Electoral College (EC) does not reflect the will of the people.  There have been five presidential elections where the winner in the EC did not win the popular vote. Two of these elections occurred in the last 22 years (Bush v. Gore in 2000, Trump v. Clinton in 2016).

The Electoral College also contributes to low voter turnout and voter apathy, which further erodes our democracy.  On average, ten to fifteen states have very close races in presidential elections and are known as ‘battleground’ or ‘swing states’. In close national elections these states will determine the winner. Voters in non-battleground states know that their vote is “less important”, thus providing a disincentive to voting. As a result, 35-40 states have been shown to have lower voter turnouts than battleground states.  The ‘winner take all’ method further contributes to lower voter turnout.  In states where there is a significant majority of blue or red voters (such as California and Texas) the minority party is given no votes in the EC voting. Voters are in effect disenfranchised in these non-battleground states.

Abolishing the Electoral College would require a constitutional amendment.  An alternative to abolishing the Electoral College is theNational Popular Voting Interstate Compact (NPVIC). This compact is composed of states that agree to have presidential elections based on the national popular vote. The compact is based on the states’ electoral votes, and when this number reaches 270, the election will be calculated on the federal popular vote.

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ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

The right to clean air and water is enshrined in Pennsylvania's Constitution. As Article 1 Section 27 states:

The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.   (May 18, 1971, P.L.769, J.R.3)

The League of Women Voters of Bucks County supports legislation that protects our natural resources in keeping with our PA Constitution.  Working in collaboration with state and local environmental advocacy groups, like Penn Future, LWVBC advocates for a variety of environmental issues, such as:

CLIMATE CHANGE

Pennsylvania is the third dirtiest state in the country in terms of carbon pollution, a major cause of climate change. Pennsylvania is moving towards linking to a program to reduce carbon pollution from power plants, part of a bipartisan program called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI.

RGGI has been a big success in the 11 states where it is in place, cutting climate pollution by a third and raising nearly $3 billion to invest in clean energy and other purposes. Experts project that Pennsylvania can cut carbon pollution equal to the impact of taking 4 million cars off the road, while creating more than 27,000 more jobs and adding nearly $2 billion to the state’s economy by joining RGGI.

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OPEN SPACE PRESERVATION

In the past 50 years, Bucks County has lost 71% of its farmland to development. While urban expansion is necessary and inevitable, unsustainable development can have major impacts on our land, air and water, not to mention the threats to the plant and animal life in our area. Negative effects of overdevelopment like flooding and contaminated water disproportionately impact marginalized communities, such as people of color and low-income families.  In addition, our beautiful farms, waterways, woodlands and open spaces are substantial contributors to our local economy-–our agriculture and tourism industries provide nearly 30,000 jobs and over $1 billion in revenue.

The good news is that there is something you can do to advocate for open space preservation.   The Bucks County Planning Commission will soon be adopting their new land use development plan, called Bucks 2040. This strategic plan will provide the vision for how land will be used in the next decade-- whether it stays preserved or turns into new homes, roads, industrial parks or parking lots. The Planning Commission recognizes the importance of preserving open space, but now we have an opportunity to provide input and ask them to make it a top priority.

Ask the Bucks County Planning Commission to prioritize our land, air, and water by committing to preserve 25% of land in the upcoming Bucks 2040 Comprehensive Plan.

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