Issues

Issues

2024-2025 Local Action Priorities

The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influence public policy through education and advocacy.

We will make Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) inherent in all our internal operations and consider DEI across all programs, with an eye to increasing membership diversity.

We will promote civil engagement in all our work so that we can build relationships and learn from each other. We will focus on education and advocacy in support of LWV positions and principles in the following areas:

Citizen Education-Voter Services

With the National Campaign for Making Democracy Work as our focus, we will engage tri-county citizens in our nation's democratic processes through service and education by registering voters, encouraging informed voter participation in all elections, and advocating for a free, fair, and accessible electoral system for all eligible voters. Priorities include:

    • Train members and community volunteers in the voter registration process including use of VOTE411 and deploy trained volunteers into the community and in partnership with community events. This includes training student leaders in academic institutions to register voters with League voter service supervision.
    • Direct a Get Out the Vote program to registered voters ages 18-28.
    • Advocate for electoral methods that increase voter representation and participation, particularly in communities with low registration and turnout (for example - increase in days, locations, and hours for absentee voting, alternative methods to count and advance primary candidates).
    • Work to enable voter registration for qualified citizens who are incarcerated awaiting trial, convicted of misdemeanors, or incarcerated for felonies and have served their sentences.
    • Educate, register to vote, and engage underrepresented groups (for example youth, minority, rural and low-income communities, and new citizens).
    • Work to increase the number of poll workers
    • Increase candidate and voter participation in VOTE411 voter guide (for example outreach in health centers and community festivals).
    • Work to expand our Citizen Education presentation team and educational topics (for example electoral system options such as single member districts, instant run-off voting, how government works in SC).
    • Provide virtual or face-to-face candidate forums in urban, suburban, and rural communities to ensure that citizens have a full understanding of candidates' platforms, experience, and areas of expertise.
    • Provide candidate training for those interested in running for public office and encourage underrepresented groups to participate.
    • We will educate members and the community on local topics and policies involving immigration as it relates to voting. A work group will be created to focus on ways to support and advance League positions on immigration. We will reach out to immigrant communities to identify specific needs that can be addressed through collaboration with community partners and other League workgroups. We will advance naturalization ceremonies, voter registrations, and candidate forums to be inclusive of the immigrant community. We will encourage outreach in the areas of education, good government and ethics, healthcare, and environmental studies to include diverse, equitable, and inclusive immigration advocacies.

Education

We will emphasize the importance of local school boards and advocate for a high-quality public education system that is adequately funded, equitable, inclusive, transparent, and accountable. We will support full school staffing with qualified teachers, nurses, and support staff as well as student access to both physical, mental, and behavioral health professionals. We will support effective school partnerships with parents and the community. For example, School Improvement Councils and parent-teacher associations. We will support the LWVSC on Education Finance Reform legislation.

Good Government and Ethics

We will educate our communities on democracy and the supporting election-systems and institutions. We will focus on voting processes and advocate for national voting rights legislation, electing a president by popular vote, and redistricting reform. In addition, we will advocate for state-wide ethics reform and methods to counter misinformation. Finally, we will work with LWVSC to support and advocate for legislation related to these topics.

Healthcare

To improve the health outcomes of South Carolinians, we will advocate for the assessable, affordable, and equitable distribution of comprehensive health care, which includes dental, behavioral, mental, and public health services. We will collaborate with community partners and other League workgroups to inform and advocate for SC residents about proposed and existing legislation that is consistent with positions identified by the LWV at the state and national levels. Specifically, our efforts will focus on accessible, affordable, and equitable health care, reproductive health, and lifestyle/social behaviors such as nutrition, personal safety, smoking, and drug use. We will advocate for legislation that supports closing the insurance coverage gap.

Environmental Studies

We will frame our understanding of the environment as an ecosystem that humans share with all living species. We will work to improve citizen education, public awareness, and local advocacy on issues such as water quality, climate change, and responsible land use management. We will leverage the work of local partners while focusing on our efforts on areas where we see opportunities to create or defend a healthy environment for our greater community for all species.

Race and Gender Equity

We will highlight and educate on the impact of inequities found in LWV prioritized areas such as Citizen Education-Voter Services, Education, Good Government and Ethics, Healthcare, and Environmental Studies by emphasizing the importance of the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) concept. LWVCA will look to partner with other organizations to achieve passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, and to advance efforts to eradicate domestic violence. We will identify and bring to the forefront important players who have contributed to racial and gender equity by promoting their accomplishments through the various mediums available to us, including the arts and media.

How Does The League Select Issues for Emphasis?

LWV is organized at three levels. Members of the League of Women Voters of the Charleston Area (LWVCA) are also members of the League of Women Voters of South Carolina (LWVSC) and the League of Women Voters of the United States (LWVUS). Positions may be adopted by national, state and local leagues.

In League, Program means the issues that we choose for concerted study, education and action at local, state and national levels. Program can include both education and action. National positions serve as the basis for action at the state and local levels, as well as nationally. LWV South Carolina also adopts studies and positions on issues inherent to South Carolina. In general, positions already exist at the state and national level on issues we care about -- from healthcare to the environment to voting rights. They give us a common platform on which we take action on behalf of our members. 

Local studies and positions are undertaken to address an inherently local issue, or to fill in a gap where a state or national position does not exist or to focus on a specific aspect of a national position that is relevant to our community.

The Program Planning process is part of what makes the League a grassroots organization; each League member has the opportunity to influence the selection of issues where the local, state, and national League will focus time, talent and money.

Every two years, members of local Leagues engage in Program Planning. Based on the results of this, the Board of Directors makes recommendations to the biennial convention delegates about the program to be adopted for the coming two year period.