The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Fair Maps Working Group began meeting in the summer of 2019 and created a Fair Maps Toolkit, which is on the LWVWI website for all members to access. Our pace and intensity have grown as members continue to volunteer. We meet weekly by Zoom to plan our actions. This blog will alert you to new materials and actions from the Working Group to end gerrymandering.

The Working Group on Fair Maps has created a slogan for our statewide campaign: 

"End Gerrymandering. Every Vote Must Count."

Use this slogan every time and in every way you can. This slogan can be reproduced; look for it in the Fair Maps Toolkit on the LWVWI website in the Member Resources. The state office is printing bumper stickers with this slogan. Individuals may order bumper stickers by emailing lwvwisconsin [at] lwvwi.org. Local leagues may order large quantities for their members and distribute these locally. 

Save the Date: October 1, 2020, at 7 p.m., for a statewide forum:

A Bi-Partisan Case to End Partisan Gerrymandering

Former Senators Tim Cullen (D-Janesville) and Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) will tell us why they believe an independent commission should draw legislative boundaries, not politicians who want to remain in power.   

Members of the State Working Group for Fair Maps

Joy Cardin is a member of the LWVDC and also serves on the LWVWI Board of Directors. She is a retired broadcast journalist who wants to remain involved with voter education and public service. While a talk show host at Wisconsin Public Radio, Joy did numerous programs on redistricting reform. Joy believes partisan gerrymandering hurts our democracy.

Haley Colgate is a mathematics graduate student at UW-Madison and a new member of the Dane County League. Her previous research used mathematical methods to create and analyze millions of possible district plans for the state of Colorado, to examine what is typical of a plan drawn without partisan motivation.

Debra Cronmiller is the executive director of LWVWI. She served as the state president before assuming her current position in January 2020. Before joining the staff at LWVWI, Debra worked with the state of Wisconsin administering the TANF program and as a Director for Job Service. Prior to her state service, she was the Executive Director of a homeless shelter in Appleton for 13 years. Debra has also served five years as the Director of ADVOCAP’s Community Employment Program advocating for people with disabilities.

Susan Curran is a retired psychologist and member of the Winnebago County League.   Soon after joining LWV, she contacted Carolyn Castore, Legislative Committee Member involved with redistricting, began a personal study of gerrymandering in the state of Wisconsin, and in 2018 she replaced Carolyn on the Legislative Committee as the Reporting Member of the Redistricting Portfolio.

Janine Edwards is a retired educational psychologist and a member of the Dane County League. She serves on the Legislative Committee for the portfolio of PreK-12 education and on the Dane County program committee. Janine feels strongly that gerrymandering undermines all aspects of our democracy.

Myra Enloe is a retired nurse who specialized in administration and quality improvement. Myra is a member of the Dane County League. She is drawn to the League for its nonpartisan work on good government practices and policies. Her motivation for working on Fair Maps is that all things related to voting rights are fundamental to our democracy and gerrymandering is one root cause of voter suppression. She came late to understanding how fragile voting rights are, and that each generation must be vigilant in protecting that right.

Morgan Grunow is the new Communications Manager for the LWVWI. Morgan recently graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a degree in journalism and mass communication. While at UW–Madison, she was very active in student government, where she first became interested in advocacy and civic engagement—particularly around voter education and access.

Laura Keenan is a member of the Greater Green Bay League.

Barbara Block Paterick is a retired attorney who serves as a Board member of the LWV Greater Green Bay, LWVWI National Popular Vote working committee, LWVWI Liaison to national grassroots group and to LWVUS Taskforce for National Popular Vote, and on LWVWI 2021 Nominating Committee. Barb also serves on the Legislative Committee for redistricting and National Popular Vote. She is motivated to work on election issues that address fair, equitable, transparent voting processes and access to voting.

Joan Schwarz is an attorney and a member of the Board of LWVDC. She is motivated to serve on this Working Group because the LWV provides non-partisan factual information about gerrymandering. LWV explains the process by which the redistricting maps based on the 2020 Census are drawn, not as the result of political manipulation, but as the accurate representation of the election choices of all voters.

Anneliese Waggoner is a member of the League of Women Voters of Greater Green Bay.  Anneliese served as chair of the committee that worked to convince the county board that they needed citizen oversight of redistricting. Without a strong statewide effort. Anneliese feels we have little or no chance of making an impact on the important issue of redistricting. 

*This blog was written by Janine Edwards, member of the League of Women Voters of Dane County.