League of Women Voters of Arlington, Virginia Volume LXII No.8 LWV-Arlington Wins National Making Democracy Work Award!

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1 League of Women Voters of Arlington, Virginia BULLETIN Volume LXII No.8 Editor: Maggie Bush LWV-Arlington Wins National Making Democracy Work Award! League touted at LWVUS National Convention for work to engage high school voters From the Arlington Sun Gazette: League of Women Voters of Arlington 1 Summer 2016

2 OFFICERS Co-Presidents: Naomi Schultheis and Kathy Matusiak Secretary: Seema Jain Treasurer: Don Gurney LWV of Arlington Bulletin is published approximately 7 times a year by the League of Women Voters of Arlington, VA Mail to P.O. Box Arlington, VA Editor: Maggie Bush maggiewrightbush@gmail.com Visit us: Like us: facebook.com/lwvarlington The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan, political membership organization that encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase the understanding of major public policy issues through education and influences public policy through advocacy. We welcome both female and male members. We are part of the League of Women Voters of the US ( Annual Meeting Report Letter from the Co-Presidents Kathy Matusiak and Naomi Schultheis Kristin Goss, our outgoing President called the Arlington League of Women Voters Meeting to order on June 11, After welcoming members and guests and conducting proper parliamentary procedures to open the meeting, Kristin introduced the guest speaker, Jordan Grimaldi. Jordan is a senior at Washington-Lee High School and was part of the team of InspireVA students that worked with the Arlington League in the in-class voter registration project in January. Jordan spoke about her experience with the League and InspireVA and the way in which millennials could be encouraged to vote. Kristen then outlined some of the Arlington League s accomplishments over the past year, including: 1. Growing the membership by one-third since the previous year. 2. Partnering with Arlington Public Schools and InspireVA to register high school students throughout the county. Building on prior work, the League organized cafeteria tables in the fall and conducted interactive presentations in roughly 30 classrooms in the winter. Through this work we registered students to vote in time for the March 1 Primary. 3. Gaining recognition from Virginia s Secretary of Administration, Nancy Rodrigues 4. Becoming a Finalist for the Strengthening Democracy award from LWVUS; 5. Winning the Community Leader of the Year Award from Inspire Virginia. Beyond working with the schools, the Arlington League also: Reached out to communities traditionally underrepresented at the polls, including less-advantaged Arlingtonians, young people, and those who are new to Arlington or who move frequently. Conducted voter registration at Head Start centers, condo and apartment buildings, Metro stops, and community days. We are supporting the County s Know Before You Go campaign to encourage people to make sure their registration is up to date. (continued) League of Women Voters of Arlington 2 Summer 2016

3 Continue to provide Arlington s best Voter Guide through VOTE411.org. The site s online hits in our area grew by 70% compared to the most recent comparable election. Inaugurated a monthly discussion group, the Extraordinary Article and Film Club. The club provided an opportunity to bring together existing League members and other members of the community in a warm environment. Topics included voting rights, women s rights, money in politics, and work-life balance. Conducted a series well-attended public forums on issues including: (1) the pros and cons of Medicaid expansion in Virginia; (2) the role of money in politics; (3) policies and protocols for Going Solar in our state; and (4) the General Assembly s handling of guns and domestic violence. And co-sponsoring a performance of The Girls Who Glow, a play about real-life female factory workers in the 1920s who were poisoned by radium. Kristin thanked all members and volunteers who had been an integral part of these activities and responsible for their success. Beyond registering and educating voters, the League found novel ways to serve the Arlington community: Administering condo board elections throughout the County. Thank you to Sue Swisher, Beth Cogswell, Marjorie Hobart, Judy Connally, and Pat McGrady for scrupulous work. Organizing a tour of Arlington s water plant to educate community members about the treatment of household waste. Thanks to Karen Kimball for organizing this event. Hosting the annual hearing for Arlington s state legislative delegation just before the start of the 2016 General Assembly session. We were pleased to help our fellow community organizations voice their concerns. For our part, the League advocated for an early voting system, automatic restoration of felons voting rights, and non-partisan redistricting. We urged our state lawmakers to oppose measures that would require proof of citizenship before voting or that would expand the Photo ID requirement to absentee ballots. Thanks to the Arlington League s board and volunteers for supplying food, ideas, and time. League of Women Voters of Arlington 3 Summer 2016

4 Taking part in the formulation of the LWVUS position on Money in Politics. We had a vigorous conversation, acknowledging that policymaking in this realm is inevitably complex and nuanced. In the end, we supported a series of positions that would redress the imbalance between well-heeled interests and everyone else. Attending the League s Legislative Roundtable in Richmond to support our LWVVA colleagues during the General Assembly session. Supporting Arlington s Affordable Housing Master Plan, which will try in a challenging environment to maintain some measure of socioeconomic diversity in the County. We also monitored public agencies to ensure that they were providing voter registration opportunities to clients, as is required by law. Thanks to Natalie Goldring, Amy Hjerstedt, Karen Kimball, Mary Rouleau, and Kelly Whitener for work on these priorities. In the social media area, we have significantly expanded our overall social media presence this year. People who like our Facebook page, which was created a couple of years ago, expanded by almost 40% this year. We now have a YouTube channel, which provides a place to upload our videos and thereby expand our reach for example, our Medicaid forum lives on there. We even have a Twitter feed! Thank you to our webmaster/facebook administrator Amy Hjerstedt for communicating our message to the online world. As the outgoing President, Kristin noted being grateful for the lively, generous, principled, and public-spirited people with whom she worked with and is excited to see what our mighty organization will do next. The presented Nominating Committee report proposed the following slate of new officers and directors for the fiscal year: Co-Presidents: Kathy Matusiak 2018 Naomi Schultheis 2018 Secretary & Archivist: Seema Jain 2017 Treasurer: Don Gurney 2018 DIRECTORS* Natalie Goldring 2017 Anna Leonard 2018 Nancy Tate 2018 Kelly Whitener 2018 OFF-BOARD POSITIONS: Nominating Committee: Kristin Goss, Chair Marion Moore One to be appointed by and from the Board League of Women Voters of Arlington 4 Summer 2016

5 Condo Elections: Bulletin Editor: Beth Cogswell Marjorie Hobart Maggie Bush VOTE411 & Round Table: Ann Garrison *Up to four more Directors may be appointed by the Board of Directors for one-year terms. A motion was made to approve the slate as presented; this was seconded and the membership voted approval unanimously. Kristin turned the floor over to the upcoming co-presidents, Kathy Matusiak and Naomi Schultheis, for their thoughts going forward. They spoke of continuing the work Kristin had so admirably begun, keeping the core mission of our League intact while still venturing into new territories of outreach and partnership. Both Kathy and Naomi presented Kristin with gifts from the membership and the meeting was adjourned. NOTE: This summary of the annual meeting is, in effect, the Presidents Report for this month. As the new Presidents, we are looking forward to the challenges ahead in leading this vibrant, diverse, enthusiastic group into this new year. We will keep you up to date as we go forward. Thank you. Respectfully submitted, Kathy Matusiak Naomi Schultheis League of Women Voters of Arlington 5 Summer 2016

6 Restoration of Rights and Voter Registration Event Have you lost your right to Vote? JOIN US to find out if you have had your rights restored. SIGN UP to register to vote. Saturday, July 23 rd 1:00 to 5:00pm Macedonia Baptist Church 3412 South 22 nd Street Arlington, Virginia Open to ANYONE who has completed their parole or probation supervision Bring your Social Security Number Need a Photo ID? Get an ID right away from a representative of the Arlington County Voter Registrar s Office Get your questions answered by a representative of the Virginia Restoration of Rights Office Sponsored by: The Northern Virginia Chapter of the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice, The League of Women Voters of Arlington, and Macedonia Baptist Church of Arlington League of Women Voters of Arlington 6 Summer 2016

7 LWV Arlington on the Radio! Karen Kimball recently appeared on the WHUR program Taking It to the Streets. The short interview highlighted the upcoming League-sponsored event to provide voter registration information to formerly incarcerated individuals. The event, co-sponsored by the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice, is July 23 at the Macedonia Baptist Church (See the flyer on the previous page). Karen s interview is scheduled to air on WHUR July 20 at 6:47am, 7:13am, and 8:13am. Karen Kimball with WHUR host Bobby Gailes, pictured right. Voter Registration Kicking into Overdrive Patricia McGrady Our Arlington League s Voter Registration Committee continues to work on finding ways to register as many voters as possible. After recently receiving an award for its partnership with Arlington County Public Schools in registering hundreds of high school students, we have now set our sights on the many multi-family buildings that dot Arlington, both rentals and condos. One part of that effort is recruiting building management companies to partner with us and take the responsibility of providing voter registration for their residents. We have just had our first success: AHC INC. (Arlington Housing Corporation) has enthusiastically agreed to make voter registration available in their Arlington properties, both to new residents as part of their move-in package, and current residents by mounting a poster in the office and publishing notice in their resident newsletter. Voter registration has been made simpler by the addition of the option of online registration. So, people, once they have been reminded of the need to register, have the option of doing it online, or filling out a paper form, and either returning the paper form to the County Registrar themselves, or giving it to the management staff to transfer. The County Election Office is very supportive of our efforts, and our frequent partner, Bill Sands, is providing us with the documents and information to pass on to the management companies. We are thrilled with this first success, and already have solicited other management companies. We also have a piece in the newsletter of the Northern Virginia Apartment Association, inviting their members (owners and managers of multi-family buildings) to join our project. We are excited about the possibilities. League of Women Voters of Arlington 7 Summer 2016

8 LWVUS 2016 Convention Snapshot Don Gurney The 2016 LWVUS Convention was a unique experience in participating in representative democracy. I learned some of the challenges facing our democratic system from eloquent experts. Plus I met with a number awesome people from across the country that are engaged in exciting projects to make democracy work. Roberts Rules of Order fostered fast paced yet thorough business meetings that set the LWV s goals and resources for the next two years. Even though there is the historic woman Presidential candidate in this election, the convention reinforced the long-standing League policy on not supporting or opposing any candidate or party. (This is the new way to say our good old term, non-partisan, since research has found that a large number of voters don t fully understand it or actually hear partisan). A series of guest speakers and workshops highlighted the challenges to our democracy and voter participation provided some ideas on how to improve both. One of the most interesting presentations was Joe Goldman s (Democracy Fund) talk on Our Democracy. The public needs to believe and trust the government, But 46% of think America is worse off than 50 years ago while two thirds of Americans feel they are on the losing side. Part of this is caused by economic and social changes. But part is also caused by politics, which are inherently messy and require compromise that means you don t get all you want. He provided a number of ideas that may improve our democracy: Build broad coalitions where there is some common ground like money in politics New York City s small donor campaign finance reform is working and could be expanded Put citizens at the center of government o Explore participatory budgeting where a portion of government budgets are driven by active citizen participation o Incentivize local media to focus on people Facts matter don t cede credibility to liars o Fund fact checkers o Incentivize journalists to correct factual errors Improve methods of voter education, compromise and problem solving Use system thinking assessing where in the system change can make the most difference Meeting people face-to-face matters do it more often. He noted that the League was a good non-partisan forum where people come together to solve problems. League of Women Voters of Arlington 8 Summer 2016

9 Meet New Member Sarah Bogdanovich! Profile by: Anna Leonard Sarah Bogdanovich is one of our newest members to our Arlington League! She is passionate about politics, and many of her role models are people who have spoken up and acted on behalf of their beliefs, such as Elizabeth Warren and President Obama. Sarah also holds the hard-working local and state politicians who work on behalf of their constituents in very high regard, as they have difficult but important jobs that come with little recognition. She is passionate about many issues, including civic engagement and voter registration, sensible gun control, and environmental engagement for people of all ages. Sarah has been thinking of joining the League for years, and by happenstance she was encouraged to join the local group separately by two of our amazing local members, Mary Finger and Amy Hjerstedt, who she knew through different areas of her life. She is very excited to be a part of the League, as her father was politically active and she grew up feeling like she does have a say in our political process. No matter their political background, Sarah feels that everyone in the US (no matter their gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, immigration status, or income) should be given the opportunity to feel engaged in our democracy. Sarah graduated from the University of Virginia in 2000, and she is excited to have the chance to live (again) in beautiful Virginia. She is really looking forward to getting to know the other League members! Local Leagues Celebrate Memorial Day by registering Voters Marion Moore Members of the Arlington Chapter, at the invitation of Falls Church, joined together to staff a booth for the League of Women Voters Falls Church Memorial Day Festival. It was indeed a pleasure to work with our fellow League members in helping Virginia citizens in this election season. We handed out information about voter registration requirements, important election dates and deadlines, and the work of the League in encouraging citizens to exercise their democratic right to vote. Of course we also encouraged them to join the League. We thank the Falls Church League for inviting us to participate in their Festival and look forward to working with the them many times in the future. Shown in the picture are Marion Moore (former membership chair of the Arlington League), Martha Cooper (Voters Services Co-Chair for Falls Church), and Bob Crowe (program co-chair for Falls Church). League of Women Voters of Arlington 9 Summer 2016

10 Census Bureau Seeks Public Comment on Its Usual Residence Rules by August 1 Karen Kimball The Census Bureau published its notice of proposed rulemaking on June 30 and asks any interested person or organization to provide comments by August 1. At issue are a series of residence rules which the Census Bureau uses to determine where people will be counted in the upcoming 2020 census. Among the list of rules are those that affect military personnel, students, and prisoners. A complete list of the rules under consideration can be found at The importance of where people are counted cannot be overstated: this data is used for a variety of purposes, including redistricting. Not only do these rules affect the size and boundaries of state and Congressional districts, they also impact the number and size of local districts at the town, city, and county levels where you live and vote. The usual residence rules were established by the Census Act of While a few changes have been made to those rules since that time in order to keep up with the changing demographics of America, the rule to count prisoners where they are incarcerated, not at their home residences, has remained unchanged over the last centuries. Back in 1790, this rule made sense because there were few prisoners and they were imprisoned and punished in their home locations. Since 1980, however, the prison population has quadrupled and, prisoners are now typically incarcerated in rural areas far from home. This change in circumstances and failure to change the residence rule in the context of today s imprisonment practices results in prison gerrymandering, granting greater representation to rural areas that contain prisons and, hence, unequal representation for residents in districts that contain no prisons (both urban and rural). The Virginia League intends to file comments to ask the Census Bureau to update its rule to count incarcerated people at home. League Nonpartisanship Policy Reaffirmed June 2016 The purposes of the League of Women Voters are to promote political responsibility through informed and active participation of citizens in government and to act on selected governmental issues. The League is nonpartisan in that it does not support or oppose any political party or candidate. However, it does take action on public issues based on positions reached by member agreement. While the League urges its members to be politically active as individuals, board members' activities must be limited to preserve the League's nonpartisan position. Only to the extent that the public and its elected officials are convinced of the League's genuine nonpartisanship will the League be able to render effective voters service and gain a wide base of support for its positions on governmental issues. League of Women Voters of Arlington 10 Summer 2016

11 It is therefore important that members and the public understand the following: All League members are expected to keep the League activity and their political activity completely separate and distinct. For example, members may not distribute League material at the same time as material for a candidate or a party. League members should not distribute partisan information or petitions or display campaign buttons or insignia at any League-sponsored activity, including unit meetings. The LWV of Arlington shall neither elect nor appoint to the board any member who, within the previous six-month period, had held or run for elective office. Board members shall neither run for nor hold elective office. If a board member declares for an elective office, the member must resign from the board. Public notices released by the League announcing the resignation of a board member to run for political office should be carefully worded to avoid the appearances of endorsing the resigning board member's candidacy. Board members may serve on any public board, commission, committee or coalition that does not have a competing interest with the League; however, that board member does not represent the League unless officially designated as the League representative by the board. Guidelines for Board Members and Program Chairs The President, Vice President, Voters Service and certain Directors (e.g., finance and membership), if publicly identified with the League, shall not participate in any political campaign or political party activity. However, these and other board members may: Attend informational political functions of a non-fundraising nature. Make financial contributions to candidates, as long as the board member's name is not then used to solicit additional funds. Attend and participate in party mass meetings in the absence of a primary. Serve as an officer of election or assistant registrar. Other board members may participate in other political activity if it is done in an inconspicuous, non-public manner, which would not cause them to be identified publicly as supporting any candidate or political party. They may participate in activities such as preparing mailings; filing; attending campaign/party events. Board members may not: League of Women Voters of Arlington 11 Summer 2016

12 Campaign openly or work in a significant capacity for a candidate for public office Hold an official position in a campaign or political party organization that endorses candidates for public office. Run or serve as a delegate to a party convention. Speak or in any way work against a League position. Publicly identify their political preferences while working on voters service activities (no displays of political bumper stickers or campaign buttons). Board members should use discretion in their political activities, based on their own personal situation and how strongly they are identified with the League. If there is doubt about the appropriateness of an activity, the board member should ask for a decision from the board at its next meeting. The political activities of a board member's spouse or other family members should be considered separate and distinct from the board member's own activities and are not covered by the above policy. The nominating committee shall make prospective board members aware of the requirements of this policy. This policy shall be reviewed by the board every year and published annually in the fall in the Bulletin. League of Women Voters of Arlington 12 Summer 2016