The President's Message
Dennis Mar, President, League of Women Voters of the Monterey Peninsula
In the first decade of the 20th century, my four grandparents emigrated from southern China to countries in the Western Hemisphere. They landed in places where citizenship was prohibited to them because of their ethnicity. They did fine in these countries. They raised and supported families. But did they ever think they belonged?
I don’t know if they ever thought about voting. It’s highly likely that in the Old Country, no one in government cared about their opinions either.
Voting is a core value in the League. The League is committed to protecting and enhancing every step of the process. This focus is one reason I belong to the League. When you total up the various League activities, we are involved in voting from start to finish.
Registration: while the state and national Leagues address the policy questions around registration, we do what we can to sign up new voters. I’ve sat at registration tables that rarely net any new voters. Does anyone have any ideas how we can do this more effectively?
Education for students: the Salinas Valley and Monterey Peninsula Leagues’ Mock Election for 4th through 12th grade students is an innovative program (www.MockElection.org). Participating teachers like it. But the bigger question is how many students will make voting a habit during their adult lives?
Education for voters: The League has a strong presence here—candidate forums, Pros and Cons, and Smart Voter. The public often turns to the League for clear and objective information. Thanks to all of our members who contribute their time and talent to these programs.
Advocacy on issues of importance: when Carrie Chapman Catt and her cohort founded the League of Women Voters, they came with a long list of items for action. The League was not a single-issue group. Today’s League still has a long list. League does its due diligence. LWVMP identifies local problems, studies them, finds consensus among the members, and presents our views to the voters.
Protecting voting integrity: thanks to several knowledgeable and committed members, our League has taken on big issues more than once around voting integrity. With other community groups, the League developed a model regulation to increase the public’s knowledge of a candidate’s financial contributors. After effective advocacy, the city of Pacific Grove adopted this ordinance.
LWVMP has been pressing the national and state Leagues to increase the importance put on transparency in the voting process. LWVMP proposed resolutions at the last state convention and the last national convention. One passed and one didn’t. We won’t be ignored on this issue.
No hanging chads on our watch: This November election, the League is staffing two Pacific Grove polling places. I think it is wonderful that the League is trained and ready to conduct this last, important voting step. It takes 26 volunteers (10% of our membership) to make sure every ballot is collected and every voter is warmly greeted. Please consider volunteering for the June 2010 primary election.
