Empowering Voters. Defending Democracy. | | The official newsletter of the League of Women Voters of San Luis Obispo County.
Vol 65 | Issue 6 | Date: July 4, 2023 | | |
As we begin the League’s new year, 2023-2024, we would like to take this moment to thank the valuable members of the League for their support and trust in us to build on the gains of our predecessors and continue to move the San Luis Obispo League forward. The accomplishments of the past year have been stunning and groundbreaking, and we have large shoes to fill. We offer a huge “Thank you” to outgoing President Cindy Marie Absey and 1st Vice President Vallerie Steenson, who have led us with grace, charm, impressive intellect, and a good grasp of important local issues. Not to mention, a very dedicated and talented Board. We have been fortunate to have such great leaders. And we are grateful to have the remaining members of the Board staying on to support us going forward.
We thank our members for your energy and enthusiasm. We look forward to working with each of you this next year as we prepare for the 2024 election season and the demands on us for voter education and enrollment. Connecting with voters in real and personal ways by providing non-partisan, actionable information should be a goal for all of us to ensure the coming election year is successful in getting out the vote.
Over the coming year as we initiate our newly formed programs in government policy and civil civic engagement we need you, your passion, and your commitment to League goals to help us succeed in these efforts. We cannot forget the League’s ongoing efforts in the realms of social justice and natural resources. The challenges we face protecting democracy and voters’ rights are ongoing.
| Elizabeth Manak
Co-President | | | |
THE 2023-2025 LWV SLOCO BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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| Officers |
| Ann Havlik |
Co-President |
| Elizabeth Manak |
Co-President |
| Ed Cabrera |
2nd Vice President |
| Sue Bonitz |
Secretary |
| Janice Langley |
Treasurer |
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Board Members
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| Mary Bianchi |
Julie Rodewald |
| Leslie Brown |
Glenn Silloway |
| Dianne Draze |
Straith Smith-Zanartu |
| David Humphreys |
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Celebrate July 4th by Defending Democracy | Empowering Voters
Your Vote is Your Voice
|  On Independence Day we celebrate our country's rights and freedoms, but our democratic institutions and the benefits they bestow cannot be taken for granted. As is often said, “Democracy is not a spectator sport.” We have to participate and embrace both the rights and the responsibilities of citizenship. The League of Women Voters is committed to defending democracy and empowering voters. We do that, in part, by sponsoring and supporting laws that ensure the right to vote and access to the ballot for every qualified person.
Here are just some of the measures the League of Women Voters of California (LWVC) has supported in the area of voting rights:
- More Equitable Voter Registration at the DMV AB 796 (Berman) improves the voter registration process at the DMV, helping more of the 3 million eligible, yet unregistered, Californians register and vote.
- California Voters Get the Protections They Deserve AB 2841 (Low) puts in place safeguards to prevent erroneous voter registration purges and protect the voting rights of people with disabilities under conservatorship.
- No More Prison Gerrymandering AB 1848 (Bryan) ends the practice of prison gerrymandering by requiring that people who are incarcerated be counted as residents of their home communities, not where the prison is located, when drawing political boundaries.
- Protecting Election Workers SB 1131 (Newman) allows all public employees experiencing intimidation to enroll in California’s Safe at Home address confidentiality program.
- Voting Rights for All Californians ACA 4 and AB 1585 (Bryan) gives California voters the opportunity to decide whether to restore voting rights to people completing their prison sentences. This will be a constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot.
LWVC also worked to defeat AB 2808 (O'Donnell) which would have prohibited the use of ranked choice voting in California state and local elections, including in numerous charter cities where it has been successfully used for over a decade.
For more on the state League’s legislative work and advocacy and a bill status report for 2023 – 2024 go to LWVC Legislative Priorities.
Help us promote voting in the upcoming election year by registering voters and informing them about the election process, the candidates, and the ballot measures.
Contact Julie Rodewald at voterservice@lwvslo.org.
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BIENNIAL MEMBER MEETING & LUNCHEON
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 LWV SLOCO Holds Biennial Meeting
June 10, 2023, at the Madonna Inn
Members meet to conduct business, hear the latest from Sacramento, and honor The Community Foundation on its 25th anniversary.
|  The League of Women Voters of San Luis Obispo County held its first-ever Biennial Meeting on Saturday, June 10, 2023, at the Madonna Inn. Members had voted at our meeting last September to change from an Annual Meeting to a Biennial Meeting; consequently, this year we elected Officers and Directors and adopted a budget and a program for the two-year period from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2025.
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 President Cindy Marie Absey welcomed the 62 members in attendance in person and on zoom and introduced special guests Assemblymember Dawn Addis, her District Representative Andrea Chmelik, and Heidi McPherson, CEO of The Community Foundation San Luis Obispo County.
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 Assemblymember Addis highlighted her legislative accomplishments and what she sees as urgent issues, including historic attacks on voting rights, urgent housing shortages, and combating the climate crisis.
Ms. Addis presented the League with a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Assembly in recognition of our tireless and enthusiastic work defending democracy and empowering voters.
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  Assemblymember Addis and the League recognized the 25th anniversary of The Community Foundation San Luis Obispo County and presented CEO Heidi McPherson with a proclamation the California State Assembly and a commemorative plaque from the League.
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League 2nd VP Ed Cabrera received the Sara Horne Award for Voter Service for 2022 from Voter Service Director Julie Rodewald. | | |
Members enjoyed a buffet lunch and the chance to catch up with old friends and meet new ones.
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TWO SCOTUS WINS FOR VOTING RIGHTS
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June brought two rulings by the Supreme Court that were cheered by voting rights advocates and the League of Women Voters. | Upholding Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act
In Allen vs. Milligan, the court ruled 5-4 to uphold a ruling by a federal district court that the congressional lines drawn by the Alabama legislature violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The court said that in Alabama, a state with seven congressional seats and where one in four voters is black, the Republican-dominated state legislature had denied African American voters a reasonable chance to elect a second representative of their choice. The Alabama redistricting committee is currently in the process of drawing new congressional district lines and the legislature has a July 21 deadline to adopt final maps to comply with the lower court’s order.
In another case involving racial gerrymandering, the Supreme Court restored a federal court’s ruling that Louisiana’s congressional lines likely diluted the power of Black voters in the state — an immediate reverberation of the high court’s decision in Allen v. Milligan that affirmed a key piece of the Voting Rights Act. Litigation over the map will now continue in a lower court.
Rejection of the independent state legislature theory
In Moore v. Harper, the court, in a 6-3 vote, rejected the so-called independent state legislature theory. This case came out of North Carolina, where the state Supreme Court initially struck down election maps drawn by Republican lawmakers as overly partisan. The GOP lawmakers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to adopt what is known as the independent state legislature theory and rule that the state justices lacked the power to consider the maps because the U.S. Constitution says election issues should be left to legislatures.
The court’s majority opinion (read it here) confirmed that state lawmakers' power under the U.S. Constitution to control how congressional elections are run can be checked and balanced by state courts and state constitutions. While finding that state legislatures' authority over congressional elections is not exempt "from the ordinary constraints imposed by state law," including review by state courts, the justices also issued a warning about a limit to what state courts can do. "In interpreting state law in this area, state courts may not so exceed the bounds of ordinary judicial review as to unconstitutionally intrude upon the role specifically reserved to state legislatures by Article I, Section 4, of the Federal Constitution," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.
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Test Your Knowledge of Voting Rights: Did You Know?
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- When the United States became a country you had to be a white male landowner to vote. Approximately what percentage of the population could vote?
- In what decade did Native Americans get the right to vote?
- What practice did the 24th amendment prohibit?
- What was the grandfather clause and when was it ruled unconstitutional?
- What was the Chinese Exclusion Act?
- What year was the voting age changed from 21 to 18?
- What year did California extend suffrage to women?
- What year did California change the law to allow restoration of voting rights to felons once they were no longer in prison.
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AFFIRMATIVE ACTION DECISION
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LWV Responds to Supreme Court Gutting Affirmative Action in College Admissions
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League of Women Voters of the United States President Dr. Deborah Turner issued the following statement after the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, severely limiting how institutions of higher education can consider race in admissions decisions.
“For far too long, Black students and other students of color have been excluded and underrepresented within our higher education system. Today’s Supreme Court ruling reverses the decades-long precedent that upholds the constitutionality of higher education institutions considering the whole person, including race, in admission decisions. A student body that is reflective of our society — one that includes more representation of people of color within systems, structures, and institutions — benefits all students and society as a whole. Today’s devastating ruling will lead to less racially diverse student bodies, further disenfranchise people of color, and harm our democracy.”
Read more on the case here | CONGRATULATIONS TO THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION | |
The Community Foundation of SLO County
Celebrating 25 Years: Giving & Growing
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 The League of Women Voters San Luis Obispo County commends The Community Foundation San
Luis Obispo County for its work supporting, sustaining, and empowering San Luis Obispo County residents and nonprofits and helping them develop, grow, and succeed. We congratulate The Community Foundation on 25 years of service to our communities. To date, The Community Foundation has provided $66 million in grants and scholarships to nonprofit agencies and local students.
The Community Foundation has released its 2022 Annual Impact Report. In this report, The Foundation announced that it supports local nonprofits with more than $72 million in assets, awarding nearly $6 million in grants and providing approximately $400,000 in scholarships to local students this ear. As The Community Foundation plans for the next 25 years the focus will be on the challenges we face with the climate crisis, homelessness, and in education.
See the 2022 Annual Impact Report here.
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League of Women Voters of San Luis Obispo County
The League of Women Voters of San Luis Obispo County is a nonpartisan, grassroots civic organization that encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. Membership in the League is open to people 16 years and older, of all gender identities. With over 100 years of experience, the League is one of America’s oldest and most trusted civic nonprofit organizations.
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