FROM THE PRESIDENTS DESK

This has been a very busy month for our League. Many volunteers are dedicating many hours to registering voters, and verifying voters’ registrations in light of the “purge” efforts of the Ohio Secretary of State. And, as most of you know by now, the Citizens Not Politicians proposed amendment is in litigation over the language approved by the state which is misleading and confusing. At this point, it seems that the best we can do to avoid confusion is to advise voters to “VOTE YES ON ISSUE 1 TO STOP GERRYMANDERING” as we await the decision of the Court on the wording of the proposed amendment.

The LWV-TLC held a CELEBRATION in recognition of the 104th anniversary of women winning the right to vote! Regina Vincent-Williams gave a very moving reading of a speech from“Sojourner Truth” and Holly Monos distributed a short play which was read that reflected the history of women’ fight for the vote in Ohio. It ended with the singing of Helen Reddy’s song “I AM WOMAN”. The spirit of camaraderie was felt by all and energized us to keep up the fight for equality. A shout out to Bonnie Bishop for organizing this great event!

We are hoping to designate October as the month for our Annual Campaign however we desperately need volunteers to help. We cannot function effectively as an organization without money in our budget. Our board and volunteers are always looking at ways to carry out our events and activities with the least amount of cost. We respect the sacrifices of our members in donating their hard-earned money to LWV-TLC and hope that members respond positively to the campaign.

We are in the process of amending our by-laws to provide scholarships to individuals who cannot afford our dues. It is important that, as an organization we are all-inclusive and reflect ALL of the community we serve.
On the state level, we have been advised that some of our local Leagues have received disturbing letters which “aggressively” discourage folks from participating in League events, claiming that we are “partisan”. We are also seeing several well-organized groups gathering lists of “alleged” ineligible voters and presenting them to Boards of Elections insisting that they be investigated. We cannot and will not be intimidated by these subversive tactics which are a reflection of the effectiveness of the League in fulfilling our mission to get out the vote and to protect democracy in Ohio..

As the election approaches, we can expect more tactics to suppress the vote, purge legitimately registered voters and sow seeds of doubt regarding the integrity of our elections. Keep up the good fight and let us offer support to each other in these challenging times.‘

Rosemarie Barciz

Bonnie Bishop