By Elizabeth Wulfhorst | ewulfhorst@tworivertimes.com
After the partisan fighting surrounding the November 2020 general election, many people may want to take a break from thinking about voting. But for members of the League of Women Voters, thinking about voting – and local government and issues important to the community – is their fundamental reason for being.
The League of Women Voters formed in 1920 in the wake of the women’s suffrage movement to teach women about the issues and candidates they would be casting ballots for.
“Once women got the vote, the very next thing that they did was organize to educate their members, so that the members would cast an educated vote; so that they will understand and know about issues from a purely objective nonpartisan viewpoint,” said Marie Curtis, moderator of “Facts & Issues,” the League of Women Voters of Southern Monmouth County’s TV program, available on Verizon FiOS channel 22 and Optimum channel 77.
“One of the major arguments against women getting the vote was that they would just be a duplication of their husband’s vote,” Curtis said. “And the people starting the league weren’t buying that at all. They were going to show people that they were independent voters.”
Over the years the LWV has held candidate forums for voters to meet local government candidates and listen to them discuss issues. Once the pandemic started, the league had its work cut out for it, unable to hold those forums in person during a highly charged election year.
“But surprisingly, in some ways, it has it has spurred us to think out of the box,” said Curtis. The league, like everyone else, embraced the virtual meeting and has actually grown because of that. In the past “we’d get maybe 40 or 50 people to a candidate forum for say, the local mayor of XYZ town,” Curtis explained. “Today we do it virtually, we asked them to sign up in advance, and we’ve been getting over 100 people.”
She said people are “finding it easier” to participate on the computer. Curtis expects that once pandemic restrictions are lifted, the league will continue to offer a streaming option for in-person events to reach more voters, “because we don’t want to lose that extended audience, but at the same time, there’s something to be said for having an audience in the room actually seeing body language of the candidates,” she noted. And reaching more people is important to the league’s mission.
“We believe that democracy depends on an active and informed electorate and that means everybody,” Curtis said. Since New Jerseyans will be voting in important state elections this year, including for governor, the LWV will be utilizing the vote411.org website again. The site gives local communities information about how and where to vote and the candidates and where they stand on the issues, in the candidates’ own words.
One of the league’s programs which helps lay their information foundation is the Observer Corps. Curtis ran a training workshop for the program Feb. 24. Members of the Observer Corps attend local government meetings and report back to the league on what transpired.
“The league has had an Observer Corps since Day One,” Curtis said, but over time it “slipped, covering fewer and fewer agencies.” Now, with the wealth of misinformation available online, Curtis said the Observer Corps is more important than ever.
The league observer attends a local council or other government body meeting and takes notes about the content of the meeting and the process, noting over time things like whether a certain member is absent a lot, if the meetings run smoothly, or if there are any contentious exchanges between members or with the community, all to keep the league informed.
If a topic arises for which the League has a position – like limiting the number of voting drop boxes in town, said Curtis – the league will issue a statement to be read by the league president who attends the next meeting with the observer.
“The Observer Corps is a difficult thing to maintain,” Curtis said, because the observer, by their very job description, should not be recognized, but puts in a lot of time for the league to keep it informed. And most of that information is not acted upon.
“We do get involved in issues,” Curtis said. “We are certainly involved with clean energy, clean water, conservation of parks and open space… and of course we fought for years for the Equal Rights Amendment. Yes, there are areas where we take a position. But it’s only after a long study.”
“We look long term; we’re not looking for the short-term fix,” she said.
And insistence that the league remain nonpartisan is paramount to their work. They welcome members with any political position to join. The league comes to its positions after much grassroots research and study, Curtis said, “And there’s a whole consensus process.”
“If you’re a league member and you disagree with that, that’s fine. You don’t have to agree with it,” she said, or “promulgate our position publicly. But if you’re going to oppose us publicly, then do it as an individual, not as a member of the league. And if you’re in a position of identification with the league, then please don’t do anything publicly.”
Curtis said the LWV has had an influx of members over the past few years, people coming to the league to get involved but tired of “partisan politics” and the “bitterness between the parties.”
These people “really, really care about our form of government and about people’s voices being heard and they don’t think they’re being heard through the traditional party structure these days,” she said.
“Democracy is not something you can take for granted,” Curtis said. “It’s a fragile form of government. You have to be on guard at all times… little by little, rights can be chipped away, and you need a watchdog. You need a watchdog saying, ‘Wait a minute. That’s not good. That’s not the way.’ ”
“We fight to get people to the polls to vote,” she said. The LWV’s goal is to “improve life for all of us,” Curtis said. “And we believe you do that through open government. You do that through education and participation by everybody.”
This article originally appeared in the Feb. 25 – March 3, 2021, print edition of The Two River Times.
