By Allison Perrine
MONMOUTH COUNTY – The upcoming general election has been in the news for several months now and candidates have been the talk of the town from federal to state, county and local levels.
But behind the scenes sits the League of Women Voters (LWV), a 100-year-old nonpartisan organization that works year-round to educate the public on candidates, host forums, educate the youth, get voters registered, work on census reporting and more.
And challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic did not deter the LWV from its mission; in fact, members took the time at home to build new resources for their communities to ensure everyone who wants to be informed can be.
“We knew it was going to be a very unusual and very difficult year to vote,” said Marianne Kligman, LWV Greater Red Bank Area (LWVGRBA) co-director of voter services, knowing that many people had never voted by mail before and that the United States Postal Service was experiencing delivery delays amid the ongoing pandemic. So, the women got to work building tools and resources to get the job done during an unfamiliar time.
THE BACKGROUND
The LWV was established 100 years ago after women in the U.S. gained the right to vote. The intent was to help women understand the issues and background materials so that when they did go to vote, they could make informed decisions. That mission has not changed but has expanded to include people of all ages, genders and backgrounds.
The organization now exists on national, state, county and local levels. Specifically, in the Two River area, there are three branches – Western Monmouth, Southern Monmouth and the Greater Red Bank Area – and they have all been busy leading up to the Nov. 3 general election.
The league conducts studies on particular issues so that it can advocate on a particular position. Most studies take about two years to complete. When a study is done on the national level, every league in the U.S. receives the study information and comes to a consensus which is sent back to the national headquarters. This has been done on topics such as voters rights, voter suppression, environmental issues and more.
And while life for the LWV is particularly busy in the weeks leading up to any election, their schedules don’t clear after November. Throughout the year, the league hosts “hot topic” programs with guest speakers to inform the public on subjects such as voting machine safety and hacking, polling and, most recently, vote-by-mail safety and security.
“We wanted to give the public the information that yes, it is safe to do vote-by-mail,” said LWVGRA President Barbara Chaudhery.
THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
This year was unlike any other in recent history for a number of reasons, and the ways in which citizens are voting is not an exception. A significantly higher number of citizens voted by mail and voted early, and they won’t step foot in a polling location on Election Day. For some this was their first time voting this way – or voting at all – so the league took proactive steps early on to learn more about the new deadlines and processes.
Chaudhery met with Monmouth County Clerk Christine Giordano Hanlon, for example, to learn how the public should prepare for this election and how to fill out mail-in ballots for those who may not have done so before. That information has since been organized into presentations and shared with interested outside organizations, with the help of the Southern Monmouth branch.
“Our basic love is educating voters so that they are informed citizens and that was really what happened when the league was first formed,” said Chaudhery. “We don’t really consider any year an off-year election; every year is an important election.”
Additionally, Kligman said the league has been hosting virtual candidate forums rather than the typical in-person events. The LWVGRBA first contacts the candidates and has them sign off on ground rules. Then, they set up a Zoom link which the public can register for to view live. The public can submit questions they would like the candidates to answer before the forum and LWV member “screeners” pick appropriate ones for the candidates to respond to; candidates do not know the questions beforehand.
Several of the LWV members agreed that the virtual forums have been great successes, potentially even better than when they were held in-person. Chaudhery highlighted that the Zoom forums are recorded and individuals who may not have been able to watch the night it was held can watch it later, which was not done when the forums were in-person. Vanessa Merhi, LWVGRBA co-director of voter services, noted that attendance has been higher as well. And Anne Torre, vice president for the LWVGRBA who is a trained moderator, said her job was easier virtually as well.
“I think we could put out a better product in a way,” she said. “What we’ve always done in live forums was people could submit questions ahead of time but they could also submit during the forum itself. So, we were always frantically screening questions and sorting them out while you’re standing there moderating,” Torre added. “Because of the limitations of the virtual meeting, we said we obviously weren’t going to do that; we were going to have them all come in in advance. We actually got really excellent questions.”
Thanks to LWV members from the national level, anyone who does not want to or can’t watch the forums can also learn more about their candidates on a new website, vote411.org. Local volunteer LWV members contact candidates and ask them to take part in the site. Those who opt in provide the organization with information about themselves and respond to questions given to them that only the candidates can answer. It is utilized for political and school board candidates.
“It’s one of the few sites that any voter can go to, plus it also has other voting information, how to find out if you’re registered…it’s really like a one-stop website where you can get the information you need for Election Day,” said Chaudhery. Website visitors can put in their address to find the information specifically for the candidates in their town.
Merhi, a newer member of the LWVGRBA, said she was impressed with the ways the league kept up with the “ever-evolving” mandates brought on due to the pandemic, such as new deadlines, how to turn in ballots, why voting in-person won’t happen for most and how to vote absentee. “Every time something changed the league has been right on top of it, updating the presentation, making sure that the word gets out, making sure that people are informed,” she said.
CHANGES WITHIN THE LWV
When asked how the LWV has changed over the years, the women were at first un- sure how to respond. “Maybe we haven’t changed,” Torre said. But they could agree that the state league has become more active in the past few years; one of their most recent accomplishments was through a lawsuit creating a “cure process” for ballots. Essentially, with the ruling, citizens have a chance to fix their old signature if it no longer matches their signature today.
“The league and several other organizations actually filed a lawsuit and that got the state to take that step to create that ‘cure process,’ ” she said.
And Kligman added that it has really made a difference. “Back in May we had municipal elections in many towns and it was the first time the governor used this mail-in ballot system…and the rejection rate was 10 percent,” she said. “This could not continue into the primary, let alone the election, and then the cures that were put into place – that number dropped from 10 percent to 3 percent. And now we’re hoping it’s even lower than that.”
The LWVGRBA has about 60 to 70 members currently. Anyone looking to join them can visit lwvgrba.org.
This article was originally published in the Oct. 29 – Nov. 4 edition of The Two River Times.
