Welcome to Forum 360 with its global outlook and local view.

I'm Ardith Keck and, Some people wonder what the League of Women Voters is and what it does.

And here to explain all that and help us understand that is Laurie Curfman, who is the current president.

And she holds a position with the Akron Public Schools.

She is the director of programs for Project Grad in Akron They serve students and families in the Akron Public Schools to prepare them for life after high school graduation.

Laurie, welcome.

-Thank you Ardith.

What is the League of Women Voters?

I'm going to read the mission, to you from our new brochure, because the mission has changed a little bit recently.

What we do remains the same, but we've added a few things to the actual wording of the mission statement.

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan, that's key, grassroots, key organization working to protect and expand voting rights and ensure everyone is represented in our democracy.

We empower voters and defend democracy through advocacy, education and litigation at the local, state and national levels.

So -we have a local league, which you are president of.

And then there's the State League and the National League.

who are the members of the League of Women Voters?

-Across the country There are local leagues and each state has a league, and then there's the national organization.

So we're a little different from some other organizations in that we have the three levels.

So the work though gets done here locally.

The league of Women Voters of the Akron area are members.

We have about 130 members right now, and our grassroots work is really what helps change the community in terms of having informed voters and defending democracy here in the Akron area?

Okay, so, The League of Women Voters is unusual because there are men who are members, correct?

-Correct.

Yes.

And so why is the League of Women Voters?

Back in 1920, the League of Women Voters of the U.S., the United States was started.

And that was about six months before the 19th amendment to the Constitution was ratified, allowing women to vote.

So the activism started prior to the 19 amendment, and it was all women fighting for, not only the right to vote, but other social issues and political issues at the time, women gathered together use their power as a group to to make change and help educate and inform communities.

And, it's interesting because we do have men members, and men are a very important part of the league.

not only locally, but at the state level and nationally and men.

When the League of Women Voters, U.S. was talking about allowing men to join.

There was a lot of discussion about, think about, you know, the the years about would women still be able to stand their ground and hold their power if men were involved in the organization?

And it was a rather contentious vote, but, the vote was taken and men were welcomed into the League of Women Voters, which is kept its name.

all of these years, because women started it -and the power of what happened -Exactly.

Yeah.

Okay.

I pick out the nonpartisan part of the mission.

Can you explain that?

-It's real important for us to remain neutral.

We don't support candidates or issues unless we have a position on the issue.

And the way the league works is at the national or state level.

We have positions, for instance, on criminal justice or the environment.

And if we have a position, then we can support and advocate for that position.

publicly and personally, each of us in the league may have varying opinions, but if the league has a position, then we are able to advocate for that as a as a group.

How do we get a position?

it's through discussion.

It's through research.

It's through consensus.

And currently, at our next national convention.

a group from Vermont, actually is hoping that, we will modify our issue on health care.

so it starts.

It can start small.

It can start at the state level, or it can start at the national level.

But it's definitely a process that gets us to the point where we have a position and we can take action on that position.

The nonpartisan piece also in terms of candidates.

we do not support outwardly as an organization any candidates, whether they be Democrat, Republican or independent.

For instance, if we have a candidates forum, we invite everyone, and everyone is treated equally because we want people to have the information and be informed so they can make a vote based on what they think is best as an informed citizen.

-Okay, full disclosure, I am a member of the League of Women Voters and have been for a long time.

I feel it's very important.

we do support it very well.

How what are some of the league positions?

You mentioned criminal justice, -Criminal justice, the environment.

the electoral college.

There is a position, and I believe, I just saw an email yesterday where that's kicking back into gear here.

The League of Women Voters does not support the electoral College.

That.

Why don't they support that?

I have to actually look into it.

I just saw the email yesterday.

fairness is my general understanding, but I don't know the specifics and the background on that.

And they figure that it's, out of date.

-I think that's a part of it.

Yeah.

okay.

so the league positions are determined by the grass roots area, and it could be that the state, has something that they want to change, but basically it's it's the grass roots.

It's the local organizations.

What happens after these positions are decided upon?

You mentioned that that's where you can go for issues, -and then we can be supportive of issues that fall into that position.

for instance, the criminal justice issue, the position was updated at the national convention.

It's this year, so it would have been two years ago.

So that allowed us here in Akron when we had, a, a situation, with police involved in, murder of a young black male that we could make a statement on, that we were allowed to because there was a position at the national level.

Okay.

And, the next question is, does the league do anything as a result of having a position?

Locally I'm not I'm not.

-You mentioned supporting issues -Yes.

- So we can do that.

Do we do anything else to help support the the position locally?

Let me give an example.

and this one is rather controversial.

Our understanding locally, League of Women Voters of the Akron area is that the state and national has a position on reproductive health.

Issue one came up here for us in Ohio, and we felt it was important for the state to support that issue outwardly, signage, brochures, door to door, informational sessions.

However, the state decided that we would not get involved, so we were told locally, nope, we're not getting involved.

And so that was rather contentious and I think disappointing to a lot of members.

However, we were supporting, other organizations that were behind it, as individuals to, get that reproductive freedom amendment passed in the state.

So sometimes it doesn't work exactly like it's supposed to.

And I think that example kind of it opened my eyes.

that was different.

Yes.

Yes it was.

So hopefully that helps give a little bit of understanding - sometimes there are letters to the editor.

Yes.

Letters to the editor.

informational events, forums.

We can bring in speakers.

we do have a speakers bureau.

Also, we have some very knowledgeable, men and women, in our local league who can come and speak to organizations on topics currently the citizens, not politicians.

We are gathering signatures to get an amendment, on the November 5th ballot at the general election to have a commission of 15 nonpolitical people like you and me -Just citizens, -to put the maps together so they are fair.

The gerrymandering situation.

Democrats have done it.

Republicans have done it.

Currently, the situation, the districts that are the way they are divided up right now by the current maps.

those have been declared unconstitutional seven times by the Ohio Supreme Court.

And when you look at the fact that back in 2018, 74% of Ohioans said, we want fair districts.

We're working real hard on that we're working with common cause.

the League of Women Voters of Ohio has, partnered with Common Cause and Fair Districts, and we have a group of people here in our local league and Summit County that are unbelievable when it comes to getting those signatures.

we just got word this week that, we're done collecting signatures for the moment.

They're going to do an audit, see where we're at, but we think we're where we need to be to get that issue on the ballot here in November.

-And we probably have more signatures than our needed.

There's a verification process because people who have signed the petition, which for any petition we want to make sure that people's signatures and their mailing address and the other information they give is correct and matches what is on their voter registration information card.

If you've changed your name, if you've changed your address, your marital status.

you need to get that information changed with the Board of Elections.

So your information matches and so your vote counts in November.

We are talking about the League of Women Voters of the Akron area today.

And with me is the president, Laurie Curfman.

And she is a public Akron Public Schools official.

She is the director of programs for project Grad Akron.

And, I'm very pleased to say that, Laurie has already been president for two years and agreed to, go a third year.

And, that that's wonderful.

The league has an observer corps.

Tell me about that.

The observer Corps, our volunteers, which all of our members, who do the work, who serve on the board.

This is all volunteer work.

Some of us are retired.

Some of us have full time jobs.

Some of us have part time jobs.

But I want to make sure people understand that this is we're giving of ourselves and our service and the, Observer Corps is one particular area where people can volunteer.

We observe literally go into public and governmental meetings, and we watch.

And to ensure that the sunshine laws are being maintained and that the meetings are being run in the manner that they should be.

meeting, agendas and certain things, you're allowed to do and not allowed to do in, in public meetings, we want to make sure that everything's on the, on the up and up.

And I don't think we're, we're felt of like a threat necessarily.

some folks have been going and observing the same meetings.

The Summit County Educational Service Center, for instance, has said the same person.

She comes in to each meeting and they welcome her, and she observes, now, if there is something, we do get training before we go into meetings to observe.

But if there's something that doesn't quite, meet the mark in terms of behaviors or discussions in the meetings, we can jot those notes down and provide it to our chairperson of the Observer Corps, and then we can go from there.

we had a situation recently where someone noticed something wasn't quite right, and we checked into it, and the organization and the entity rather actually thanked us because they didn't recognize that this particular situation had been happening.

So it's a good way for us to keep our eyes on things.

And, for our volunteers to also get exposed and for these different entities, to know that we're there and, the relationships become established and we're better known.

What are some of the places that volunteers go to observe the Board of Elections, the Akron Public Schools school board meetings, city council, county council, all some of the committee meetings, summit County Public library.

I think we're looking for someone to cover that meeting right now.

And, the Summit County Educational Service Center.

So most of the the meetings of the governmental, organizations here in Summit County and the city of Akron.

And do you accept new members?

Absolutely.

We do.

Yes.

we we have a lot.

Pardon me.

We have a lot of ways that people can volunteer their time.

And if you like a little short project, we've got that for you.

Or if you want to become more involved on a regular basis, voter registration happens year round.

Voter education happens year round sometimes, like with the citizens, not politicians.

Petitions.

that's been going on for, you know, a period of months, but, also serving on the board, helping with the operational piece of the organization is important, going out and encouraging people to become members.

And we have members who pay the dues and, keep up on newsletters and different material we provide.

And then we have other members who are, practically working a full time job supporting the league.

So there's a whole variety.

And the League of Women Voters of the Akron area, we are a 501C4 So we do accept donations.

However, they are not tax deductible donations because our work is more in the advocacy area.

But we do have our education fund, which is an arm of our league, and they are the 501C3.

So that is the organization that provides funding for the league for a lot of our, voter education and registration materials.

We have postcards, we have brochures, we have yard signs for different, elections depending on, you know, a general election -Not for candidates, -But not for candidates.

No.

for instance, the issue one for the gerrymandering a few years back, we keep getting issue ones, and, that, we had yard signs for that and then a yard sign that just says vote please.

We want people to vote.

And, so our education fund, Takes the initiative to go out and get some grant funding and corporate donations.

to keep the funds available for, the materials that we use for our voter education and registration, voter forums, all of the programing that we do, do we have a publication of any sort?

We do a newsletter and it is, a digital newsletter.

we're happy to print it out for some of our members who, don't use the computer.

And, we have a communications committee who puts together our quarterly newsletter.

We have a lot of email communication going out on a regular basis.

So all of our members and friends are informed of what's happening, what are opportunities for them to volunteer, what's emergent?

Where do we need them?

If we have some action calls from the League of Women Voters?

Ohio, we're on social media, on Facebook, Instagram and X.

And so our our small but mighty committee, who serves in a marketing capacity.

too of they're very talented are able to continue to get our information out.

And we have a website.

So, you can Google L-W-V-A-A and you'll find our website and that has, lots of good information on it that, the public is welcome to, to look at.

Is that the way you join?

You can join through the website.

you can join we've had tabling events.

we had a tabling event last night at the Sojourner Truth unveiling ceremony.

the League of Women Voters was involved in the committee, that worked towards getting the Sojourner Truth Plaza, here in Akron.

And what a phenomenal event it was last night.

-And it was.

But we have incredibly, attended, I was amazed.

And the people, -a lot of folks involved in that and, Tawanda Mullins, who is, a member of the league, she is the chair of that, committee that that made it all happen.

And, she absolutely has done a phenomenal job.

And we were taking my husband and I were taking pictures, because I said, we need this for our daughters and our granddaughters.

Yeah.

Yes, indeed.

Laurie, thank you so much for coming and talking about the League of Women Voters.

It's, a way that the community can get involved.

And I certainly hope that they do.

And we want them to vote -Absolutely -In November, -November 5th general election.

If you need any information, we have on our website, but also vote 4-1-1, which is a League of Women Voters initiated platform, which is your one stop shop for finding out voting information.

You can plug in your home address and it will come up with your ballot.

Everything and the background information.

You can read and learn and you can go to the ballot with a paper in your hand, in case there's so many issues and candidates that you can't.

I always keep them all straight, right?

Right.

So vote 4-1-1.org is available as well.

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