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Date: 1/4/2022
Subject: The VOTER Newsletter - January 2022
From: LWV of Johnson County




Help LWVJoCo chart our course for 2022 and beyond.

We’ll start with a sneak peek at our 2022-2025 strategic plan and then move to some small-group brainstorming on important initiatives. We’ll end with an ask-the-board-anything session.

🌟 Door prizes throughout the meeting! 🌟

We need your input to make LWVJoCo even stronger!

Advance registration required. 


 

2022 at a Glance

Get Ready for Another League-Packed Year

The League’s work never stops. Members will find many ways to be inspired and engaged by one of the many incredible initiatives teed up for the year ahead. Here’s a quick preview:

Organizational direction

You may have heard the phrase, “A goal without a plan is just a dream.” Well, at LWVJoCo, we dream big. So we’ve started planning. We’ll start the year by creating our road map for the next several years. During the Annual Member Planning Meeting, we’ll share a draft of our strategic plan and invite members to help us identify ways to achieve our goals. We need your perspective and input to make this happen. Register now.

Voter Information

Our phenomenal Voter Information leaders, Marie Hernandez and Debbie Kitchin, did an amazing job providing opportunities for voters to learn about the people running for local office in 2021, setting an LWVJoCo all-time record of 16 candidate forums. In 2022, they’ll turn their attention to the next generation of voters. LWVJoCo will host The Voter Girl Project with the Girl Scouts of NE Kansas and NW Missouri on Jan. 29. in Olathe. League members will help elementary-age Girl Scouts experience democracy firsthand and earn citizenship badges.  

In addition, LWVJoCo will host four virtual Legislative Coffees with Johnson County Library in February and March to provide voters an opportunity to hear from their state legislators. Plans are also underway to create similar gatherings for Wyandotte County voters.

Voter Registration

Leagues throughout the state continue to refrain from in-person voter registration events because of a newly enacted Kansas law that threatens felony prosecution for any activities that could be mistaken as the work of an election official. (See LWVK's Voter Notes for lawsuit updates.) 

As we await a resolution from the courts, our outreach will focus on providing information to show people how they can register themselves. At our coming voter registration events, we will distribute business cards with QR codes to ksvotes.org that allow people to register to vote, update their registration information and request advance ballots. 

Advocacy

Redistricting: Fair legislative maps will remain a focus for Leagues throughout the state during the 2022 legislative session, which starts Jan. 11. Given that the legislative redistricting committee has yet to publish the guidelines it plans to follow while creating new maps, the process probably will brush up against the June 1 deadline. LWVJoCo’s Redistricting Champion Connie Taylor and the People Powered Fair Maps team will continue to lead our efforts to advocate for districts that ensure every voter’s voice counts. Check out our resource page to stay up to date and find out how you can advocate for fair maps.

Reproductive rights: Protecting women’s right to abortions in Kansas will be another priority. The League has joined the coalition Kansans for Constitutional Freedom to urge voters to vote no on the misnamed “Value Them Both” proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution. (See our resource page for more information.) The Kansas Supreme Court spurred the proposed amendment after it rejected a ban on a second-trimester abortion procedure in a 2019 decision, citing the Kansas Constitution’s right to personal autonomy, which includes a woman’s decision to end a pregnancy. With the U.S. Supreme Court apparently poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, individual states can expect to have more power to deny women reproductive freedoms, making this ballot measure pivotal for women in Kansas. To take an active role in defeating this attack on Kansans’ reproductive rights, sign up for updates from Kansans for Constitutional Freedom and/or email us.

Programs

Thanks to the outstanding leadership of Vice President Janet Milkovich, we were able to host nearly a dozen exceptional panel discussions and workshops last year. The board has decided to keep our programs virtual through March. Janet is hard at work putting together an engaging February program called “Segregated History” and one about the August ballot measure and reproductive rights for April.

In addition, members will have the opportunity to review and discuss proposed changes to the state League’s juvenile justice position. Watch for details of this meeting, expected to take place virtually in late January.

Another highlight of 2022 will be a community discussion using the case study method led by two Olathe high school teachers whom LWVJoCo nominated to attend Harvard University’s Case Method Project. The workshop will allow members of the community to experience how this case study approach is being used to teach high school students about democracy.

As you can see, we are an extremely active organization fueled by the passion and dedication of people who believe that together, we can make a real difference. 

Amber Stenger

President

913-620-5172 | jocoleague@gmail.com


Learn About LWVK's Updated Juvenile Justice Position
 

From the LWVK Juvenile Justice Study Committee:

Local League Leaders:
The Juvenile Justice Study Committee has spent the past year drafting a new position on Juvenile Justice. Now we need your feedback.
At a statewide Zoom on Mon., Jan. 10, 7:00pm, the committee will introduce its proposal. That meeting will include suggestions for leading your Local League discussions on the proposal.
Local League feedback is needed by mid-February. We hope you can join us on Jan. 10.
--Ann Zimmerman, Co-chair


 
Join Us for 'Segregated History'   

Negro History Week began in the 1940s and, by the 1970s, it was known was Black History Month. Each February, our country celebrates the achievements of Black people and their role in history. But what value can be derived from segregating the study of Black history from the study of white history or Native American history?

Our esteemed moderator and panelists will lead a discussion about the historical perspectives of the American people.

Moderator:

Mark McCormick is the director of strategic communications for the ACLU Kansas as well as an historian, novelist and sought-after speaker. 

Panelists:

Gretchen Cassel Eick is an award-winning author and professor of history at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas.

Dr. Robert Weems, Jr. is a Willard W. Garvey Distinguished Professor of Business History at Wichita State University.




Ensuring Poor People Vote = Everybody's Business

January is Poverty in America Awareness Month. The more than 37 million people who live below the poverty line in our country face many challenges in their everyday lives, but one that is not often discussed is voter participation. 

How much you earn is a key indicator of how likely you are to vote. Low-income voters are 22 percent less likely to vote in national elections than those with higher incomes, a recent study found.(1) This study also found that these voters could have been crucial in deciding the 2016 election. 

If low-income voters had participated at a similar rate as higher income citizens in the 2016 election, they would match or exceed the presidential election margin of victory in 15 states. Nobody knows how these potential voters would have voted, but we know their numbers were large enough to potentially change the results. 

We also know that in many cases, the challenges of racism and poverty intersect. The latest census shows that the majority of poor Americans continue to be people of color. Blacks have the highest poverty rate among all racial minorities (19.5 percent) according to the latest census.(2) 

Although the poverty rate in Johnson County has remained unchanged since 2015 (around 5 percent), Wyandotte County experienced an increase of almost 20 percent between 2018 and 2019.(3)

The words of Martin Luther King Jr. —“Give us the ballot”— resonate now more than ever as a call to make it easier for poorer Americans to join in the right to elect our officials. Ensuring wider participation will strengthen our democracy and help ensure that our leaders implement policies that address the priorities of the majority of our citizens. 

———

Resources:

Submitted by Mapi Buitano

 
It's Great Decisions Time!
 
Great Decisions Discussion Groups meet across the nation to discuss international affairs. If you are interested in moving beyond the clickbait headlines and taking a deeper dive into current international issues, please join us.
 The 2022 season will begin in February with bi-weekly discussions on Mondays, 6:30-8:00 p.m. Group consensus will direct further refinement of frequency, dates and times, and concurrent public health directives will dictate the format
 
2022 Topics:
  • Changing Demographics
  • Outer Space
  • Climate Change
  • Russia and the U.S.
  • Myanmar & ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations)
  • Quad Alliance
  • Drug Policy in Latin America 
  • Industrial Policy
  • Biden’s Agenda
Contact: 
Rebecca James, Group Leader 

Tom Jepson

Jamie Kluesner
Mimi Moffat
Christina Pribula

Margaret Shults


Observer Corps Reports

 Catch up on the actions, decisions and proposals of our local public officials. 

 
  • Newly elected officials
  • Charter Commission update, proposed amendments advancing
  • Toll Project
 
Read the latest summaries by League members who attend several public meetings in our area.

Board and Committee Briefs


🗳️ Reproductive rights: During the August 2022 primary, Kansans will vote on an amendment that would remove our constitutional right to have an abortion. Visit Kansans for Constitutional Freedom to learn about the bipartisan coalition the League has joined committed to defeating the amendment. You can also visit our updated Reproductive Rights page to learn more about the amendment and actions you can take.

🗺️ Redistricting: The board endorsed maps created by our PPFM working group, which will be submitted to the Kansas Legislative Research department. Continue to watch our Redistricting page for ways to advocate for fair maps as the 2022 legislative session begins. Thank you to Connie Taylor for keeping us up to date on this important issue and for representing our League so well in a recent KKFI radio program. You can listen to it here.

🔆Charter Commission: The Charter Commission’s next meeting is 4 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 10. See the agenda and find out how to watch here, and read Eileen Marshall and Alleen VanBebber’s updates about where we are in the process.

👏Membership engagement: Our incredible membership team led by Eileen Manza and Victoria Smith continue to make sure all members find a place in the League. Orientations and mentorship opportunities are just a few of the ways they welcome and engage members. The Cider Social and holiday postcards are examples of the creative ways they strengthen and build connections between members. They are always looking for new ideas and additional members for their team. Interested? Email Eileen or Victoria

👉LWVK Virtual League Day: If you missed LWVK's Virtual League Day and are interested in hearing League reports from around the state, study updates, and a legislative session preview, you can view a recording of the event here.                

Sponsored memberships: In an effort to make our organization more inclusive, the board voted to sponsor four regular memberships during this fiscal year. Students can now join for free as well. For more information, contact us.

💡 LWVUS 55th Annual Convention: LWV’s next national convention will be a hybrid event in Denver, Colo. from June 23-26, 2022. Several LWVJoCo members typically serve as delegates, and our League helps pay for delegates’ expenses. Start thinking about whether this is something you’d like to attend and watch for information here

📰 Stay current: Read about latest work of Leagues throughout the state in the latest issue of LWVK’s VOTER Notes newsletter.


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