Inside this issue...
- New Staff Announcement
- Jan. 10 Public Issue Forum
- Annual Program Planning Meeting Jan. 19
- Q&A About VOTE411
- The Faces Behind Facebook, The Team Behind Twitter
- Climate Change Public Issues Forum Recording
- Member Profile
- Voter Services in the Community
- Announcements
- Member Portal Info
- Calendar
| President's Message
The unique aspect of the November 8 election was the intense focus on election administration, apart from the usual attention to results. For the past couple of years, elections officials endured scrutiny and harassment, so it was a great relief (but not a surprise) to see that the election ran smoothly. But the drop in turnout was a surprise. LWVMC and other voting groups were out in full force to promote participation in this election. Anecdotal evidence had prompted officials to brace for record turnout.
The 58.2% statewide turnout is good by historical standards, but less than the record-breaking 2018 mid-term election turnout of 59.4%. Both the city of Milwaukee and the county’s 18 other municipalities (except for Fox Point) saw a decline in turnout. So did most of the state’s counties, with the exception of Dane and Waukesha.
But there’s good news:
Both Milwaukee and Waukesha counties and cities had increases in the number of registered voters. That includes increased registrations in southside wards targeted by our Comité por el Voto Latino team. It’s hard for me to imagine that people who went to the trouble to register in September and October didn’t bother to vote in November – so it seems some people just sat out this election.
So we have our work cut out for us to educate and motivate citizens to show up for the typically low-turnout spring elections. Along with the state League, we will be promoting information on the Wisconsin court system and the importance of judicial elections in hopes of boosting turnout. Recordings of LWVWI’s series of webinars on the courts are here. Our Voter Services teams would welcome help, so watch the weekly Update for volunteer opportunities.
In League,
Peggy Creer, LWVMC President | Welcome Sarah Pfeiffle - New Staff Announcement | | Hello League Members! I am the new Administrative Assistant of the League and I am happy to be a part of the mission of empowering voters and defending democracy at our local level. I have 10+ years experience working in non-profits in numerous capacities, most recently at National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Southeast Wisconsin. My education background is in social work with both a bachelors and Masters degree in Social Work. I live in West Allis with my husband, Steve, 16 month old son, Luke, and our orange tabby cat, Ladybird. | | | Jan. 10 Public Issues Forum: "Imbalance of Power in WI's Conservation Efforts" |  | | Wisconsin has gone from being a conservation leader to a state that has failed to establish a basic standard for the contaminant PFAS in groundwater. How?
The LWVMC is co-sponsoring a virtual program on Tuesday, January 10, at 6:30 p.m. that helps to answer this question.
This program will highlight the shift in power that has occurred over the past 10 years between the state’s three branches of government – legislative, executive and judicial – established in the constitution as co-equal branches. The impacts of specific laws and court rulings, the inability of the legislature to act on executive appointees, and specific actions and policy changes that can help restore the balance of power in WI will be discussed.
The program is based on a recent publication by Wisconsin Green Fire, a nonpartisan organization whose mission is to advance science-informed analyses and policy solutions to address Wisconsin’s greatest conservation challenges.
Registration is free and open to the public.
Eighteen local Leagues across the state are co-sponsoring this event to promote better understanding of how environmental and conservation policies may be stymied or thwarted, and what citizens can do to ensure Wisconsin maintains its environmental legacy. As a nonpartisan organization whose mission is to Empower Voters and Defend Democracy, the LWV strives to provide a variety of programs on issues of concern to communities and to advocate for government policies in the public interest.
| Annual Program Planning Meeting Jan. 19
By Lorna Grade, VP Program
Every January, Leagues across the country convene for a Program Planning meeting to set the advocacy agenda for the next League fiscal year. This year the League of Women Voters of Milwaukee County and the Waukesha Branch (LWVMC) will meet virtually on Thursday, January 19, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. to plan our Program for July 2023 through June 2024.
Devoting a meeting to just this topic allows us to select program initiatives that represent the most urgent needs in our community matched with the interests of our members. Therefore, we need to hear the voices of a broad cross-section of our membership.
For more than 100 years, the League has worked to secure the right to vote for every eligible citizen, fulfilling its mission to empower voters and defend democracy. The defense of democracy is incumbent upon free and fair elections, but it extends further in the League’s work in issue advocacy. LWV policy positions are categorized in Program areas of Representative Government, Natural Resources, Social Policy, and International Relations. Learn more about policy positions from the Impact on Issues link below.
Current program areas being addressed by LWVMC are:
- Advocating for Fair Maps to eliminate partisan and racial gerrymandering
- Establishing an Observer Corps to monitor community and county governmental meetings
- Allying in efforts to remove toxic chemicals from our water and lead from our homes
- Advocating for increased investment in sustainable infrastructure
- Supporting local governmental efforts to respond to climate change
- Promoting police accountability and community safety
- Lobbying for reform in the juvenile justice system
- Supporting the rights of women, including reproductive rights.
Please plan to attend the January 19 meeting to have input into the advocacy program for next year and to explore ways that you can be involved. A link to the virtual meeting will be included in the weekly Update newsletter in January. |  | Q&A about VOTE411.org
By Mary Voelker
WHAT IS VOTE411?
VOTE411 is an online voter guide with election related information. It is committed to ensuring voters have the information they need to successfully participate in every election. VOTE411 provides nonpartisan information to the public with both general and state-specific information on the election process.
WHY IS VOTE411 IMPORTANT?
In a democracy, people choose leaders by voting. Every person deserves to have election information including candidates’ positions on issues that matter the most in our everyday lives. The right to vote is essential and allows us to speak on these issues. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find balanced and impartial information about the candidates running for office.
WHO OWNS VOTE411?
The League of Women Voters Education Fund owns and operates VOTE411, going beyond MyVote.wi.gov to include how candidates running for office stand on the challenges facing their communities.
WHEN CAN I USE VOTE411?
The VOTE411 online voter guide is published prior to each election. The online guide will be available at the end of January for the February 21, 2023 primary election.
HOW DOES VOTE411 WORK?
Go to VOTE411.org, fill in your address and see your polling place location, what is on your personal upcoming election ballot, and compare candidates’ answers to questions posed by the League. You can print or email the information to use as a reference when you actually vote. You can even take it to the polls with you on your cell phone or tablet. VOTE411 does not save your information, it will be lost when you leave the site.
HOW ARE THE QUESTIONS CREATED?
The National League (LWVUS) and State League (LWVWI) create questions for candidates running for national and state offices, respectively. Using ideas from League members, the VOTE411 team in LWVMC creates questions posed to candidates running for local offices. The questions undergo a review process before being finalized.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
In January, the VOTE411 team electronically invites all candidates to participate in our guide. Candidates who do not respond will have “No response” placed next to their names in the Guide.
HOW CAN I HELP?
- In January, call or email candidates for local office in your community and encourage them to respond to our invitation. Thank them if they have already responded.
- Spread the word about VOTE411 to your family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues.
| The Faces Behind Facebook &
The Team Behind Twitter | Left photo: Social Media Team Lead Jenna Lara. Right photo: Team members Melissa Klein (left) and Kelsey Stockton working on social media campaigns.
The League's social media outreach has grown over the past few years, as more Americans cite social media as a major news source. Students and young adults, a target audience for LWVMC's get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts, are especially likely to use social media to get information on voting and elections.
The social media team includes: Jenna Lara, Melissa Klein, Kelsey Stockton, Leigh Ann Tidey, Mary Rode, Vicki Aro-Schackmuth, and Diane Stiegerwald.
Follow LWVMC on social media @lwvmilwaukee on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and @RVoteMatters2 on Instagram and TikTok.
“The team is able to schedule posts in advance, which allows for a lot of flexibility for the team to do work when it’s convenient,” Jenna Lara, Social Media Team Leader, said. “We do get together throughout the year to swap ideas and we even had an awesome get together where we all brought our laptops, turned some music on and got over 300 posts scheduled for the 8 weeks leading up to the November election!”
Leigh Ann Tidey, team lead for the High School Voter Education and Registration Program, explained her social media messaging aimed at young voters, "We believe that registering high school students is only part of our goal. We must do some type of outreach to encourage voting. High school students do not use email and are reluctant to give out their phone numbers for future texting. Generally, high school students are not tuned into the same sources of information as adults. When asked where they get their news, the answer is mostly Social Media. The two sites most often mentioned are Instagram and TikTok.
"The messaging has to be genuine, suited to their taste, trending, and placed where they will view it. With this in mind, we decided to create messaging for @RVoteMatters2 Instagram (existing account) and TikTok (new account).
"We enlisted three area high school students and two UWM Business students for our Youth Social Media Team. We asked them to create messaging encouraging voting and to advise us on how to effectively spread those messages between October 19 and Nov 8. The team’s videos were viewed by nearly 10,000 people."
|  | | In case you missed it, a recording of the Public Issues Forum (PIF) on Climate Change that was on Nov. 16. Click the button below to view the recording. | Member Profile: LuAnn Bird
By Pat Geenen |  | | When LuAnn Bird decided to run to represent the 84th district in Wisconsin’s Assembly with the campaign slogan “Choose Civility,” she also announced her intention to focus on issues and solutions, rather than personalities and differences. Although dismayed by what she calls, “the degradation of democracy” in the current political climate, she holds fast to her belief that finding a point of agreement and truly listening is the only way that leads to “getting things done.”
LuAnn is all about getting things done. Accessibility was the first issue she took on in 1990, when her husband Phil suffered a construction accident that severed his spinal cord and confined him to a wheelchair. She discovered that implementation of the recently passed federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) had a long way to go. The barriers she encountered were bureaucratic as well as structural, so she joined the League of Women Voters to learn how local government works. The addition of an ADA committee to the state LWV and further research led to her running for and winning a seat on the Oshkosh School Board, an assessment of district buildings, and the passage of two referenda favorable to ADA implementation.
Following this successful initiation into the political world, LuAnn went back to school, earning an associate degree from Fox Valley Technical College, a bachelor’s degree from Alverno College, and a master’s degree from UW Oshkosh.
She accomplished these academic milestones while building an impressive political resumé. She was the executive director and lobbyist for the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin and has served on two school boards (Oshkosh, 1995-2001 and Whitnall, 2013-2018). As a consultant, she collaborated on a multi-state resource project to look at what school boards could do to influence learning, and in 2004 she was narrowly defeated in a run for State Assembly in the Oshkosh area.
While her most recent run for public office also fell short of a win (by only two percentage points), LuAnn impressed political observers with her passion and persistence for connecting with voters at their doors. Her message of civility and hope continues to inspire others, especially younger voters, like the local music groups that supported LuAnn’s campaign with series of backyard concerts they called “Bird Songs.”
For her next project, LuAnn is developing a podcast to share her approach to making positive change and negotiating with civility. It’s clear her experience with the LWV has informed her approach! | | Voter Services in the Community | Voter Services Teams Accomplishments before
Nov. Election
By Peg Schrader |  | |
The Voter Services teams did extraordinary work in the run up to the November midterm elections. Here is some of the work that we accomplished with the help of our many wonderful volunteers.
High School Voter Education and Registration team between Sept. 20 and Oct. 19 (22 school days) did the following:
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In-Person Events: 44
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Students who received training: 328
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Students who participated in registration events: 195
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Students who registered to vote: 271
During these 22 days, they sometimes had 2 or more events on a single day.
Comité por el Voto Latino team completed a community based GOTV initiative funded by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation and State Voices. Accomplishments included:
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Collaborated with Milwaukee Christian Center’s Muskego Way Forward to conduct outreach in 3 wards
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Reached 300 households through a literature drop
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Multiple voter outreach events held with support from 20 nonprofits, small businesses, schools, churches and two government agencies
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Held two business outreach events in collaboration with 3 businesses
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Over 75 yard signs were placed in the Muskego Way wards
Preliminary numbers indicate that more than 800 residents received voter information.
Community Outreach team had 35 voter registration events and registered 163 voters.
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58 were registered in Racine/Kenosha organized by Joe Dubaniewik
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54 at the Mill Rd. DMV organized by Ellen Trytek
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21 at MATC downtown
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The remainder from a number of one-time events
We distributed voter information like polling places, early voting sites and how to obtain an absentee ballot.
Jail Based Voting team during October was able to register 42 persons housed at the Milwaukee County Jail (MCJ) and requested absentee ballots for 41 individuals. This was done over four ten-hour days.
This total is more than a combined registration of incarcerated voters in the entire state!
New Citizen team has been restricted to naturalization ceremonies in 2022 that are primarily for new citizens with name changes which has resulted in fewer voter registrations, however this team did register 71 people this year.
We are anticipating the 2023 schedule and are hopeful that we will return to business as usual and will be able to register many more new citizens in 2023.
VOTE411 team is gearing up for the Spring Primary on Feb. 21 and Spring Election on April 4.
Volunteers are always needed - please see the volunteers tab on our website lwvmilwaukee.org or contact us at votersevices@lwvmilwaukee.org for more information about opportunities!
| Standing Committees
LWVMC Board Meeting
2nd Wednesday, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m
Contact: Peggy Creer
p.creer@lwvmilwaukee.org
Membership Committee
3rd Monday 12:30 p.m. - 2 p.m.
Contact: Patricia McFarland
Waukesha Branch Meeting
3rd Tuesday alternates between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Contact: Vicki Aro-Shackmuth
v.aroshackmuth@lwvmilwaukee.org
Natural Resources Committee
3rd Wednesday 6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Contact: Ann Batiza
annwisc@gmail.com
For information about the above committees, please send an email to league@lwvmilwaukee.org. We also have many working ad hoc committees. If you are interested in learning more about a committee, see the weekly Update email or the volunteer page of our website. |  | | ClubExpress has helped the LWVMC consolidate many of the applications it was using onto one platform. Now, our website, membership database, volunteer opportunities/management, emailing system and member directory are all housed in one location in the Member Portal.
The Member Portal offers all members the opportunity to log in to the Members Only Portal via our website.
This is how you can access:
- Your user profile, where you can update your preferred emailing address, mailing address, and renew your membership online
- The member directory, which includes contact information for the Board and Team/Committee Leaders
- Volunteer Opportunities and sign-up forms and more!
If you forgot your username and/or password to log into the Members Only Portal, please contact league@lwvmilwaukee.org
If you need help figuring out how to sign into the Members Only Portal, please take a moment to watch the quick video by clicking the button below.
| Waukesha County Branch Monthly Meeting
By Vicki Aro-Schackmuth, Branch Director
3rd Wednesday of the month
Alternating between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Zoom
Please join the LWVMC-Waukesha County Branch for our monthly meeting on the third Wednesday of the month.
PLEASE NOTE this is a new date for our monthly meeting. Meetings times alternate between 1 p.m. (even months) and 6 p.m. (odd months). These meetings are a great place to stay informed and work to protect and expand voting rights and ensure everyone is represented in our democracy.
You will hear from outside experts on issues that fall within our four broad Program areas: Representative Government, Social Policy, Natural Resources and International Relations and receive education on important issue that matter to you.
We have continued to offer these meetings via Zoom as we can reach a wider audience. Meeting links can be found on our website calendar www.lwvmilwaukee.org. Attending these meetings is a great way to get connected with other local League members. I hope to see you there!
See the 2023 calendar by clicking the button below. | Lunch & Learn
LWVMC sponsors a free, virtual gathering on the third Tuesday of each month at noon. We build friendships, inspire action to work together to influence public policy and meet basic needs. Invite and join your friends and LWV members to Lunch and Learn. We listen to and follow the lead of Black and Brown Women community leaders.
Meeting ID: 963 9818 8822
Passcode: league | League Café
By Mary Sussman, League Café Facilitator
League Café meets monthly and welcomes League members new and old, as well as community members. In a small group setting, we get to know each other better, share knowledge and have interesting conversations. Rotating on a monthly basis, we meet as a general discussion group, then in opposite months, convene to discuss noteworthy books on racial equity, immigration and/or voting. Our gatherings range from 8-20 people. We have a core group of "regulars" but new people are especially welcome.
Virtually, join the discussion here.
| | | International Relations Committee - Great Decisions Members
By Ned Maxwell
The International Affairs Committee has suffered a severe blow because of the loss of a founding member, Ed Weiskotten. Our collective hearts go out to his family and in particular his wonderful wife Gloria.
Through it all the Committee will soldier on the second Thursday of the month in the Firefly room of the Wauwatosa Public Library, at 10 a.m. At that time we will be discussing the End of Globalization topic from the Great Decisions series. The Great Decisions series is described as America's largest discussion program on world affairs, created by the Foreign Policy Association.
On a personal note: Ed, like many others in the League and on our committee, were, and are thoughtful, open and lovely people. Any loss to one is a loss to all, and for that I am sorry. I just feel lucky to know Ed while I did. At times like this, we all know life goes on, a little sadder, perhaps, but at the same time wiser.
Meets the second Tuesday of each month at the Wauwatosa Library at 10 a.m.
| Upcoming Events
Find the LWVMC calendar for the most up-to-date events and details. | Notice
The LWVMC Board will continue to follow CDC guidelines with regard to exposure to COVID-19. Based on the most recent recommendations, we are beginning to hold a mixture of virtual and in-person meetings. Members may participate in in-person events and activities as they feel comfortable. | Voter Editor: Melissa Kelley
m.kelley@lwvmilwaukee.org
League of Women voters Milwaukee County
league@lwvmilwaukee.org
(414) 273-8683
6737 W Washington St., Ste. 2218
Milwaukee, WI 53214
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