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Board Meeting, Members invited, ZOOM Nov. 30, 7pm

Topic: League board meeting
Time: Nov 30, 2020 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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Civic Engagement Does Not End with Our Vote

Civic Engagement Does Not End With Our Vote

Letter to the editor, Hampshire Gazette, printed Nov. 24, 2020

We celebrate the amazing success of the November 3rd elections. In spite of extreme challenges, Americans voted in record numbers! We voted safely and early during the pandemic!  We voted in one of our most partisan and contentious elections, guided by nonpartisan election officials, who oversaw the most secure election in our history!  Young and minority voters surged to the polls.

Dr. Deborah Turner, president of the national League of Women Voters (LWV) and CEO Virginia Kase issued this election statement, “We applaud the will and determination of the American public to participate in elections amid an ongoing pandemic. This unprecedented turnout is a testament to the determination of the American voters and the strength of our democratic system. It is also a testament to the tenacity and power of Black, Indigenous, Latino, Asian, Muslim, LGBTQ+, and young voters who turned out in record numbers demanding their voices be heard. We are truly inspired.  Democracy defines America, and democracy has prevailed in the 2020 elections.”

The smooth-running election on November 3rd was not the inevitable outcome.  In fact, the chances were far higher for a very different election.  We are deeply grateful for those who made it work.  Grateful for the dedication and hard work of tens of thousands of Americans who made this election such a great achievement.  A huge thank you to state and local election officials, town clerks, hard-working poll workers, ballot counters, and new, young volunteers, who worked countless hours during early voting, on Election day, and beyond under extremely difficult conditions.

The election revealed the fragility of the system. Reforms can begin by making procedures that worked well this year permanent, wrote LWV leaders, Turner and Kase. “There will be many lessons learned from the 2020 elections, and we should celebrate our successes, including the expansion of voter access, record-breaking early voting, and the wide-scale use of absentee and mail-in voting options. This is what creating a more perfect union looks like, and we hope to see these expansions become a more permanent part of our voting system.” Here in Massachusetts early voting and expanded mail-in voting options were set up just for the 2020 elections. Now is the time to make these reforms permanent. 

Civic engagement does not end with our vote. Let’s turn our excitement and energy generated by the election toward making government work. The Massachusetts legislature has just one month left to pass bills on the climate, economy, immigration, housing, racial justice, health care (ROE Act), and much more.  If our legislators don’t hear us, we are invisible. Speak out. Demand action now.  

Nancy Polan

Legislative Director, Northampton Area League of Women Voters

Cheers to 100 Years, LWVMA ZOOM Party

Event Highlight
Pam Wilmot
Lucy Stone Lifetime Achievement
Award Recipient
LWVMA is thrilled to be honoring Pam Wilmot of Common Cause with the Lucy Stone Lifetime Achievement Award at our 100th birthday celebration!
Pam is the Vice President of State Operations of Common Cause and was the long-time Executive Director for Common Cause Massachusetts where she built broad coalitions, drafted bills, advised legislators and other state officials, and employed grassroots organizing techniques to win dozens of ground-breaking changes. The League has been proud to work closely with Pam for over 10 years on various initiatives. She is a widely recognized expert on the Electoral College, campaign finance, ethics, elections, and transparency laws; and is also Director of the National Popular Vote Initiative at Common Cause.
About Lucy Stone (1818–1893): Born in West Brookfield, Lucy Stone was the first woman from Massachusetts to receive a college degree. She went on to a long career as an abolitionist and advocate for women’s rights. She organized the first national women’s convention in Worcester (1850) and founded and promoted the Woman’s Journal(1870–1931), which played a significant role in driving the conversation about woman’s suffrage.
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MA Election Coalition Report, 2020 Election

 For Immediate Release: Thursday, November 12th 

Contact: Patricia Comfort, League of Women Voters of Massachusetts pcomfort@lwvma.org, 857-452-1715 

Massachusetts Elections Were a Success — Advocates Applaud Election Officials 

Boston – In the midst of a global pandemic, voters in Massachusetts set a record for the highest turnout election cycle in history, and they were able to do so in a safe, secure, and accessible election. The Election Modernization Coalition thanks and applauds legislators and election officials across the Commonwealth for working tirelessly to ensure that Bay Staters could make their voice heard. 

As of today, approximately 3.46 million individuals, or about 72% of registered voters, cast ballots for the November 3 General Election Of those, approximately 41% cast ballots through the mail or secure dropboxes, 28% voted early in-person, and 31% voted in-person on election day. 

Voter registration numbers were also up. Since February 2019, Massachusetts has added 377,975 new voters, an increase of nearly 10%. The fact that so many new voters participated in our democracy – during a time when nationwide voter registration rates were down due to COVID-19 – demonstrates that common sense reforms like online voter registration and a 10-day instead of 20-day deadline to register before the election have a critical and clear impact in ensuring our elections are more participatory. 

These numbers reflect keen interest in our elections, but they are also evidence that the temporary reforms passed this summer – vote by mail, extended early voting, and more – worked. Nearly 70% of voters took advantage of the opportunity to vote by mail or vote early. Not only did this allow Bay Staters who might otherwise not have been able to participate to vote, but it had a clear impact on election day itself, according to the nonpartisan Election Protection program. The Election Protection hotline usually records dozens of reports of long lines at the polls, but heard virtually no such complaints November 3. Election Protection volunteers instead reported conditions that were clearly COVID-safe: minimal lines or wait times and ample social distancing. 

These reforms – vote by mail, early voting, early processing of ballots, poll worker flexibility and more – were especially necessary during a pandemic. But the pandemic is nowhere near over. With spring municipal elections only months away, it is clear that these reforms must not only be 

extended but made permanent. They reduce barriers to and bolster voter participation, and they are now tried-and-true in the Commonwealth. We urge the Legislature, Secretary of Commonwealth, and Governor to act quickly in the next session to make these reforms permanent. 

The Election Protection program recruited and trained over 2,000 on-the-ground volunteers this year. The Massachusetts Voter Table led phone and text banks. Both programs report that voters were enthused about vote by mail and early voting, and that our elections went off largely without a hitch, but there were some clear issues on Election Day. One stood out in particular. The Election Protection hotline fielded dozens of calls from would-be voters who were unable to participate because their voter registration was out of date. These voters overwhelmingly had thought they had updated their registration, but arrived at the polls to find that they were not on the rolls. Twenty-one other states have Same Day Registration for this reason; it is a clear reform that ensures no would-be voter is disenfranchised because of issues with their registration. That Massachusetts still does not offer Same Day Voter Registration is a glaring inadequacy. The Election Modernization Coalition looks forward to correcting it in the next legislative session. 

2020 Transportation Policy Forum

Join the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts and the Transportation for Massachusetts Coalition for a timely policy discussion on key transportation topics, including public transportation funding, the impacts of COVID-19, climate/tailpipe emissions, and addressing historic injustices in transportation policy.

Learn status of bills prior to acting to support or oppose them.

Getting League supported bills out of committee. Is your legislator a cosponsor? Testimony by League members?


Getting League Supported bills out of Committee (or keeping League opposed bills from coming out) Advanced Advocacy

In 2020, the deadline for a bill to come out of Committee is Feb. 5, 2020. If a committee decides to, it can extend the deadline a few weeks for particular bills, to keep them “alive”.

Finding out about a bill, bill number, bill testimony, if your legislator is a cosponsor, if your legislator is on the committee the bill is in:

  1. All League Supported/Opposed Legislation is listed on the website: https://lwvma.org/advocacy/league-supported-legislation/  Here you will find the bill name, the bill number with links to the text and cosponsors of the bill, and League testimony (after a hearing is done).
  2. Once a bill has had a hearing, the LWVMA posts the testimony for the bill. The testimony will include more information about the bill that you can use to learn about the bill or bring to a legislator for advocacy.
  3. If you follow the link to the bill number, you can find out who the sponsors and cosponsors of the bill are. Be aware there are often two versions of the same bill and each one has different or overlapping sponsors and cosponsors.  The lead sponsors are also called Presenters, and Status indicates where the bill is in the process, usually the joint committee where the bill is. If you click on the tab Petitioners, you will find a list of all the cosponsors.  On the Bill History tab, you will see what the current status of the bill is: has it had a vote or moved to another committee?  With every action, the bill will get a new number. But the original number allows you to track what the new number is, in the last item under Bill History. Always click on the new number to see what other activity has happened concerning that bill.
  4. If you click on the link to the Committee the bill is assigned to, you will find out who is on that committee and who are the chairs.
  5. In general, focus on bill sponsors, to give them support, and on Committee members to see if they can assist getting a bill out of the committee, when they are legislators who represent your districts.

If your legislator is a sponsor:

  • If your legislator is the sponsor/presenter, you can thank them for the bill and ask them what you can do to help this bill come out of committee.  You may ask them to ask the Chair of the Committee to prioritize the bill we are interested in.

If your legislator is on the Committee the bill is in:

  • If your legislator is on the Committee the bill is in, find out if they are a cosponsor, and if so thank them and see what you can do, or if they can ask the Chair of the Committee to prioritize this bill. If they are not a cosponsor, you can find out if they are a supporter, and if not, why not. If they have specific questions about the bill, you can get them fact sheets or let the legislative specialists know about their concerns.  Feedback is greatly appreciated and important.

If your legislator is not on the Committee and is not the lead sponsor:

  • Find out if your legislator is a cosponsor, thank them if so, and if not, find out if they are a supporter or are not familiar with the bill, or have questions, or oppose the bill.  If they have questions or concerns, see if there are fact sheets or questions the specialists can answer.

It’s all about showing that there is support from constituents for any given bill, and that we are paying attention.

Important: Limit any one visit or communication to one or a small number of bills.



NO BIOMASS in climate legislation in Massachusetts

Act to REMOVE BIOMASS from climate legislation in Massachusetts

Join us in writing to the joint committee that is reconciling the Senate and House climate bills, H.4912 and S.2500, passed earlier this year, with this message.  Biomass energy must be removed from the list of “non-carbon emitting fuels.” The fact is biomass is a huge emitter of carbon dioxide and would send us backwards on our path toward zero carbon emissions by 2050.

In previous years the legislative session has ended in August.  Because of the overwhelming need for the Legislature to address the pandemic earlier this year, they decided to extend this legislative session to the end of the year.  They have not passed any climate legislation, which is stuck in committees.  It is time to demand that they pass strong climate legislation now.  We must begin to tackle multiple crises simultaneously.  Time is running out.

Sharon Farmer wrote this letter to committee members.

Dear Representative Jones:

 I understand that you are a member of the conference committee that is charged with the task of reconciling House bill H. 4912 and Senate Bill S. 2500, on climate change.

I write because it is of urgent concern that one aspect of the house bill be changed: biomass fuel should be eliminated from the list of “non-carbon emitting” sources of energy for electrical plants.  Biomass, in fact, produces more CO2 than does coal, and it contributes large quantities of particulate matter – the kind that causes asthma – to the air.  This is of particular concern for those of us in the Connecticut Valley because Palmer Renewable is continuing with its attempts to build a biomass facility in Springfield, which is the asthma capital of the U.S.  

Both the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts and the Sierra Club are opposed to the use of biomass fuel.  This is not only the sensible position – it is absolutely necessary if we are to move forward towards a state goal of zero carbon emissions.

Contacts for committee members 

Senators:

Michael Barrett: Mike.Barrett@masenate.gov

Cynthia Creem: Cynthia.Creem@masenate.gov

Patrick O’Connor: Patrick.Oconnor@masenate.gov

Representatives:

Thomas Golden: Thomas.Golden@mahouse.gov

Patricia Haddad: Patricia.Haddad@mahouse.gov

Bradley Jones: Bradley.Jones@mahouse.gov

Additional Information

“In the nation’s asthma capital, plans to burn wood for energy spark fury,” Boston Globe, October 20, 2020 https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/10/20/science/nations-asthma-capital-plans-burn-wood-energy-spark-fury/#bgmp-comments

“Addressing the climate and justice,” MetroWest Daily News, Paul Dale, chair of the Massachusetts Sierra Club Energy Committee, 9/20/2020 Committeehttps://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/20200920/opiniondale-addressing-climate-and-justice

Sharon Farmer’s letter-to-the-editor, Hampshire Gazette, 9/30/2020