IN THIS ISSUE...
PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
By Becky Gladstone, LWVOR President
Please read for full news from our board. I would like to add, as we also enter this back-to-school season, that I am thrilled with our new Youth Outreach Membership group pushing for a Student Mock Election again this fall. We will reach out in fresh ways to connect with Oregon’s students. Civics Education is so important to our mission. One student said that voting feels like taking a test you haven’t studied for! This is a call to action for us!
We have many volunteer opportunities! Please look at the LWVOR Newsroom and find something you’d enjoy helping with! My home League, Lane County, feels that our communities and our families all depend on us as League members to inform them about ballot issues. So they make the Speakers’ Bureau training available to all!
We had seven various requests in August, from Ballot Measure Research to helping prompt our study development for next May’s LWVOR Convention!
Please share this newsletter, read and forward the email Let’s all consider this, and keep our League work manageable and rewarding. Thank you, it is a pleasure to work with you!
Yours in League,
Rebecca Gladstone
LWVOR President
ENDOWMENT FROM OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
By Rebecca Gladstone
As we enter another election season, we are very grateful for the donations that help to pay for our operations to provide our Voter Services. It has only been a few years since we billed our local Leagues for our printed Voters’ Guides. Now we are able to give them to local Leagues to distribute, in English and in Spanish, along with League publicity
grants. This summer, we are celebrating getting two youth outreach grants for Civics Education and our Mock Elections programs.
We also give thanks for legacy donations, yielding roughly $5,000 annually from investment proceeds. These pay for a small portion of our annual operating budget.
You can make a legacy donation with a perpetually protected gift, paying out only from the market gains. League legacy donation assets are administered by OCF, the Oregon Community Foundation. The OCF averages their market returns over 13
quarters, for stability and they are paying roughly 4% returns. The rule of 25 helps; invest
$25 for every dollar you’d like the League to get annually, in perpetuity, as a legacy. This is a standard 4% annual return.
The vast majority of our work is done by volunteers so we are very grateful for your gifts!
GRANT FROM OREGON STATE CAPITOL FOUNDATION
By Freddi Weishahn
On July 13, 2022, LWVOR received a $4,000 grant for the 2022-2023 school year from the Civics Education Initiative established by The Oregon State Capitol Foundation (OSCF).
The grant will help fund LWVOR’s commitments to the Case Method for teaching civics and the Student Mock Election program. Local Leagues will receive $200 each to publicize and host community discussions for up to 20 teachers trained by the Case Method Institute at Harvard University. The community discussions have been popular and local Leagues are invited to reach out to previously trained teachers, as well as new recruits, to lead future discussions.
On July 28th, the Angell Family Fund of Oregon Community Foundation approved an Advised Fund grant in the amount of $6,500 for LWVOR to hire a Mock Election Coordinator. The coordinator will help choose the materials for the program and work with the Oregon Department of Education and the Youth Outreach Committee to publicize the program to local Leagues and school districts around the state. LWV
Deschutes member Mimi Alkire will be a communications coordinator for the program.
ELECTORAL COLLEGE ELIMINATION
By Robin Tokmakian
At the LWVUS 2022 Convention, President Turner announced that it would be the vision and goal of LWVUS to help eliminate the Electoral College, a position of the League since 1970. In her speech to the delegates in Denver, she emphasized that funds and staff will be committed to doing this work in the next fiscal year. Look for more information about this focused effort after the midterm elections.
RESOLUTIONS PASSED AT LWVUS CONVENTION 2022
By Rebecca Gladstone
All five of the resolutions recommended by the LWVUS Board (of ten submitted) were adopted at Convention. See the LWV Convention Resolutions Committee report here. In brief, we endorsed these:
1. Immigration reform for a path to citizenship to VOTE
2. Climate emergency
3. DC Statehood
4. Missing & murdered Indigenous people
5. Abortion Emergency for Reproductive Choice. This passed as an emergency on Friday, just after the SCOTUS Dobbs ruling was announced.
LWVOR & WOMEN'S RIGHTS
By Trish Garner
The Supreme Court’s decision Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health overturned 50 years of precedent and deprives women of the ability to participate equally in our Nation’s
economic and social life. Its disregard for women’s health, privacy and reproductive rights is shocking and untenable.
What can we do? Demand that Oregon enact a state Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing reproductive rights. Support the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would provide federal protections to reproductive health services. Be vigilant and make our voices heard.
SCOTUS reasoning to justify this decision? The word “abortion” isn’t explicitly stated in the Constitution. In 1868 when the 14th Amendment was ratified by “the people,” it wasn’t “deeply rooted” so it can’t protect the right to abortion by its guarantee of liberty.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted by dissenting, of course, that in 1868 ”people” didn’t include women.
The fact that the right to an abortion has long been the law of the land also failed to convince the Court to adhere to “stare decisis,” Latin for its own doctrine that court rulings should remain as decided unless there is a very good reason for change. The doctrine’s rationale is that the people need to be able to rely on consistency and integrity in judicial decision making.
Justice Samuel Alito summarily dismissed concerns that the Dobbs ruling jeopardizes other decisions based on the 14th Amendment right to liberty. Justice Sotomayor characterized this assurance at the level of ”Scout’s honor.”
In fact, the Dobbs ruling thrusts many previous decisions onto precarious ground: marrying a person of a different race (Loving v Virginia, 1967); making decisions about your children’s education (Pierce v Society of Sisters, 1925); obtaining contraception (Griswold v Connecticut, 1965); living in nontraditional family units (Stanley v Illinois, 1972); not being sterilized without consent (Skinner v Oklahoma ex rel Williamson, 1942); marrying a person of the same sex (Obergefell v Hodges, 2015); and more.
Justice Thomas is more forthright, at least in his concurring opinion. He indicates the Court should reconsider all these precedents.
You can be assured that the League is prioritizing this advocacy!
LWVOR BOARD OPPORTUNITIES
By Rebecca Gladstone
The LWVOR Board is thrilled with the birth of a new Youth Outreach Committee which has already met several times since the LWVUS Convention.
Committee members are welcome for just about everything we do. There are several openings; write to Becky Gladstone at rebecca.gladstone@gmail.com for more information.
• Study Chair. Our biennial study calendar is starting now. We need a Chair to follow and implement calendar guidelines leading to current study(s) production and new study adoption at the LWVOR Convention in May 2023. This is a “nudge” position. We have clear guidelines and need a Board liaison to help. We also have exciting ideas to revamp the study process!
• HR Chair. Several experienced HR Committee members need to bring in a Chair to convene periodic committee meetings.
• Nominating Committee liaison. The board appoints two members to the Nominating Committee. Jackie Clary is continuing from the board and Sheila McGinnis, recently off the LWVOR board, is continuing as an off-board committee member so we need another liaison.
NOMINATING COMMITTEE TASK FORCE REPORT
By Rebecca Gladstone
As directed at LWVOR Council 2022, a Task Force to reform our Nominating Committee process has been convening. We are basing this work on recommendations from both the LWVOR and LWVUS Nominating Committees and want to bring in participants from all of our local Leagues to address our shared goals.
CHILD CARE STUDY UPDATE
By Terry Styner
The Child Care Study Update team has completed the draft document. We are in the process of recruiting expert reviewers to provide feedback on this version. With that feedback we will complete the editing process before moving to the action planning step.
STUDIES AND CONCURRENCES
By Rebecca Gladstone
LWVUS State Leaders have been in discussion about updating the current process and timeline for studies and consensus documents. Watch for more information about this effort; volunteers will be needed to help with this update!
OREGON GENERAL ELECTION 2022
By Rebecca Gladstone
Welcome to the busiest Oregon mid-cycle election in our memory. Our November 2022 ballots are unusually important despite lacking the Presidential race. Oregon has arguably the hottest Governor’s race in the country with the incumbent term-limited out, projected to be a $40 million contest.
Unfortunately, neither the campaign finance reform nor the redistricting initiatives made it to November 2022 ballots but they are poised for 2024. Our newly redistricted six congressional districts are getting national attention with the important partisan margin very narrow. We have unusually high incumbent turnover in the Oregon legislature, partly influenced by the new redistricting, including important leadership races with a new House Speaker, Senate President, and unusually contentious local races. Thanks to local and state Voter Service Teams for informing voters this fall!
MEMBER UPDATE FROM MARION-POLK LEAGUE
By Sally Hollemon
Bea Epperson died on August 6 after a long illness. She was an active League member, including LWVMPC president in 1976-7. Her service included many years of Voter Service locally and at the state level, including many years of helping to edit state ballot measures for the Voters’ Guides that has informed many Oregon voters. Bea was a member of the Marion-Polk League book group, at which she always had thoughtful comments.
Professionally, Bea was a science tutor at Sprague H.S., then a chemistry teacher at McNary H.S. She and her husband Earl had three children. She enjoyed playing tennis and walking in the wildlife refuges near Salem.
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