Nationally, League is best known for non-partisan candidate forums and voter
registration. In the Denver League, though cautious of the pandemic, our
Voter Service Team still continued the tradition and was very active this
election.
Nancy
Ulrich, as League’s Denver Decides Coordinator, worked with
other members to invite candidates to attend the production of eight
candidate and ballot issue forums this fall. Denver’s Channel 8 produced the
events and Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation also provided assistance.
Voter registration was also busy. Jeanette Scotland trained over
80 circulators from around the city. League members set up so many
registration events that Harper Strickland had to keep
track of everything on a spread sheet. Sue Stark organized
various registration events at sites where one would most likely find
unregistered women and elderly. Susan Dunn organized eight
friends, dubbed The Nonettes, who fanned out into city parks, businesses, a
farmer’s market and non-profit organizations seeking unregistered
voters. The League partnered with the Denver Clerk and Recorder’s
Office, which connected us with Denver Health and the public libraries. We
were also approached by Little Man Ice Cream, Alamo Drafthouse, and Alpha
Kappa Alpha to help with registrations.
The greatest numbers registered were at the jails where Anne Duncan
organized a team to register 265 people over four days in September and
October. As members may remember, League is the legally designated community
organization to promote voting in the jails. When Sheriff Diggins of Denver
County urged in-person voting in the jails, the League provided volunteers
clad in PPE to assist in that effort. In addition, Anne’s team trained to be
election judges, and they will be registering people and conducting in-person
voting at the jails before and on election day.
Steve
Coddington and Gerry Cummins enlightened
members and the public at our virtual ballot issues briefings in early
October. We reached about 125 viewers those nights. Steve had help from
several Leaguers in creating our signature publication, the pros and cons for
the Denver ballot issues. The physical production of that pamphlet was
done primarily by Pearlanne Zelarney, editor, and
our office manager, Fran Coleman, and her office
helpers Chris Humphries and Joan Friend.
Sarah
McCarthy coordinated our Speaker’s Bureau. The League held
six virtual events with the Public Library that Little Man Ice Cream
co-hosted and advertised. Rotary, Cafecito, John F Kennedy High School and
Pathfinders also requested speakers on the pros and cons of the ballot
issues. The future for our Speaker’s Bureau should expand our reach as we
continue to use virtual avenues for community organizations and private
citizens.
Voter Service has been impacted by the pandemic and technology.
However, Anne Duncan assisted Cath Perone of the Colorado
League in making sure VOTE411.org had our local information. While we
produced over 1,000 copies of the local Pros and Cons Ballot Issues, in
Spanish as well as English, Andrea Mitchell prominently
displayed local and state ballot issues on our website, lwvdenver.org,
for the public to access.
Jeanette
Scotland Anne Duncan
Voter
Service Co-Chairs
SPECIAL NOTE: Voter Registration Team meeting via
zoom on Tuesday, November 17 at 7 p.m.
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