The LWVD Newsletter
October 2022 | Ballot Issues Briefings and Pro/Con Brochure
| Denver Ballot Issues |
Colorado Ballot Issues |
Tuesday, October 18
5:30 p.m.
Register Here |
Wednesday, October 19
Wednesday, November 2
6:30 p.m.
Register Here |
Even though there are not 23 issues on this ballot like there were in 2020, 18 is still a substantial number! On our ballots this year will be 7 Denver and 11 state issues. As always, the League will provide the background and pros/cons on all of them at three briefings by Zoom just in time for the ballot drop. Please plan to invite friends, co-workers, neighbors so that we live up to our mission of educating voters.
The Denver ballot issues include four referred measures from the City Council. Two ask to lift TABOR limits for the climate and homeless resolution taxes passed in 2020. Another referred measure requests a new property tax to better fund the Denver Public Library system outside of the General Fund. The final one calls for a change to election procedures. The initiated ordinances, which are proposals by citizens who have gathered the required number of signatures, cover evictions, waste and sidewalks.
See all the details in our Pro/Con Brochure on our website or download and print this version or the Spanish language version here. Again, please plan to distribute our ever popular Pro/Con brochures widely. Consider sending a link to the pros/cons by email to friends! Contact the office if you would like printed versions to distribute.
The Board met on September 28, to determine if the LWVD would support, oppose or take no position on the seven Denver ballot issues. After a consensus process, LWVD supports all but one of the issues based on either our established local positions or state/national positions. See this document for the the final decisions and the League positions on which they were based.
The state-wide ballot issues include three amendments to the constitution and eight propositions to amend the revised statutes. The League closely watches amendments to the constitution because of the finality of those decisions. The revised statutes can be more easily changed as conditions change. The three amendments add new judicial district judges, extend a homestead exemption, and change charitable gaming activities.The propositions include two referred from the legislature on healthy meals and tax tables in petitions and ballot issues. The citizen-initiated propositions include an income tax rate reduction, natural psychedelic substances, and tax revenue for affordable housing programs. Then there are three that deal with the delivery of alcohol - an increase to the number of liquor store licenses held by one owner, wine sales at grocery stores and third-party deliver of alcohol.
You can find the State-wide ballot issues on the LWVCO website.
Don't forget about the valuable League resource, VOTE411 when you are getting ready to vote or helping others navigate the voting process. Our Pro/Cons in English and Spanish can also be found on VOTER411.
Finally, our intrepid voter registration team will be partnering with the Denver Women's Chorus for their "My Body, My Voice" concerts during the weekend immediately prior to the November election.
Anne Duncan and Jeanette Scotland, LWVD Voter Service Co-Chairs |
Our long-standing partnership with Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation (INC) and Denver 8 TV continues! Channel 8 will produce live Ballot Forums with INC at member meetings on the following topics:
- Initiated Ordinance 305 - No Eviction without Representation
- Initiated Ordinance 306 - Waste No More
- Initiated Ordinance 307 - Denver Deserves Sidewalks
- Proposition 121 - Income Tax Rate Reduction
Denver 8 TV will also produce a Ballot Overview show using the content from the LWVD's Pro/Con brochure. Look for the times of the live forums and the recorded ballot show on the Denver Decides website.
| Working Against Voter Intimidation
As we enter this busy election season, we are reminded of the federal lawsuit filed in March by the League of Women Voters of Colorado and other civil rights groups against election conspiracy group US Election Integrity Plan (USEIP) for voter intimidation activities in Colorado. At the time, Beth Hendrix, Executive Director of LWVCO, emphasized that "The League of Women Voters of Colorado strongly opposes any and all efforts at voter intimidation, including undermining voter confidence by spreading disinformation about the security of Colorado's elections.” USEIP has countersued for defamation. You can learn more about the lawsuit and the activities of the USEIP in this article by Bente Birkeland of CPR.
Susan Stark | Board Member Highlight
Marge Fisch
Editor’s Note: This is the ninth in a series of articles highlighting Board members. We thought you’d like to know a little more about their backgrounds and what League means to them. We’ve also asked them for recommendations on books, movies, or activities.
 It was 1956. I had landed in Lawrence, Kansas where my husband was working on an advanced degree at the University of Kansas. A friend invited me to a meeting of the League of Women Voters and there I became hooked on non-partisan politics. Whenever I made a move, I joined the local league because the meetings were intellectually stimulating. True story - My husband once received a call that he had not voted, which he finally did and cast his vote for the Prohibition Party.
I have served on the Boards of Jefferson, Douglas, and Denver Counties plus the Colorado State Board. When I moved to Denver in 1999, I continued my involvement in Voter Service Activities. During most of this time, I continued my career as a middle school language arts teacher in Jefferson County. Just recently I have stepped down from many years in various leadership roles, but continue on the Board as Member-At-Large.
My daughter would write me letters addressed to Mrs. League of Women Voters to get my attention. Being a member of the Chessman Unit has been an added plus as they are such a welcoming group. I have been fortunate to make many lifetime friends in the League and as an additional bonus, my daughter, who recently retired as a Jefferson County judge, has become an active member in Washington State. I will continue my membership when I join my daughter and son-in-Law in Sequim, Washington next year. I also have a son who is a nephrologist and three handsome and bright grandsons.
Golfing, walking and a personal trainer have kept me in good physical shape while the League keeps me attuned to an amazing variety of subjects. Reading is a favorite pastime and I have all the Amor Towels books and would share these. Being in the League will always be a part of my life.
| League of Women Voters of Colorado’s 2022 White Paper
Colorado’s Innovative and Stellar Election System
Over a year ago, a small group of League members from across the state set out to write a comprehensive white paper to research why Colorado’s election system has come to be known as the “Gold Standard” nationwide. Led by Karen Sheek (LWVCO President and Monument County LWV), three other League members (Gerry Cummins and Fern Black of Arapahoe-Douglas LWV and Stacie Johnson of Boulder County LWV) and I spent countless hours writing the white paper and then presented it at the LWVUS National Convention in Denver last June.
As the 2022 mid-term election approaches, voters in Colorado can count on a system that is designed to be:
- user friendly from registration to ballot return
- secure and transparent through the universal use of voter verifiable paper ballots, bipartisan chain of custody procedures and risk-limiting audits
- lower cost to the taxpayer due to all-mail ballots, numerous monitored drop boxes and convenient Voter Service and Polling Centers
- continually evolving through input from bi-partisan county clerks, the Secretary of State, legislative improvements and organizations like the LWV who urge use of updated best practices
The white paper committee has presented our slide show and discussion for a LWVCO event, and we will be presenting virtually for the LaPlata County and Arapahoe/Douglas Leagues, with another in-person presentation in Denver in January. We are available to present to other civic and community groups. If you would like to learn more of the behind-the scenes details of your Stellar and Innovative Election System, go to www.lwvcolorado.org/ColosStellarElections.
Susan Stark | Over 11,000 Bulbs are on their Way
 I think I can say that with confidence. Our supplier in Holland assured us the bulbs left the warehouse two weeks ago, but we must realize it is a long journey. They must get on a ship at a port in the Netherlands (sometimes more complicated than you might think), go through customs on the east coast, get on a truck, head to Denver via Nashville, be transferred to smaller truck, and delivered to the City Park Greenhouse at 2500 E. 23rd Ave., where we have been fortunate to count, sort, and package our bulbs for 30 years. And we have to hope it isn’t a weekend because we can only work in the greenhouse Monday – Friday, and only until 3:00 p.m.
Many of you have been helping with this work for many years. We plan to slow down, double check, and eliminate errors this year. We’d welcome some new willing hands but know that you have to stand on cement in often a very hot greenhouse for at least a couple of hours. We buy in bulk for greater profit, so we need to count all the bulbs into small sacks before we can even begin to fill orders. Regardless, if you bought or sold bulbs, please plan to pick them up as soon as we give you the word. We also need people to deliver to those customers who purchased on their own without a connection to a Leaguer. The greenhouse isn’t a good place to store bulbs, and people like to get them in the ground. Sometimes customers are not pleased that our bulbs aren’t delivered until the middle of October, but our Dutch supplier, who lives in Colorado half the year, always says it is not good for the bulbs to be planted when it has been hot, and we are continuing to feel the heat.
We are hoping for the week of October 17, but will keep you posted.
Marty Sloven (MSloven25@aol.com)
Flower Bulb Sale Co-Chair | Cheesman Unit Book Club Discussion
In 2018, Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt published How Democracies Die, drawing on a huge amount of historical data and comparing that data to the current state of the American government. The Cheesman Unit chose this book in order to discuss some of the unique things that have been happening in the US over the last few years. We met in person for a lively discussion in July and talked about what the League of Women Voters of Denver might do to strengthen what we perceive to be our weakened democracy.
The authors presented a litmus test for authoritarian behavior in leaders:
- Rejection of, or weak commitment to, democratic rules of the game -- Do they attempt to undermine the legitimacy of elections, for example, by refusing to accept credible electoral results?
- Denial of the legitimacy of political opponents -- Do they baselessly describe their partisan rivals as criminals, whose supposed violation of the law, or potential to do so, disqualifies them from full participation in the political arena?
- Toleration or encouragement of violence -- Have they tacitly endorsed violence by their supporters by refusing to unambiguously condemn or punish it?
- Readiness to curtail civil liberties of opponents including the media -- Have they threatened to take legal or other punitive actions against critics in rival parties, civil society or the media?
Since the book’s publication in 2018, there have been other movements and events that the authors did not know would happen, but that they seemed to anticipate: the extreme polarization in America, increasing institutional warfare between the three branches of the national government, state laws making it more difficult to vote, the refusal of leading politicians to accept the legitimate result of the 2020 presidential election and the January 6 insurrection.
Levitsky and Ziblatt suggested some ways to overcome polarization and return to democratic norms, and I quote them: “We need social policies that benefit everyone: comprehensive health insurance; raising the minimum wage; universal basic income; wage subsidies for employers to train/retrain workers and work/study programs.”
The League of Women Voters' “Making Democracy Work” campaign includes ensuring a free, fair, and accessible electoral system for all eligible voters by focusing the organization on the following issue areas: Voting Rights; Improving Elections; Fair Campaign Finance/Money in Politics and Fair Redistricting. These goals are attainable as long as each League member advocates for them personally in their own community. Put them on a post-it note on your desk!
Bobbie Heisterkamp | Congratulations
Special congratulations to League member Jackie Denning and Josh Sarkar on the birth of their daughter Isabel on October 4. Isabel joins older brother Paul. Jackie was always a regular at live briefings (remember those) and has been our voice on social media for years now posting our activities on Facebook and Instagram. |  | Please Renew Your Membership or
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info@LWVDenver.org | | 1980 Dahlia Street, Denver, CO 80220
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