An update for League friends and subscribers. |  |
- Go to https://www.indianavoters.in.gov, scroll down to Visit My Voter Portal, and click the button. Fill in the form and your election information will appear.
- Find your precinct number at the upper left. Almost all the information you need to vote is here: early voting location, dates and times; election day voting, etc.
- Go to Election Central (http://monroecountyvoters.us/), click on Sample Ballots, click on your party under your precinct number. Print your sample ballot.
- Go to https://www.vote411.org/ballot, enter the requested information, and click Submit. Click Go To My Races to view questions to candidates and their responses in their own words. Mark your choices on your sample ballot and take it with you to the polls.
- Decide how you are going to vote: early voting (available through May 2) or on election day (Tuesday, May 3). Information on these options can be found at the top right of the Visit My Voter Portal page at https://www.indianavoters.in.gov.
- Vote! Remember when you vote in person you must have a current state-issued photo ID that conforms to your registration name.
- Ralf Shaw
| Printable Version of VOTE411 Candidate Responses Available
Do you have local friends or family without easy internet access? Click here for a pdf of the Monroe County candidate responses to VOTE411 questions. - Ralf Shaw | LWV-BMC Representatives Observe Logic Accuracy Test
In March, representatives of LWV-BMC's Voter Service Committee observed Monroe County’s logic accuracy test (LAT) of the equipment to be used for the 2022 primary election. Hart InterCivic (the company that provided the equipment and software) prepared 79 hand-marked test ballots. Some were marked incorrectly, for example two choices for the same office (over-vote). In such cases no vote should be recorded from that ballot for that race. The votes were distributed so that each candidate received 6 legitimate votes across all 79 ballots.
The ballots were scanned and counted on each of three scanners, with operators inserting some upside down or bottom first. Then operators voted the test ballots on three ballot-marking machines, which support voting by people with disabilities, and these ballots were scanned and counted.
In all cases, errors on the ballots were ignored and the tallies produced the expected results: 6 votes for each candidate. The League of Women Voters of Bloomington-Monroe County informed Clerk Nicole Browne that we concurred with the results of the logical accuracy test and the evidence that equipment correctly records and tallies the ballots cast. - Monica Clemons and Ralf Shaw | | Community Forums on Lake Monroe
The Friends of Lake Monroe and the Leagues of Women Voters of Bloomington Monroe County and Brown County are sponsoring three community forums on Lake Monroe. Join us to learn about the newly completed Lake Monroe Watershed Management Plan and how you can help protect and preserve water quality. The management plan identifies the top threats to water quality in Lake Monroe and outlines a 20-year action plan to address those threats. Public input is needed to help prioritize project implementation and mobilize our community to take action. | | | |
The in-person public meetings will be held in Bloomington and in Nashville. The Bloomington meeting is on Tuesday May 24 from 6:45 to 8:30 pm in the St. Thomas Lutheran Church (3800 E 3rd St, Bloomington, IN 47401). The Nashville meeting is on Thursday June 9 from 6:45 to 8:30 pm at the Brown County Public Library (205 Locust Ln, Nashville, IN 47448). A third meeting is virtual and on Wednesday June 15 from 6:45-8:30 pm via Zoom. All three meetings will cover the same information and provide an opportunity for public input. Interested persons may attend any of the meetings.
To register for any of the three forums, please click here. More information about the watershed plan can be found here. See information about volunteering below under "Opportunities." - Ann Birch
Photo courtesy of Steve Higgs. | New Podcast on Gerrymandering Posted
In our most recent podcast, "Perspectives on Gerrymandering," Jim Allison interviews Professor Ranjan Rohatgi, Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at St Mary’s College. Professor Rohatgi was a member of the Indiana Citizen's Redistricting Commission. He discusses how gerrymandering works in Indiana, our past and present political culture, and his experience with the Indiana Citizens Redistricting Commission. He observes that gerrymandering has two adverse outcomes: (1) voters becoming disengaged from the voting process and being less inclined to vote and (2) polarization. He also shares how he would draw maps and how he teaches his math and computer science students about redistricting and fair maps. WFHB Community Radio broadcasts these podcasts, which can be found on their website at https://wfhb.org/category/civic-conversations and on the League website at https://lwv-bmc.org/podcasts. - Becky Hill | Save the Dates! Voter Suppression Film Series
The LWV-BMC Redistricting Reform Unit is working with the LWVIN in planning and publicizing its second virtual, statewide documentary series about voter suppression. "Empowering the Voter" is the theme for the series and the two films that will be shown are described below. More information will be listed on our home page under Upcoming Events and Meetings (https://lwv-bmc.org) when it becomes available and in the June newsletter.
| | Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook will be shown on Thursday, June 2, at 7:00 pm. This 79-minute documentary examines how certain states have been targeted to make voting harder, particularly for minority groups and young people. | | | | Suppressed and Sabotaged: The Fight to Vote will be shown Tuesday, June 14, at 7:00 pm. This 44-minute documentary is about the growing threat of voter suppression and election sabotage to our 2022 midterm elections. More details about the panel of speakers will be available soon. | | | | After the film series, the LWVIN will issue a “League Challenge” for Leagues to bring people together and hold conversations about how we can make voting accessible to all. Our Redistricting Reform Unit will brainstorm ways to meet this challenge in a series of civic discussions on the topic of voting and how redistricting has led to some districts where many voters feel their votes don’t matter. - Vickie Dacey | Civics Conversations about Redistricting and Voting
The most recent LWV-BMC podcast, "Perspectives on Gerrymandering," is described above. Three other podcasts have been produced on the topics of redistricting and voting:
- Examining Indiana’s Civic Health
- Election Security and the Surrounding Disinformation
- Redistricting and Civic Engagement: A High School Student’s View
A complete list of these podcasts is available online (https://lwv-bmc.org/podcasts), along with a brief description of each. Most are under 20 minutes and may be used as prompts for further discussion at the public meetings we are planning for the fall. - Vickie Dacey
| | Climate Action: Stand with Ukraine
Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) has launched a campaign asking U.S. voters to contact their members of Congress and the President’s office. The war in Ukraine illustrates how the world’s dependence on fossil fuels exacerbates international conflicts. A belligerent autocratic country rich in fossil fuels, like Russia, can fund its military aggressions, at least in part, by exporting fossil fuels and thereby escape some of the bite of economic sanctions. | | | The message for us should be to move, as rapidly as possible, away from fossil fuels as an energy source and toward green energy and energy conservation policies. The technology is available, or readily foreseeable, but needs to be developed and implemented more quickly. We should mobilize for this as a national emergency. The U.S. could become the world leader in de-carbonizing the global economy, developing clean energy technology, reducing the risk of war, and simultaneously addressing one of the most serious global challenges of our time, climate change.
If you share any of these feelings, please use CCL’s simple tool for emailing the U.S. president, your senators, and your representative. If the link doesn’t work for you, just type cclusa.org/action in your web browser. The tool connects you with the emails of the president and your individual members of Congress with just a few clicks. It takes only a handful of minutes total. The tool includes a suggested script, but you are encouraged to personalize it. You do not have to join CCL to use it. - Richard Durisen
CCL is a community partner of LWV-BMC. | Local NAACP Offers Scholarships
The Monroe County Branch of the NAACP is offering $1500 college scholarships. Applications are accepted until May 15. Do you know a high school senior, college freshman, or college sophomore residing in Monroe County who may be interested? Please share this link. - Vickie Dacey
MCBNAACP is a community partner of LWV-BMC. | Poll Workers Needed for Election Day, May 3
Election Central reports that poll workers are still needed for Election Day, May 3. To see descriptions of poll worker positions, click here. To apply, call 812-349-2690. | |