| An update for League friends and subscribers. | | | New Newsletter Format and Content Under Construction
We're currently re-evaluating the website and the newsletter for content and usability. For the newsletter, that means removing content of limited interest, placing the most immediate information first, and providing a linked table of contents. Any input from you, the user, is highly valuable! If you have suggestions or comments, please send them to Ann Birch, info@lwv-bmc.org. Thanks! | | Are You Ready for Election Day? | | Primary election day is May 7! There are almost too many sources now for election information, all varying as to topics covered. Here are the "need to know" links:
LWV-BMC Elections: Our elections webpage gives a step-by-step plan for voting. We are constantly updating and revising this so if you have suggestions, please contact info@lwv-bmc.org. We appreciate your input!
Indiana Voters: This is the main voter website for the state of Indiana. It is well laid out and easy to use.
VOTE411: This League website does one thing no other website (that we know of) does. It provides candidates' stands on issues in their own words. You can select candidates and print a summary of your preferences to take to the polls.
Monroe County Voter Registration: This page includes information formerly categorized under "Election Central," and it goes beyond just registration. It lists related pages that are also helpful for voters, including sample ballots. | | | | Keys to the Candidates Now Available | Longtime members of LWV-BMC and many residents of Monroe County will remember when the League, in concert with the Herald-Times, published the Keys to the Candidates. Printed on newsprint, it was distributed widely within the county and was included in an issue of the H-T. This was before the days of VOTE411 where you can now get candidates' stands on issues online. As a result, the Keys became expensive to produce and seemingly obsolete. Not so. There are still very active voters out there who either do not have online access or do not feel comfortable going online. And we should not forget them. Therefore, LWV-BMC pulls together the VOTE411 candidate Q&A for Monroe County into a printable format. Hardcopies are distributed to retirement and assisted living facilities in the area. In addition, you can access the Keys online in case you want a printout or would like to provide it to someone else. - Ralf Shaw and Monica Clemons, voterservice@lwv-bmc.org | | Poll Workers Still Needed! | When League members Monica Clemons, Nancy Goswami, and Ralf Shaw got together after the 2023 election, they agreed that one of the rewards of participating in the election process is getting acquainted with poll workers. Our democracy depends on these ordinary people who make sure elections run smoothly and every vote is counted. You (and maybe 15 of your friends) should consider joining the ranks of Monroe County poll workers in 2024. Not only will you take an active role in our democracy, you'll meet some interesting people...and get paid to do it!
Click here today for information from Election Central. Your help is needed! - Monica Clemons and Ralf Shaw, voterservice@lwv-bmc.org | | Podcast Features Professor Geyh: A Matter of Judicial Ethics | For our April podcast, Civic Conversations welcomes Professor Charles Geyh, a Distinguished Professor of Law at Indiana University's Maurer School of Law. (Click here to go to the podcasts page.) A widely recognized expert on judicial conduct, Professor Geyh has served as a witness in a U.S. Senate impeachment trial, leading to dozens of media appearances on the subject. He is also the author of Who Is to Judge: The Perennial Debate Over Whether to Elect or Appoint America's Judges, a book on the paradox of an elected judiciary in a representative democracy. | | | In the podcast, Geyh discusses that paradox and shares that, in Indiana, the state judicial branch is a mix of appointed and elected judges in Indiana. However, according to Geyh, each state has a code of judicial ethics and a disciplinary process that works very well. The contrast is the Supreme Court of the United States, which recently "grudgingly" adopted a voluntary code of conduct. "I'm taking a wait-and-see approach to see if it works," said Geyh. A fan himself of judicial term limits for SCOTUS, Geyh shared that 75% of the American public are also fans of term limits for the Supreme Court. - Becky Hill and Jim Allison
Watch for our May podcast, when Professor Marjorie Hersey will discuss disinformation during an election. | | Dorris and Peck Address Audience Questions at April 6 Candidate Forum | The two Democrats seeking the Indiana 9th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives participated in an online forum on Saturday, April 6. D. Liam Dorris and Tim Peck addressed twenty questions, guided by moderator Sonia Leerkamp, vice-president of the Brown County League of Women Voters. Topics included how the candidates work with people on opposing sides, reproductive health, rights of people with disabilities, affordable housing, public K-12 education, and access to mental health care.
In addition to LWV-BMC, the event co-sponsors were League of Women Voters of Brown County, Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, Monroe County Branch NAACP, Monroe County NOW, and South Central Indiana Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
Congressional 9th District GOP Primary candidates were invited to a separate Republican Primary candidate forum on Zoom, but Erin Houchin declined and no response was received from Hugh Doty, so we are unable to offer a GOP Primary candidate forum.
CATS (Community Access Television Services) recorded the forum. Click here for access. Links to all forums for the 2024 primary election are on the LWV-BMC website. - Ralf Shaw, voterservice@lwv-bmc.org | | City, County, and State Leadership Host Town Hall | A town hall on April 27 provided a forum for county and city residents to ask questions of leadership. Present at the town hall were Jennifer Crossley, Monroe County Council; Shari Yoder, Indiana State Senate; Kerry Thomson, Bloomington Mayor; and Isak Asare, Bloomington City Council. Over 60 people attended at the Monroe County Public Library auditorium. The hour-long event involved a wide range of topics, such as unrest at Indiana University, homeless camps, Bloomington road conditions, Bloomington-IU relations, and getting younger residents involved.
The event was informative and definitely worth attending, especially with the participation of city, county, and state leadership together. Plans are being made for other similar events in the future. Attendance was good despite a lack of publicity, so increased and earlier publicity would probably bring the numbers up. But, nonetheless, there were plenty of questions for the time allotted. There were some problems with noise and microphones that the library will need to address and it would have been good to have CATSTV record it. But these are learning points that will benefit future such events. - Ann Birch
|  | | | Newsletter Staff
Editor: Ann Birch
Proofreader: Mary Miller
| |