Dear League Members and Friends,
I wish you the best Thanksgiving gathering ever! Thank you so much to our volunteers who have been all over town helping register voters, sharing voting information, and working the polls. And thank you to the other nonpartisan nonprofits doing the same. This community warms my heart!
Culture:
November is Native American Indian Heritage Month. Here are a couple of links for more information:
In Austin. In Dallas.
Elections:
November 7 is Election Hero Day. Please take this opportunity to pat yourself on the back and tell the poll workers you encounter how much you appreciate their commitment to democracy! Our heroes are Election Judges and Clerks, County Election Administrator and staff, Poll workers, Volunteers with Election Protection, and you, the voter!
Early Voting ends November 4 and Election Day is November 8. Election results will take longer for this election because there are 10 write-in candidates spread over several races. Michael Scarpello, Dallas County Elections Administrator, asked us to let you know that there will be a preliminary election result provided at 7:00 p.m. on November 8 as usual, but because all write-in votes must be hand counted, there will be updates every hour rather than every 30 minutes as is typical. A team of about 10 people is being assembled to do the hand count.
Learn what happens to your ballot once you have cast your vote. LWV Richardson held a program with Michael Scarpello on September 22 about “Is MY Vote Secure in Dallas County?” Here is a link to the Recording. Thank you LWV Richardson and Michael Scarpello for providing this program!
Our popular, YEO (Your Elected Officials) pamphlet will be updated soon after the election. We’ve made it easy to update and print from the website and it’s a great education and advocacy tool. It is in English and Spanish. We will send out a notice when it is completed.
Meetings and Interest Committees:
The next Connections meeting will be held at the office on Saturday, November 19 from 10-11:30 am. A great event to attend with our Board members to hear about projects and how you can engage with the League. New members and current members invited.
Unit meetings are back, and I hope you can join one. At the September meeting we met a three-person team (Dallas Police Department and Parkland Hospital personnel) working the RIGHT Care beat. They provide a data-driven approach to emergency mental health crisis response. At the October meetings, Kelly Hart of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, gave an update on women’s healthcare in North Texas since the Dobbs decision. Thank you, Eileen Rosenblum, for so ably restoring our Unit meetings!
We also have advocacy interest group meetings. Please visit the Event Calendar on the website for a complete listing and to sign up.
Volunteers:
The Volunteer page is being expanded. Many of you have used the Volunteer page to sign up for voter services opportunities. Thank you all for using the platform and for being out in the community! Thank you so much Shannon FitzGerald for managing this for us! Shannon has led the way with voter engagement. Sandy Thornton and I are working to engage volunteers in office support, writing for the VOTER and the various webpages, and history research.
Ashley Washington is focused on using it as a volunteer platform for the Observer Corps and issues research. You will be hearing a lot more about the importance of League tradition of the Observer Corps in the months to come! We will be sending emails to the various interest groups in the member profiles as the opportunities are posted.
Here is the link to the LWVD Volunteer Opportunities - it will fill up again soon. Our last planned election event was at the MAVs on Friday, Nov. 4. We look forward to getting to know you better as we work to empower voters, defend democracy, and protect the freedom to vote.
Vote Center Advisory Committee:
The Vote Center Advisory Committee is being reconstituted by Dallas County Citizen Elections Advisory Committee. We haven’t heard yet when the first meeting will be – only that it will be after the Midterms. If you are interested in serving on our team, please let me know.
Happy Thanksgiving!
In League,
Diane Tasian