During the last half of July, we staffed a Voter Registration table at the 3rd Annual Block Party, sponsored by Connections for the Homeless. Thanks to Anne Jacobson, Holly Heap, Lynne Stark and Mary Kelly for sharing their time. Additionally, the three Voter-Services Team leaders also met with Evanston City Clerk Stephanie Mendoza and her newly hired Deputy Clerk Sabrina Tamura. It was an excellent meeting at which Clerk Mendoza was able to outline the specific needs with which the League could offer assistance.
During August, Voter Registration campaigns were conducted at Trulee Evanston (thank you, Sue Brenner and Katie Martin), and Morton Grove Public Library (Judy Hoffman). A Voter Services Planning Meeting took place at the Civic Center on August 27th at which 20 members showed up. It was an excellent opportunity for members to hear about our plans for this election cycle as well as sign up to assist with those plans.
In September, the League staffed the ETHS Volunteer Fair at which 25 names and email addresses were collected from students interested in participating in volunteer activities for the LWVE. Many thanks to both Kathy Hayes and new member, Marcia Bogolub, for staffing the table.
And on Saturday, September 7th, we had our first “in-person” Deputy Registrar training since the pandemic ended. It was conducted at the Evanston Public Library with representatives from the Cook County Clerk’s office doing the honors. We had 22 attendees, of which 10 were brand-new DRs for the League, along with nine DRs who took the course as a refresher, as well as several members sponsored by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
We also recently completed a successful campaign for National Voter Registration Day on September 17th with five or six concurrent Voter Registration Tables at various locations. And we have more Trulee Evanston and Mather events in the works, as well as a LWVE information table at the History Center’s Catharine McCullough film event on October 8th. (Thanks to Lori Osborne for staffing). Yet to be planned are the Connections for the Homeless dates for staffing their four sites with a Voter Registration table. We have also been asked to assist the City Clerk with assignments on Election Day (by staffing her office to assist with voter questions and phone calls). Watch for more on this later.
And to mention our final project for this Election cycle, the first organized “Poll Watching Project” is introduced here by the team leader– Gail Weisberg: