Founded | 1939 |
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Founder | Carrie Chapman Catt |
Type | Political advocacy |
Focus | Political action, responsible government |
Location | |
Key people | Patricia Brigham (President) |
Website | www |
Elections in Florida |
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Government |
The League of Women Voters of Florida (LWVFL) is a civic organization in the state of Florida. The organization is nonpartisan; the League's Bylaws mandate that the organization will not support any political candidate or party. League promotes political responsibility through informed and active participation of citizens in government, acts on selected governmental issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. League's members do advocate on policy issues. [1]
The Florida State League of Women Voters was founded on March 31, 1921 by May Mann Jennings, at a meeting in Jacksonville. [2] It immediately voted to affiliate with the national League of Women Voters, although unlike the national organization and the Leagues in other states, the FSLWV was not the successor of a suffrage organization. [2] In the 1920s the FSLWV included many of the most prominent women in the state and was a strongly feminist movement, with women's issues at the top of its priorities. [2] The first president of the league was Nellie Healy O'Hara of Lake Worth, Florida. [3] [4]
Following a decline in the 1930s, the organization was reorganized in 1939 first as the Florida Non-Partisan League of Women Voters, subsequently renamed the League of Women Voters of Florida. [2] Its first project was a study of state government with a particular focus on the state's Constitution. [5] In 1949, the League worked to pass the 1949 permissive jury service statute. [6] Prior to 1949 and the work done by the LWVFL, women in Florida could not serve on juries. [7]
Early advocacy efforts encouraged the Florida Legislature to end the process of gerrymandering. [8] In 2011, Florida voters approved two gerrymandering-related redistricting amendments [9] which were placed in the State Constitution. [10] The LWVFL and other groups sued over the redistricting. [11] In addition, the LWVFL suspended voter registration operations for a year during that time, and when the gerrymandering aspects of the provision were blocked by a federal judge. [12] The gerrymandering was ruled unconstitutional in Florida since it strongly favored one party over another. [13] In 2012, the group worked again to register voters, this time with a five-week deadline. [12] The LWVFL continued to monitor district maps and redistricting. [11] The LWVFL also fought against a 2012 proposal to purge voting rolls which then President Deirdre Macnab called an effort to "disproportionately impact minority voters and erroneously disenfranchise those that are eligible." [14]
More than twenty nine local Leagues statewide [15] hold candidate forums, issue election year Voters Guides, and sponsor public seminars. Patricia Brigham [16] is the current President of the League of Women Voters of Florida. The Board of Directors [17] for the Florida League includes Cecile M. Scoon, Esq., First Vice President; Shawn Bartelt, Second Vice President; Mark Songer, Treasurer; Trish Neely, Secretary; and four additional directors. The League of Women Voters of Florida has four paid employees. [18]
LWVFL encourages civic engagement and is strictly nonpartisan, though it has been accused of partisanship. [19] LWVFL works tirelessly "to educate, mobilize, and register voters..." stated Attorney General Eric Holder. [20] The LWVFL also works with the non-partisan VoteRiders [21] organization to spread state-specific information on voter ID requirements.
LWVFL has engaged in a number of statewide and local projects, including recommending the initiation of a recycling program in St. Petersburg; [22] supporting the Central Florida commuter rail network SunRail; [23] endorsing a court case which ended voter purges held 90 days before a federal election; [24] striking down of restrictions on volunteer voter registration efforts; [25] [26] the re-institution of early voting days and early voting on the Sunday before election day; [27] and the redrawing of both congressional and state legislative district lines after extensive litigation. As a result of that litigation, new district maps were implemented for the 2016 elections. [28] It has lobbied for gun safety for years, [29] but after the 2016 shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the group became a driving force in a statewide initiative to establish stricter gun safety guidelines through the Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence. [30] In 2016, the LWVF hosted a screening of the documentary about gun violence, Making a Killing: Guns, Greed and the NRA. [31]
In representative democracies, gerrymandering is the political manipulation of electoral district boundaries with the intent to create undue advantage for a party, group, or socioeconomic class within the constituency. The manipulation may involve "cracking" or "packing". Gerrymandering can also be used to protect incumbents. Wayne Dawkins describes it as politicians picking their voters instead of voters picking their politicians.
The League of Women Voters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan political organization in the United States. Founded in 1920, its ongoing major activities include registering voters, providing voter information, and advocating for voting rights. In addition, the LWV works with partners that share its positions and supports a variety of progressive public policy positions, including campaign finance reform, health care reform, gun control and LGBT+ rights.
Corrine Brown is an American former politician who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida from 1993 to 2017. She is a member of the Democratic Party. After a court-ordered redistricting significantly changed her district and a federal indictment for corruption, Brown was defeated in the 2016 Democratic primary by Al Lawson, who went on to win Brown's former seat.
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Elections in Florida are held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November in even-numbered years, as provided for in Article 6 of the Florida Constitution. For state elections, the Governor of Florida, Lieutenant Governor, and the members of the Florida Cabinet, and members of the Florida Senate are elected every four years; members of the Florida House of Representatives are elected every two years. In national elections, Florida plays an important role as the largest bellwether state, occasionally determining the outcome of elections for U.S. President — as it did in 1876 and in 2000.
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Gerrymandering in the United States has been used to increase the power of a political party. Gerrymandering is the practice of setting boundaries of electoral districts to favor specific political interests within legislative bodies, often resulting in districts with convoluted, winding boundaries rather than compact areas. The term "gerrymandering" was coined after a review of Massachusetts's redistricting maps of 1812 set by Governor Elbridge Gerry noted that one of the districts looked like a salamander.
Deirdre Macnab is an American women's rights and voting rights activist. She is former president of the League of Women Voters of Florida (LWVFL) and is currently a member of Florida's Federal Judicial Nominating Commission. She serves as a Knight's Fellow-in-Residence at the University of Florida Bob Graham Center for Public Service and is a solar energy activist in LWVFL, acting as chairperson for their solar energy initiative.
The 2016 United States House of Representatives elections in Florida were held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016 to elect the 27 U.S. representatives from the state of Florida, one from each of the state's 27 congressional districts. The elections coincided with the elections of other federal and state offices, including President of the United States.
RepresentUs is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization focused on ending political corruption in the United States. It refuses to take donations from political parties and it neither endorses nor opposes particular political candidates. Funded by donations and grants, it is run mostly by volunteers aligned in a grassroots organizing network, and it has brought in high-profile celebrities to advance its message. It advertises, produces videos, and generates publicity with speeches and demonstrations and protests.
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Women's suffrage in Florida had two distinct phases. The first women's suffrage effort in Florida was led by Ella C. Chamberlain in the early 1890s. Chamberlain began writing a women's suffrage news column, started a mixed-gender women's suffrage group and organized conventions in Florida. After Chamberlain left Florida in 1897, most women's suffrage activities ceased until around 1912. That year, the Equal Franchise League of Florida was organized in Jacksonville, Florida. Other groups soon followed, forming around the state. Whenever the Florida Legislature was in session, suffragists advocated for equal franchise amendments to the Florida Constitution. In October 1913, property-owning women in Orlando, Florida attempted unsuccessfully to vote. However, their actions raised awareness about women's suffrage in the state. In 1915, the city of Fellsmere allowed municipal women's suffrage and Zena Dreier became the first legal women voter in the South on June 19. By 1919, several cities in Florida allowed women to vote in municipal elections. Florida did not take action on the Nineteenth Amendment, and only ratified it years later on May 13, 1969.
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