Senate President Karen Spilka will be the keynote speaker at the League’s Day on the Hill lobby day Thursday, Oct. 17.

Day on the Hill, Time to Act, will focus on legislation in four priority areas:

• Election Day Registration
• The climate crisis
• Education funding reform
• Women’s reproductive rights

Day on the Hill is in Room 428 at the State House.  Registration and coffee begins at 9:30 a.m. and the program runs from 10 a.m. to noon.  Then League members will visit their own Senator and Representative.

Register for the lobby day here. The LWVMA office will notify legislators to expect visits from their League constituents who register before Oct. 11 after the morning’s program. League members can also make their own appointments with their legislators.

Kick off the new League year at the League Leader Lunch Saturday, Oct. 26, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. (9:30 a.m. coffee) at the First Baptist Church of Worcester, 111 Park Avenue, Worcester. There is no charge for this event but registration is required.  Please RSVP  by Monday, October 21.

The League Leader Lunch is the traditional start of League activities for the year. Newly-elected and returning League leaders come together to learn about upcoming activities, to share ideas and challenges that local Leagues face, and to make important connections with other Leagues.

Some of the topics that we’ll be covering:

• Panel on local League action groups: mobilizing your communities
• Civic engagement opportunities panel
• DEI policy, unconscious bias and the power of cultural change discussion
• 100 Anniversary Toolkit
• Vote 411, redistricting and LWVUS Council update

Hosted by the LWVMA Board of Directors and LWV Worcester, the event is our way of saying “thank you” for the important work you do.  There is a three person limit to the number of attendees per League. If more than three people from one League would like to attend, please  email us.

Mary Ann Ashton of Acton and Judy Zaunbrecher of Concord begin terms as co-presidents of the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts (LWVMA) July 1.  Ashton and Zaunbrecher were elected, along with other LWVMA board officers and directors, at the biennial LWVMA Convention in Westford June 7 and 8.

The other Massachusetts League officers and their local Leagues are Kathy Leonardson, Marblehead, first vice president; Lee Bona, Worcester, second vice president; Cindy Ku, Sudbury, secretary; and Andrea Kozinetz, Newton, treasurer.

Elected as LWVMA directors are Kate Boland, Hingham; Nancy Brumback, Sudbury; Elizabeth Foster-Nolan, Weymouth; Hartell Johnson, Haverhill; Jennifer Muroff, Needham; Tanya Roy, Wellesley; and Amy Smith, Georgetown.

During Convention, League members from around the state learned about election technology from a panel of experts; were inspired by League of Women Voters national CEO Virginia Kase and keynote speaker environmentalist Bill McKibben; heard from a panel of recently-elected women legislators about life on Beacon Hill; and listened to Professor Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham of Harvard describe the role of black women in the suffrage movement.

The delegates approved a resolution identifying climate change as a “climate emergency,” and adopted positions on the state’s ballot question process and on immigration in Massachusetts.

The biennial Convention is the League’s opportunity to elect officers, approve a budget, and decide  action priorities.

The Massachusetts League will focus on legislation and action over the coming two years concentrating on improving elections, informing voters and promoting civics education,  strengthening government operations, climate change and the environment, and equality and justice.

The Massachusetts League and the national League celebrate their 100^th anniversaries in 2020, along with the centennial of the passage of the 19^th Amendment giving women the right to vote.

LWVMA includes 47 local Leagues across the state. The League of Women Voters of Massachusetts is a non-partisan political organization that encourages informed and active participation in government and works to increase understanding of major public policy issues.

Additional information is available at www.lwvma.org.

LWVMA and our partners in the Election Modernization Coalition have targeted Election Day Registration (EDR) as the next reform in the state’s voting laws, following successful passage of Automatic Voter Registration in the last session of the legislature.

Election Day Registration is a proven, common sense reform already in place in 21 states.  It allows people who miss the 20-day deadline to register before elections to register and vote. And importantly, it allows registered voters who arrive at the polls to find there’s an error in their registration to fix that error and vote.

We have been busy on Beacon Hill to pass EDR. On May 15, the EMC hosted a briefing for legislators featuring Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin and Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap.  Maine has used EDR for over 40 years. On June 5, we hosted a Lobby Day. Most recently, on June 20, Legislative Director Nancy Brumback testified before the Joint Committee on Election Laws in support of EDR along with other members of the coalition.  

You can read the press release from the coalition on the committee hearing here.

LWVMA joined its partners in the ROE Act Coalition as part of a marathon hearing at the State House June 17 on H.3320/S.1209 An Act to remove obstacles and expand abortion access, commonly known as the ROE Act.  Supporters of abortion rights, many in bright pink shirts, packed Gardner Auditorium and overflowed into the Great Hall and into other hearing rooms in the State House.

The Joint Committee on the Judiciary began hearing testimony on this bill at 3 p.m.  And the testimony kept coming from both sides of the issue. Tracy Brown, LWVMA’s legislative specialist on women’s issues, finally got her turn to testify at 8:20 p.m.!  

Along with Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and other defenders of reproductive rights, LWVMA continues to support this bill and urges League members and other advocates to contact state legislators to counteract the inaccurate and incendiary message from the opponents of abortion.

The ROE Act would remove the requirement that minors have either parental or judicial consent for an abortion; would add a diagnosis of a fatal fetal anomaly as a reason for an abortion after 24 weeks, and would establish safety-net coverage for abortion for people excluded from MassHealth.  Such coverage already exists for all other pregnancy-related care.

The board of directors of the national League of Women Voters has officially recognized Framingham as a local League, the final step in the process.  The Massachusetts state League recognized Framingham in February.

We salute Stephanie Deeley, president, Mary Kate Feeney, vice president, and their team for their work creating our newest League.  The Framingham League has held candidates’ nights and public forums as Framingham made the transition from a town to a city, and it produces a cable television program, Informed Framingham.

LWVMA includes 47 local Leagues and units across Massachusetts.