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Dear LWVOR Members and friends, Welcome to October! With fall, Oregon Leagues are FULLY engaged! We’re sponsoring and sharing more informative events than ever. Our Deschutes League registered voters and the Portland League registered and welcomed new voters at the Naturalization ceremonies. Thanks to our Voter Service Team, read below for details, including a call for help from the Secretary of State. The biggest news this month from LWVOR is our vigorous Oregon Student Mock Elections! Yours In League! Becky Gladstone LWVOR President Please send your pictures from your League activies, too! THIS MONTH… Oregon Student Mock Election! Voter Services! Speakers’ Bureau, a Voter Service LWVOR Advocacy, Ballot Measure positions Volunteering news Recommended reading: Keli Osborn, 10 Things to Defend Democracy OSME 2022 Oregon Student Mock Election launch October 1st! Take this to a school near you! When teachers REGISTER, they will get access to the Lesson Plan, Instructions, the Civics Ed and Mock Election Curriculum, flyers, and Student Ballots. The October 1 launch allows time for students to learn about voting, current races, and ballot measures before early Student Mock Election voting on October 11 - 17th, with final Mock Election Day on October 18th. The 18th is the actual Oregon Voter Registration deadline for the November 8th election. October will be an exciting month for civic youth education in your communities! LWVOR will connect local Leagues to participating schools in your area! Your Membership, Voter Service Rep, and/or other resolute volunteers can help! We are already connecting schools as they ask for info and our LWVOR Committee wants to help you network! There is no required work for your already busy local Leagues, just opportunities to connect with your schools to build Youth Outreach as your local educators register for the OSME. Here are some ideas: Spread the word to your schools then Thank them for reaching out to run a Mock Election! Offer to help your Voter Service Rep. If they know you can help, they can expand their goals! Spread the word that students are welcome to join the League, from age 16, for FREE! Check with your Voter Service Rep if you can help to drop off printed state Voters’ Guides with school receptionists, with a flyer on top for their libraries and Social Studies, History, Spanish, or other classes during OSME. They have full digital access, too. Boost awareness on your social media. Share ours! Registration, the FREE Curriculum (newly updated!), Lesson Plans, and flyers are online. We will share Mock Election results with participating educators and the press! Teachers report that their students share what they learn with their families and communities, building civil discourse. All Oregon students can be encouraged to ask their schools to vote in the Mock Election and raise awareness for voter resources, especially Vote411.org, in both English and Spanish. Please refer educator and parent questions to MockElection@lwvor.org. We are replying now! Your questions or feedback to improve OSME from any Oregon local League is also welcome. Our committee volunteers in Deschutes, Multnomah, and Clackamas are already reinforcing outreach boosted for us from the Oregon Dept of Education, with nine schools asking for a Mock Election before registration opened! Let us be sure all our schools know the League can help! Thank you! Let's help our Youth learn, Your VOTE is Your VOICE! VOTER SERVICE! The Secretary of State Press Office has called on the League, as a “Trusted Voice”, to add our strength for this election: Voter Registration (Deadline Oct 18th) GOTV (Get Out The VOTE!) Ask your local League how you can help! Election Integrity (Boost understanding, share our Oregon VBM Best Practices page!) Ask your candidates to be sure they have filed for our free nonpartisan Vote411.org coverage! The Oregon Vote411.org online candidate deadline is Monday, Oct 3 (earlier is better!). Questions? Ask vote411@lwvor.org. Note, the deadline for state and federal candidates in our limited print edition has passed. See our Voting in Oregon website. Thank you to our extensive Voter Service volunteer network! Our full range of Oregon candidates and ballot measures should be live soon along with Voting information, Video Voters’ Guide events, and interviews. I encourage you to send thanks to Peggy Bengry, Voter Service Chair, and her team! We have a full range of volunteers who produce our Election Resources and you can help! Our Vote411 researchers connect candidate filings, via county and municipal elections’ websites with personal follow-up where needed, to Vote411.org. Our Voters’ Guide production team assembles numerous versions, in English and Spanish, in audio reader compatible format and actual audio files read by a live Oregonian! Our Video Voters’ Guide interviews and event recordings will be posted as they are conducted – Watch for them! Thanks to several local Leagues for coordinating with local studios for these. Speakers’ Bureau– a Strong Voter Service! Our local Leagues have a legacy of providing speakers as a public service to help explain state ballot measures. Our General Election 2022 Speakers’ Kits are complete and available to League speakers. Thank you to LWVOR ballot measure researchers for analyzing this fall’s four state measures for our Voters’ Guides and the 2022 Speakers’ Bureau, for public presentations. My home League in Lane County knows that League members’ families, neighbors, friends, and community groups all count on us to help them be well-informed! For info, email Peggy Bengry, LWVOR Voter Service Chair. Oregon Student Mock Elections! This is growing so fast this fall that it gets separate billing! LEGISLATIVE ACTION - WATER It is time to check your LWVOR subscription preferences. The Action Committee will send an LR, or Legislative Report, soon for the Oregon Legislature’s September Legislative Days, held to prepare for the 2023 session. Our action committee is now working consistently around the yearly calendar. We can use help in many areas. Look through our list and see where you can help! This is from Peggy Lynch, for recently reported well-water issues. Morrow County residents with domestic wells are dealing with contamination from excessive nitrates (Residents in Morrow County demand urgent aid from the state for contaminated water). LWVOR continues to work to address this issue with support for many legislative actions using our Water Quality and Quantity positions. We also supported the creation of a new Environmental Justice Council in hopes that underserved communities' voices will be heard more loudly by state agencies responsible for protecting public health. In this case, we look the Dept. of Environmental Quality, the Dept. of Agriculture, and the Oregon Health Authority. ACTION - OREGON BALLOT MEASURES 2022 The League studies issues reach member consensus, and then adopts positions. Read About Our Positions! We do not support or oppose measures if we have not studied the issue. These four measures will be on all Oregon ballots this November. The board voted to accept the Action Committee recommendation for these League positions: # 111 Oregon Right to Health Care Amendment SUPPORT Legislative Referral 111 (read the text) Amend the Oregon Constitution: the State must ensure affordable healthcare access, balanced against requirements to fund schools and other essential services #112 Remove Slavery and Crimes from the Oregon Constitution SUPPORT Legislative Referral 112 (read the text) Amend the Oregon Constitution: Remove language allowing slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime. This legislative referral applies to prisoners working without getting paid. #113 Oregon exclusion from re-election for absenteeism. [no position] Ballot Measure 113 (read the measure) Amend the Oregon Constitution: Disqualify Legislators with ten unexcused absences from floor sessions from holding the next term of office. #114 The Reduction of Gun Violence Act SUPPORT Ballot Measure 114 (read the measure) Requires a permit to acquire firearms; police maintain a permit/firearm database; criminally prohibits certain ammunition magazines. Find a full list of supporters and get your questions answered at VoteYesOn114.org RECOMMENDED READING This month’s feature is excerpted from the LWV Lane CO Argus, September 2022, prepared by Keli Osborn. For more, see: "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century," by Timothy Snyder; Brennan Center for Justice; and League of Women Voters (Lane County, Oregon, USA). TEN THINGS YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW TO DEFEND DEMOCRACY Define your democracy and get clear about values and boundaries. The majority rule can leave some people unprotected. Focusing on one right ignores other critical liberties. Simply voting is not enough to create and sustain responsive, thriving inclusive communities. Consider what it means for you and others to be full global citizens with rights and responsibilities. Decide what matters and how you can contribute. Talk about democracy in governance with family, friends, and colleagues. Tell them you are committed to fighting voter suppression, expanding voter ballot access, improving elections, reducing money’s political influence, and promoting fair redistricting. Be a resource and a beacon. See these LWV Making Democracy Work talking points. Be a better-informed democracy defender. Use reliable, credible sources. Want more on voting methods? What about wildfire recovery, childcare, equitable internet access, or hate crimes? Read League studies from Lane County and LWVOR, and the LWVUS Study Clearinghouse. Maybe you like podcasts or newspapers, radio or TV news, internet writers and thinkers. Providers should own their biases, be transparent about funding and sourcing, and fact-check their content. See League member Donna Cohen’s resources and How Reliable is Your News Source, from the LWV of Torrence Area. Demand better from your organizations—and show up to help. Whether it is the League of Women Voters, your faith organization or neighborhood association, a service club, or other group, support the change you want to be. Want your organization to be more inclusive and welcoming? More transparent about decision-making or financial matters? Include perspectives, needs, and contributions of Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color; low-income people; and people with dis/abilities. Do businesses more sustainably? Speak up, with conviction and consideration. Promote respectful dialogue. Democracy withers when people are unable or unwilling to understand the viewpoints and choices of those with whom they disagree. Allowing for disagreement does not mean tolerating hate speech and threats of violence. Incivility affects the creativity, productivity, buy-in, and well-being of those who experience and observe disrespect and hostility. Seek dialogue in which people have a right to speak and be heard respectful participation, equitable time-sharing, attentive listening, and balanced discussion. Civil discourse promotes informed discussion for better public issues decisions. Check your voter registration. Plan to vote ahead of each election. If you’ve moved (even across the hall), CHECK your Oregon voter registration online or visit your County Elections office. Make a plan for informed voting ahead of elections, (coming soon!): Voters’ Guides and checking for your ballot issues in Vote 411.org. Be sure to help your family and friends stay in the loop on elections, too. Connect with your elected officials about the issues that matter most to you. Use your voice. Send emails, postcards, or letters to your local, state, and federal elected officials supporting specific legislation and action. Stick to one issue at a time. Use a clear email subject line or first sentence in your letter. Identify yourself as a constituent. State your views and support them with expert knowledge. If there is a specific bill, rule, or code amendment, name it. Work to GOTV and increase voter turnout. You can volunteer with your League’s Voter Service and other groups that educate potential voters about the voting process and the issues at stake. More people vote when it is easy, and they believe it will make a difference. Help make it so. March, rally, and just BE with others. Solidarity and visibility matter. Through our messages and organizing, we can build friendships and alliances—and support people who need to know we have their (our) backs. If marches and protests help change hearts and minds, bonus! Run for office or join an advisory board. If you care about improving our community, consider campaigning for public office or applying for a board or commission seat. Your experience and expertise, community ties, and commitment may be just what is needed. Multiple organizations help prospective candidates prepare. Local agencies periodically invite advisory group applications. Follow your interests to a rewarding position and be part of a community team. For more, see: "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century," by Timothy Snyder; the Brennan Center for Justice; and LWV Lane County. Thank you for reading, for being informed, and for helping where you can! This month your help can make a bigger difference than usual! I am so incredibly grateful that there are so many of us pitching in to help. Thank You! Becky Gladstone President, LWVOR Thank you for reading this newsletter! You can Manage Your LWVOR Subscriptions yourself for this monthly President’s Newsletter, the Legislative Reports, and the quarterly VOTER.

IN THIS ISSUE... PRESIDENT'S COLUMN ENDOWMENT FROM OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION GRANT FROM OREGON STATE CAPITOL FOUNDATION TOP LWVUS PRIORITIES LWVOR & WOMEN'S RIGHTS LWVOR BOARD OPPORTUNITIES OREGON GENERAL ELECTION LOCAL LEAGUE UPDATES PRESIDENT’S COLUMN By Becky Gladstone, LWVOR President Please read for full news from our board. I would like to add, as we also enter this back-to-school season, that I am thrilled with our new Youth Outreach Membership group pushing for a Student Mock Election again this fall. We will reach out in fresh ways to connect with Oregon’s students. Civics Education is so important to our mission. One student said that voting feels like taking a test you haven’t studied for! This is a call to action for us! We have many volunteer opportunities! Please look at the LWVOR Newsroom and find something you’d enjoy helping with! My home League, Lane County, feels that our communities and our families all depend on us as League members to inform them about ballot issues. So they make the Speakers’ Bureau training available to all! We had seven various requests in August, from Ballot Measure Research to helping prompt our study development for next May’s LWVOR Convention! Please share this newsletter, read and forward the email Let’s all consider this, and keep our League work manageable and rewarding. Thank you, it is a pleasure to work with you! Yours in League, Rebecca Gladstone LWVOR President ENDOWMENT FROM OREGON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION By Rebecca Gladstone As we enter another election season, we are very grateful for the donations that help to pay for our operations to provide our Voter Services. It has only been a few years since we billed our local Leagues for our printed Voters’ Guides. Now we are able to give them to local Leagues to distribute, in English and in Spanish, along with League publicity grants. This summer, we are celebrating getting two youth outreach grants for Civics Education and our Mock Elections programs. We also give thanks for legacy donations, yielding roughly $5,000 annually from investment proceeds. These pay for a small portion of our annual operating budget. You can make a legacy donation with a perpetually protected gift, paying out only from the market gains. League legacy donation assets are administered by OCF, the Oregon Community Foundation. The OCF averages their market returns over 13 quarters, for stability and they are paying roughly 4% returns. The rule of 25 helps; invest $25 for every dollar you’d like the League to get annually, in perpetuity, as a legacy. This is a standard 4% annual return. The vast majority of our work is done by volunteers so we are very grateful for your gifts! GRANT FROM OREGON STATE CAPITOL FOUNDATION By Freddi Weishahn On July 13, 2022, LWVOR received a $4,000 grant for the 2022-2023 school year from the Civics Education Initiative established by The Oregon State Capitol Foundation (OSCF). The grant will help fund LWVOR’s commitments to the Case Method for teaching civics and the Student Mock Election program. Local Leagues will receive $200 each to publicize and host community discussions for up to 20 teachers trained by the Case Method Institute at Harvard University. The community discussions have been popular and local Leagues are invited to reach out to previously trained teachers, as well as new recruits, to lead future discussions. On July 28th, the Angell Family Fund of Oregon Community Foundation approved an Advised Fund grant in the amount of $6,500 for LWVOR to hire a Mock Election Coordinator. The coordinator will help choose the materials for the program and work with the Oregon Department of Education and the Youth Outreach Committee to publicize the program to local Leagues and school districts around the state. LWV Deschutes member Mimi Alkire will be a communications coordinator for the program. ELECTORAL COLLEGE ELIMINATION By Robin Tokmakian At the LWVUS 2022 Convention, President Turner announced that it would be the vision and goal of LWVUS to help eliminate the Electoral College, a position of the League since 1970. In her speech to the delegates in Denver, she emphasized that funds and staff will be committed to doing this work in the next fiscal year. Look for more information about this focused effort after the midterm elections. RESOLUTIONS PASSED AT LWVUS CONVENTION 2022 By Rebecca Gladstone All five of the resolutions recommended by the LWVUS Board (of ten submitted) were adopted at Convention. See the LWV Convention Resolutions Committee report here. In brief, we endorsed these: 1. Immigration reform for a path to citizenship to VOTE 2. Climate emergency 3. DC Statehood 4. Missing & murdered Indigenous people 5. Abortion Emergency for Reproductive Choice. This passed as an emergency on Friday, just after the SCOTUS Dobbs ruling was announced. LWVOR & WOMEN'S RIGHTS By Trish Garner The Supreme Court’s decision Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health overturned 50 years of precedent and deprives women of the ability to participate equally in our Nation’s economic and social life. Its disregard for women’s health, privacy and reproductive rights is shocking and untenable. What can we do? Demand that Oregon enact a state Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing reproductive rights. Support the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would provide federal protections to reproductive health services. Be vigilant and make our voices heard. SCOTUS reasoning to justify this decision? The word “abortion” isn’t explicitly stated in the Constitution. In 1868 when the 14th Amendment was ratified by “the people,” it wasn’t “deeply rooted” so it can’t protect the right to abortion by its guarantee of liberty. Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted by dissenting, of course, that in 1868 ”people” didn’t include women. The fact that the right to an abortion has long been the law of the land also failed to convince the Court to adhere to “stare decisis,” Latin for its own doctrine that court rulings should remain as decided unless there is a very good reason for change. The doctrine’s rationale is that the people need to be able to rely on consistency and integrity in judicial decision making. Justice Samuel Alito summarily dismissed concerns that the Dobbs ruling jeopardizes other decisions based on the 14th Amendment right to liberty. Justice Sotomayor characterized this assurance at the level of ”Scout’s honor.” In fact, the Dobbs ruling thrusts many previous decisions onto precarious ground: marrying a person of a different race (Loving v Virginia, 1967); making decisions about your children’s education (Pierce v Society of Sisters, 1925); obtaining contraception (Griswold v Connecticut, 1965); living in nontraditional family units (Stanley v Illinois, 1972); not being sterilized without consent (Skinner v Oklahoma ex rel Williamson, 1942); marrying a person of the same sex (Obergefell v Hodges, 2015); and more. Justice Thomas is more forthright, at least in his concurring opinion. He indicates the Court should reconsider all these precedents. You can be assured that the League is prioritizing this advocacy! LWVOR BOARD OPPORTUNITIES By Rebecca Gladstone The LWVOR Board is thrilled with the birth of a new Youth Outreach Committee which has already met several times since the LWVUS Convention. Committee members are welcome for just about everything we do. There are several openings; write to Becky Gladstone at rebecca.gladstone@gmail.com for more information. • Study Chair. Our biennial study calendar is starting now. We need a Chair to follow and implement calendar guidelines leading to current study(s) production and new study adoption at the LWVOR Convention in May 2023. This is a “nudge” position. We have clear guidelines and need a Board liaison to help. We also have exciting ideas to revamp the study process! • HR Chair. Several experienced HR Committee members need to bring in a Chair to convene periodic committee meetings. • Nominating Committee liaison. The board appoints two members to the Nominating Committee. Jackie Clary is continuing from the board and Sheila McGinnis, recently off the LWVOR board, is continuing as an off-board committee member so we need another liaison. NOMINATING COMMITTEE TASK FORCE REPORT By Rebecca Gladstone As directed at LWVOR Council 2022, a Task Force to reform our Nominating Committee process has been convening. We are basing this work on recommendations from both the LWVOR and LWVUS Nominating Committees and want to bring in participants from all of our local Leagues to address our shared goals. CHILD CARE STUDY UPDATE By Terry Styner The Child Care Study Update team has completed the draft document. We are in the process of recruiting expert reviewers to provide feedback on this version. With that feedback we will complete the editing process before moving to the action planning step. STUDIES AND CONCURRENCES By Rebecca Gladstone LWVUS State Leaders have been in discussion about updating the current process and timeline for studies and consensus documents. Watch for more information about this effort; volunteers will be needed to help with this update! OREGON GENERAL ELECTION 2022 By Rebecca Gladstone Welcome to the busiest Oregon mid-cycle election in our memory. Our November 2022 ballots are unusually important despite lacking the Presidential race. Oregon has arguably the hottest Governor’s race in the country with the incumbent term-limited out, projected to be a $40 million contest. Unfortunately, neither the campaign finance reform nor the redistricting initiatives made it to November 2022 ballots but they are poised for 2024. Our newly redistricted six congressional districts are getting national attention with the important partisan margin very narrow. We have unusually high incumbent turnover in the Oregon legislature, partly influenced by the new redistricting, including important leadership races with a new House Speaker, Senate President, and unusually contentious local races. Thanks to local and state Voter Service Teams for informing voters this fall! MEMBER UPDATE FROM MARION-POLK LEAGUE By Sally Hollemon Bea Epperson died on August 6 after a long illness. She was an active League member, including LWVMPC president in 1976-7. Her service included many years of Voter Service locally and at the state level, including many years of helping to edit state ballot measures for the Voters’ Guides that has informed many Oregon voters. Bea was a member of the Marion-Polk League book group, at which she always had thoughtful comments. Professionally, Bea was a science tutor at Sprague H.S., then a chemistry teacher at McNary H.S. She and her husband Earl had three children. She enjoyed playing tennis and walking in the wildlife refuges near Salem. Connect with us A printable version of this newsletter can be found on our website here. League of Women Voters of Oregon | 1330 12th St. SE, Suite 200, Salem, OR 97302

The League of Women Voters never supports or opposes candidates or political parties. Our Voters' Guide information invites all filed candidates that we are able to reach by email. We strive to also present ballot measure information, pro and con, with the impact of a yes or no vote, the measure's fiscal impact, and more, without reference to any League advocacy positions. The League does, on occasion, take positions on ballot measures. The League studies issues, reaches member consensus, and then adopts advocacy positions; read about our positions! The League of Women Voters of Oregon board has voted to accept our Action Committee positions' motion for these Oregon's November 2022 ballot measures : #111 SUPPORT – Oregon Right to Health Care Amendment (#111 full text). #112 SUPPORT – Removing Slavery and Crimes from the Oregon Constitution (#112 full text). #113 No position – Exclude legislators from re-election for absenteeism (#113 full text). We refrain from supporting or opposing measures if we have not studied the issue. That is the case with Measure #113. #114 SUPPORT – Reduction of Gun Violence Act (#114 full text). We have worked in coalition to support M #114 and have submitted a statement for the Oregon Voters' Pamphlet in support, including a Spanish translation, by temporary administrative order from the Oregon Secretary of State.

Dear LWVOR Members, September means back to school and continuing election prep! Please read for our state ballot measure positions, Oregon Student Mock Elections news, Volunteer Opportunities, and ongoing Columbia River Treaty work from Action. Please be sure everyone you know is aware of our work to include all Oregon candidates in our Vote411 and various Voters’ Guides! As we face the pressing issues coming for this fall’s elections, I am so proud of our members for stepping up and Making Democracy Work! Yours In League! Becky Gladstone LWVOR President Thank you to the LWV of Coos County for the invitation to join their first board meeting of the fall, with many board members meeting each other for the first time, as new members and in-person! The two photos on the right are from LWVPDX, on Women’s [In]Equality Day, August 26, 2022. Please send your pictures from your League activities, too. THIS MONTH… Oregon Student Mock Elections (LWVOR OSME) Speakers' Bureau, A Voter Service Action - Ballot Measure Positions, LWVOR Advocacy Volunteering News Recommended Reading OSME, OREGON STUDENT MOCK ELECTIONS Coming to a school near you! The 2022 Oregon Student Mock Election Day will be October 18th, with ballot choices from Oregon’s exciting November 2022 mid-term elections. We are so grateful to the Oregon Department of Education, long-time OSME friends, for forwarding information to Oregon educators. The League will provide Mock Election Tool Kits including a Google Form to tabulate results. We will share the Mock Election results with schools and the press! If you are available to drop off Voters’ Guides at your local school in October, please email Diana DeMaria. Teachers Love the Oregon Student Mock Elections: ∙ “The students felt like they were part of something bigger than just a classroom activity or assignment. They felt it was important. They felt like they had a voice, one of the most important aspects of being a citizen.” ∙ “Well done Mock Election. I feel it is very important to model our democratic system to our youth. We can hope that by giving them a "feel" for the importance of voting and having their individual voice heard as a young person that they will continue that lesson into their adult life.” Everyone CAN HELP! Click on Student Mock Elections with Civics ED curriculum for more information to talk to students you know and their teachers! They may not be aware that an Oregon law passed in early 2015 lowered the Oregon voter registration age to 16! Oregon’s voter registration deadline is 21 days before election day, on October 18th, 2022 for this year's mid-term elections. Voter registration criteria are: Be a United States citizen Be a resident of Oregon Be at least 16 years old to become eligible to receive your first ballot in the mail when you are at least 18 years old. SPEAKERS' BUREAU - A STRONG VOTER SERVICE Contact your own League to pitch in and help, close to home and for the state! Your needs may vary but you can help! Our local Leagues have a legacy of providing speakers as a public service to help explain state ballot measures. LWVOR ballot measure researchers are analyzing this fall’s four state measures for our Voters’ Guides and the 2022 Speakers’ Bureau, for public presentations. The Speakers’ Bureau Handbook will be available with everything members need to know to make the 2022 presentations. My home League in Lane County knows that League members’ families, neighbors, friends, and community groups all count on us to help them be well-informed! Lane asks all members to attend the Speakers’ Bureau orientation. You can also help by following ongoing press coverage to update our Speakers’ Bureau up to the November 8th election. For info, email Peggy Bengry, LWVOR Voter Service Chair. ACTION - OREGON BALLOT MEASURES 2022 Contact your own League to pitch in and help, close to home and for the state! Your needs may vary but you can help with collecting candidate and local ballot measure data for Vote411.org. The Lane County League decided a few years ago that since everyone depends on League members for voting information, they offered Speakers’ Bureau training to ALL MEMBERS! These four measures will be on all Oregon ballots this November and this is where the League stands (our positions). The League studies issues, reaches member consensus, and then we adopt positions. Read About Our Positions! We refrain from supporting or opposing measures if we have not studied the issue. The board voted to accept the Action Committee recommendation for these: #111 Oregon Right to Health Care Amendment - SUPPORT Legislative Referral 111 (read the text) Amend the Oregon Constitution: the State must ensure affordable healthcare access, balanced against requirements to fund schools and other essential services. #112 Remove Slavery and Crimes from the Oregon Constitution - SUPPORT Legislative Referral 112 (read the text) Amend the Oregon Constitution: Remove language allowing slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime. This legislative referral applies to prisoners working without getting paid. #113 Oregon exclusion from re-election for absenteeism. [no position] Ballot Measure 113 (read the measure) Amend the Oregon Constitution: Disqualify Legislators with ten unexcused absences from floor sessions from holding the next term of office. #114 The Reduction of Gun Violence Act - SUPPORT Ballot Measure 114 (read the measure) Requires permit to acquire firearms; police maintain permit/firearm database; criminally prohibits certain ammunition magazines. LWVOR has purchased space in the state Voters’ Pamphlet to enter a statement of support, including, for the first time, sending the statement in Spanish, with thanks to our translators, Cross Cultural Now, for translating quickly to address the Secretary of State rules notice, with a next day deadline. The League will also be listed on this list as a supporter for Measure 114, which may be the only gun safety measure on November 2022 ballots around the country. Plus hundreds of religious leaders, hunters, gun owners, District Attorneys, police chiefs, military veterans, and many, many more… Find a full list of supporters and get your questions answered at VoteYesOn114.org VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES Last month we included this request for data processing volunteers and it inspired us to start revamping our website! We will start listing Volunteer Opportunities, short-term, committee openings, etc. This is a work in progress and we expect it to be constantly changing! For example, Congratulations to Voter Service Chair, Peggy Bengry, for recruiting researchers for the four state ballot measures! Thank you, the positions have been filled! Meanwhile, help is still needed: The LWVOR is part of and is a leader of the People Not Politicians coalition. You may already know that PNP is planning to refile its redistricting initiative for 2024. We need volunteers to help add signers of the previous redistricting initiative petitions to a database that can then be used for mailing new petitions and other purposes. You can do this volunteer work from home using your home computer and a website. Very little computer skill is needed for this work, and you may do the work as you have time available. If you want to help, please contact Chris Cobey or Norman Turrill. COLUMBIA RIVER TREATY LETTER Did you know that the state Leagues from Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana have been working together since 2013 to influence cooperation on Columbia River issues? We have just confirmed another joint letter, sent to officials in the US State Dept., the Bonneville Power Administration, the Chief Negotiator for the Columbia River Treaty, and the Commander of the Portland District, US Army Corps of Engineers. Here's the first paragraph: The Columbia River is one of the most important trans-boundary rivers in the world. Although the river has been heavily developed for hydropower and flood management, including by dams built pursuant to the U.S.-Canada Columbia River Treaty, it still functions as a single system, within a single watershed. The League of Women Voters of Oregon, along with the Leagues of Washington, Idaho and Montana, adopted a position on the Columbia River Basin in 1979: “In order to meet the present and future water needs within the Columbia River Basin, the League of Women Voters believes comprehensive planning on a basin-wide basis for conservation, development, and management of the water is essential to the optimum utilization of our water resources.” LWVOR TASK FORCE - NOMINATING COMMITTEE The Task Force we began at the LWVOR Council, to address shared nominating committee concerns, has not met since our last newsletter. In some ways, August was a good time to take a breath! We do want to share leadership recruitment and membership, the value of our MLD Committee, and look forward to news from this group soon. Watch for an invitation and send your Nominating Committee and Membership folks to join this group. RECOMMENDED READING For readers of American History, the death of David McCullough in august deserves a nod of appreciation for his accomplishments, including two Pulitzer prizes. Read through this homage from The Post and consider which of these you might like to put on your reading list. David McCullough, master chronicler of American history, dies at 89, The Washington Post, August 8, 2022. Thank you for reading the state League update. Thank you for being informed, and here’s to doing what we can for these issues we care so deeply about! Our strength is in working together and I am so very grateful that there are so many of us pitching in to help. Thank You! Becky Gladstone, President, LWVOR Thank you for reading this newsletter! You can Manage Your LWVOR Subscriptions yourself for this monthly President’s Newsletter, the Legislative Reports, and the quarterly VOTER.

We are looking for an experienced nonprofit campaign coordinator with a passion for youth and community engagement. Successful candidates will be knowledgeable about best practices in program and event management. The League of Women Voters® of Oregon (LWVOR) is a grassroots, nonpartisan civic organization that encourages informed and active participation in government in order to build better communities statewide. LWVOR’s purpose is to influence public policy through education and advocacy and to provide support for League members and the League organization. The League seeks to empower citizens to understand governmental issues and to engage in the political process. We provide balanced, accurate, nonpartisan information to all Oregonians. The LWVOR Mock Election program encompasses multiple civics education services provided across Oregon. These include planning and hosting Student Mock Elections, both virtual and in the classroom, updating and distributing curriculum material, planning voter education events and more. Role The role oversees the entire LWVOR Mock Election program, including planning, community outreach, publicity coordination, and program execution both virtually and in person. The Mock Election Coordinator is expected to maintain documentation, update materials for distribution, and generate reports on program success. Key Responsibilities Confirm and establish partnerships with Oregon associations. Update (or oversee update) of website and materials for new election cycles. Notify teachers of available materials, attend workshops, visit schools. Work with Youth Outreach Committee, staff, and LWVOR Board to update the Civics ED curriculum, establish school contacts, identify potential public officials and locations for program participation. Communicate with local Leagues on outreach for their local schools. Oversee production of any printed material to be distributed to participating classrooms; awards for teachers, students, and volunteers. Coordinate with Voter Service Reps for Voters’ Guide use. Coordinate or oversee Mock Elections, track voting activities, and distribute and review evaluations. Plan and prepare for events at participating schools. Prepare final report and share with LWVOR Board. Who are you? To excel in this position you must have at least 3 years of experience in nonprofit campaign management or similar roles. This multi-tasking position requires excellent organizational and interpersonal skills; attention to detail and time management; independent and team work; written and verbal communication; business and technical writing; strong computer, data, and content delivery skills; and commitment to the League of Women Voters mission. A successful candidate will be flexible, cooperative, self-directed and able to set priorities to reliably follow through in a timely manner. Experience essential in this role: Organization and the ability to set priorities to complete a wide variety of tasks. Attention to detail to ensure tasks are completed thoroughly, correctly, and within deadline. Experience managing all aspects of event planning and execution. High integrity - you need to be responsive and service-oriented and simultaneously able to make your own decisions. Technically savvy in operating event equipment and using other common digital tools. A keen understanding of the political process in Oregon and experience with voter engagement and education is a huge plus. LWVOR is an equal opportunity employer. Diversity, equity, and civility are among our core values. We encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply for these jobs, including people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities. This is a contract position, approximately 20-30 hours per week from September through November 1. Monthly rate is $3,250. Review of applications will start on August 17. Position open until filled. Please submit a cover letter and CV to hresources@lwvor.org. We look forward to hearing from you!

Dear LWVOR Members, August means Election Work! Oregon’s 2022 general election is a major one, despite not being a Presidential election year. Everyone agrees that holding an Oregon Student Mock Election this year would be an important service from LWVOR, given the unusual features of this election: the most important governor's race nationally, already projected at >$40M, extremely high state legislative turn over intensifying voter engagement, and the newly redistricted CDs, with nationally targeted seats. By the way, we’ve filed 2024 Campaign Finance Reform initiatives with the LWVOR President signed as a Chief Petitioner. I hope you are all keeping cool in this further alarmingly hot summer. Please take care! Becky Gladstone LWVOR President THIS MONTH… Youth Outreach! Mock Elections and More! LWVOR Board Openings, LWVOR Nominating Committee Task Force Voter Service Climate Change Ballot Measure News, Local Help and Events Staff Transitions Action Recommendations, Redistricting Volunteer Recommended Reading YOUTH OUTREACH Our Youth Outreach group is moving forward! Contact Mimi Alkire to get onto our list. Projects are advancing! Student Mock Elections with Civics ED curriculum – We got an OCF Grant last week to fund a Mock Election Coordinator this fall! We will post the opening but send a resume ASAP to Becky Gladstone if you’re interested! We have superb materials and networking via the OR Dept of Education, used by K-12, citizenship classes, also community college and even a university Poli Sci class. The Coordinator can help update materials and our Spanish translation service is standing by! Youth Election Observer Training – This PSU project, with LWVOR endorsement, is hoping for an NSF grant to pilot in Multnomah County and provide a template for training around the state. Students – Send Your Forum Questions! – Local Leagues hold candidate and ballot measure events, including candidate video interviews. Send questions you’d like to ask and we’ll add them to the lists we share! There may also be volunteer opportunities - ASK! Youth Liaison on the LWVOR Board – The LWVOR Board is establishing a Nominating Committee Task Force. A Youth Member would be very helpful for the task force and also on the LWVOR Board! Girl Scout Outreach – We understand that the Girl Scouts have or are developing a Civics ED badge! Let’s work together! P.S. Boy Scouts? Let us know how you’d like to help pitch in, too! LWVOR TASK FORCE: NOMINATING COMMITTEE The LWVOR Board has openings. Aside from the Program / Studies Chair, these are positions developed recently and we would welcome volunteers with experience: Program /Studies – OPEN! We need a program chair to promote the timeline for competitive local League study proposals for next May’s LWVOR Convention. HR Chair – OPEN! Ideally, experience with managing employees would be a real plus. Nominating Committee – We need a 2nd rep from the LWVOR Board. Communications – OPEN! Youth Liaison Our LWVOR Council in May 2022 was directed to convene a task force to examine our Nominating Committee process. The Board has discussed this and a group will convene August 1st at 10am. We will consider the guidelines from the LWVUS Convention presentation. They changed their process and were faced with the enviable problem of evaluating 100 applications, ranging from Excellent to Very Excellent. Send your Nominating Committee and Membership folks to join this group. VOTER SERVICE Contact your own League to pitch in and help, close to home and for the state! Your needs may vary but you can help with collecting candidate and local ballot measure data for Vote411.org. The Lane County League decided a few years ago that since everyone depends on League members for voting information, they offered Speakers’ Bureau training to ALL MEMBERS! CLIMATE CHANGE Thank you to LWVOR Climate Change Advocates! Arguably, they are the driving force behind the! Join by clicking the QR CODE: Take a look and consider joining one of the 10 “Issue Teams”! Tell them Oregon is proud of pulling our weight! Click on the Issue Teams thumbnails to learn more: BALLOT MEASURE RESEARCH Ballot measure researcher assignments will be made this week, not too late for you to help! There are only four state measures this fall, so hop to it and email Peggy Bengry, Voter Service Chair, for an assignment before they’re all taken! We encourage teamwork, so new researchers are very welcome - join in and help. Follow the instructions provided to assemble information from official postings, get pro and con statements, then assemble for our online Vote411.org and Voters’ Guides. This is ideal for students, before school starts! You can also help by following ongoing press coverage to update our Speakers’ Bureau up to the November 8th election. These have qualified for Oregon state ballots this November. # 111 – Oregon Right to Health Care Amendment Legislative Referral 111 (read the text) Amend the Oregon Constitution: The State must ensure affordable healthcare access, balanced against requirements to fund schools and other essential services. #112 – Remove Slavery and Crimes from the Oregon Constitution Legislative Referral 112 (read the text) Amend the Oregon Constitution: Remove language allowing slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime. This legislative referral applies to prisoners working without getting paid. #113 – Oregon Exclusion from Re-election for Absenteeism. Ballot Measure 113 (read the measure) Amend the Oregon Constitution: Disqualify Legislators with ten unexcused absences from floor sessions from holding the next term of office. #114 – The Reduction of Gun Violence Act Ballot Measure 114 (read the measure) Requires permit to acquire firearms; police maintain permit/firearm database; criminally prohibits certain ammunition magazines. OREGON PROPERTY OWNER WILDFIRE RISK MAP Take another look – This important real-time Oregon Wildfire Risk Explorer Map can help Oregon communities to decide and plan for mitigating wildfire risk. Read about the wildland-urban interface (WUI) and statewide wildfire risk map through the Oregon Explorer, as required by Senate Bill 762 (2021). STAFF TRANSITIONS Welcome Raezhelle Madison, on the left, as Office Support Specialist to join Office Manager Abigail Hertzler, on the right! We bid farewell to Amanda Crittenden, center, leaving to expand to full time computer science studies. ACTION Oregon Ballot Measures 2022 The League studies issues, reaches member consensus, and then adopts positions; read about our positions! We refrain from supporting or opposing measures if we have not studied the issue. The board will vote, likely to accept an anticipated Action Committee motion for these: #111 SUPPORT – Oregon Right to Health Care Amendment #112 SUPPORT – Removing Slavery and Crimes from the Oregon Constitution #113 No position – Exclude legislators from re-election for absenteeism. #114 SUPPORT – Reduce Gun Violence Act Redistricting Volunteers Needed for Summer Work at Home! The LWVOR is part of and is a leader of the People Not Politicians coalition. You may already know that PNP is planning to refile its redistricting initiative for 2024. We need volunteers to help add signers of the previous redistricting initiative petitions to a database that can then be used for mailing new petitions and other purposes. You can do this volunteer work from home using your home computer and a website. Very little computer skill is needed for this work, and you may do the work as you have time available. If you want to help, please contact Chris Cobey or Norman Turrill. RECOMMENDED READING I am now into my fourth year as LWVOR President and I’m getting ducks in a row for a smooth transition at our LWVOR Convention 2023. I am looking forward to having a little more time on my hands and want to get back to reading more, including Warren Easley’s Cal Claxton mystery series. Yes, that name may sound familiar, Warren is married to Marge, past LWVOR President and hot-button issue advocate for LWVOR! Thank you both! For this month’s recommended reading, I have to admit that I’ve been swamped and will just share some pleasure reading with you. I’m reading for the upcoming 2023 legislative session and I’m comparing notes on the LWV study process with leaders around the country discussing a study of energy sources with Climate Change pressing on us. I really appreciate seeing the improvements in “lateral communications”, like the LWVOR Development Committee reaching out to host quarterly chats with local fundraisers. Sharing the work can make it easier, more efficient, and even FUN! More time for leisure reading, too. 😊 Thank you for reading the state League update. Becky Gladstone, President, LWVOR Thank you for reading this newsletter! You can Manage Your LWVOR Subscriptions yourself for this monthly President’s Newsletter, the Legislative Reports, and the quarterly VOTER.

Spring Voter 2022 IN THIS ISSUE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN UPDATING LOCAL LEAGUE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES JOSEPHINE COUNTY CHARTER UPDATE LWVOR CONCURRENCE FOR LWVUS CONVENTION 2022 1ST CALL TO COUNCIL ELECTION THREATS NEED LWVOR’S EXPANDED ADVOCACY IN MEMORIAM: REMEMBERING BARBARA ROSS, A PILLAR OF OUR COMMUNITY PROFILE OF NEW LWVOR OFFICE MANAGER, ABBY HERTZLER PRESIDENT’S COLUMN By Becky Gladstone, LWVOR President LWV grassroots work begins with you! Please reach out to friends and colleagues and invite them to step up! DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) is a League priority. We want liaisons to bring their voices to the League. We need to expand our diversity from local grassroots up through boards. Native outreach is a focus for a grant we’ve crossed our fingers for. We would like a Youth member on our board. Now is the time! Please contact us! Voter Education Reps and LWVOR staff, with hired LWV Mississippi support, are hard at work organizing VOTE411.org for the Primary Election, including our various Voters’ Guides! Be sure you send your campaign events to LWVOR at lwvor@lwvor.org. Encourage your local candidates to look for their Vote411 invitation emails and to write to Vote411@lwvor.org with any questions. UPDATING LOCAL LEAGUE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES – PORTLAND CHAPTER By Debbie Kaye Separate from our Bylaws, the LWV of Portland has a “Policies and Procedures” document. Other League chapters around the state may have a similar document. Our “P & P” document starts by stating, “Policies as used here are procedures or practices that become established through experience and usage and are subsequently adopted as the best means of carrying out the purposes … as stated in its Bylaws”. Because our League is both a 501(c)(3) and a 501(c)(4), we have two sections: General Policies and Education Fund Policies. Examples of sections within the General Policies include the Nonpartisan Policy and how it pertains to specific roles within the League; Action, including who may speak for the League; Financial Controls; Reaching Member Agreement; Interest Groups; Diversity; and Anti-Discrimination. The Education Fund sections include rules about Recording League Meetings and Sponsorship of Candidate Forums. Read the full article here. JOSEPHINE COUNTY CHARTER UPDATE By Dorothy Yetter The Commission was created on 28 April 2021 by the Board of County Commissioners with Order No. 2021- 018. Nine members were appointed and our first meeting was held on 9 September 2021. We set ourselves up for business, electing officers and hammering out bylaws, by 1 December 2021. After a few attempts to wrap our arms around the enormity of the task, we settled on a read-through and ‘mark-up’ of the existing document. Even as we do that, we have discovered that we need to invite experts to provide us with their observations in their areas of expertise such as finance (for instance, what is the actual budget process in use?) or administration (for example, what recourse do exempt personnel have to political reprisal?) Read the full article here. LWVOR CONCURRENCE FOR LWVUS CONVENTION 2022 By Rebecca Gladstone LWVUS Convention is scheduled for June 23-June 26, 2022. LWVOR is taking our Privacy and Cybersecurity advocacy position (in segments) for adoption by concurrence at the 2022 LWVUS Convention. Their priority is to relate “recommended items” to elections so we are presenting with that perspective. Photo by Lewis Kang’ethe Ngugi on Unsplash Cybersecurity races to keep up with increasingly sophisticated and challenging threats. When LWVOR adopted our “election security” position in 2021, we didn’t foresee the need to link cyber warfare or other critical infrastructures like power and communications to elections. LWVOR advocated in February for elections workers and candidates’ personal privacy and harassment protection. Now we need to promote our position to protect elections from social media “MDM” interference, with thanks to the CISA MDM for the “Mis, Dis, and Mal-Information” social media campaign applied to Election Security Infrastructure. Read the full article here. 1ST CALL TO COUNCIL By Robin Tokmakian Every even-numbered year, The League of Women Voters of Oregon holds their required state- wide council meeting. In addition to the LWV Oregon Board, each local league sends two delegates and each member-at-large group sends one delegate. The business of the council includes the election of the 2nd Vice President, the treasurer, and three at-large members of the board as well as a budget for the upcoming year. A quorum of 15 delegates, in addition to the LWVOR Board of Directors, is required for all decisions on the agenda. Only emergency changes to the program may be considered and such changes require eight weeks of notification to the membership. This year, the LWV Oregon Council will be during the week of May 9-14 and will be virtual. The business portion of the meeting in the afternoon of May 14, 2022. If you are interested in volunteering to help with Council, please contact Robin Tokmakian at rtokmakian@lwv.org. ELECTION THREATS NEED LWVOR’S EXPANDED ADVOCACY By Rebecca Gladstone LWVOR is advocating adoption of our privacy and cybersecurity position for elections. We have applied our position to protecting election workers’ privacy and to Legislative reports of crippling cyber-attacks. Social media’s “liar’s dividend”, which causes doubt in real news, calls for our attention, as well. Election cybersecurity is based on emergency preparedness. For example, an Oregon wildfire burned down a USPS site, affecting vote-by-mail there. Oregon’s power grids and transportation infrastructure are all vulnerable. Cyber attacks can disrupt elections by disrupting airports, GPS networks, traffic signals, bridges and dam-water controls, services from special districts, state agencies, and many businesses and organizations. We must safeguard cell and internet access. Democracy depends on us protecting all of our critical infrastructures. More information about LWVOR’s cybersecurity position can be found at LWVOR Cybersecurity and Privacy Today. IN MEMORIAM: REMEMBERING BARBARA ROSS, A PILLAR OF OUR COMMUNITY By Marion McNamara Our devoted and beloved League member, Barbara Ross, died April 4, on the 54th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr. Like Dr. King, Barbara’s life work focused on making the world more just and compassionate, albeit on a smaller canvas. She began her career as a social worker, and by the late 1970’s added public service to her resume, serving as a Benton County Commissioner, a Corvallis school board member, and a state representative. She brought her passion for fairness to every job she undertook. Barbara‘s family has always been a support to her, and she to them. Her children, grandchildren, and greatgrandchildren were an important part of her life, and were able to be with her in her last days. Barbara was mentor to many of those she met throughout her long career. She had a reliably good sense of spotting talent and introducing people to opportunities for service and growth. Several current state legislators got their start in politics with Barbara’s advice and occasional gentle pushes. The gift of her guidance was not limited to those who were up and comers. Read the full article here. PROFILE OF NEW LWVOR OFFICE MANAGER, ABBY HERTZLER Greetings! My name is Abby Hertzler and I am thrilled to be joining the League of Women Voters of Oregon as the new office manager. Although I was born in the Midwest and raised on the East Coast, I have called Oregon my home since 2014 when I moved to Salem and fell in love with the beauty of the state and the wonderful community I found here. Living in the state capital afforded me the opportunity to live and work in the “room where it happens,” and I loved seeing the view of the Capitol building framed by the blooming cherry trees every spring. My first event at the Capitol was Oregon’s birthday bonanza, a lively and cheerful event that sparked my interest in the processes that are undertaken in those hallowed halls. I find the League’s work in building more informed communities, empowering citizens and utilizing education and advocacy to influence public policy in Oregon to be of the utmost importance in these uncertain times, and I have a deep admiration for the work that the League does to work towards building a better Oregon. The passion and dedication I have seen in my first weeks here has been inimitable, and I am thrilled to be joining such a wonderful group of talented and kind individuals. I look forward to using my years of administrative, communications and organizational experience to support the League in its laudable mission. Connect with us A printable version of this newsletter can be found on our website here. League of Women Voters of Oregon | 1330 12th St. SE, Suite 200, Salem, OR 97302

Dear LWVOR Members, Oregon’s LWVUS Convention 2022 delegation saw the SCOTUS Roe v. Wade repeal coming and rallied in Denver last week. This profound abortion rights loss threatens to topple a stack of other rights that, frankly, threaten our democracy, especially chilling with J6 insurrection news. Don’t take this sitting down! We have more information about what you can do here. There’s plenty to do, keep reading! This 4th of July weekend is Critical for IP 17 signatures! (DEADLINE July 7!) Summer used to be slow for League work. Make it a Happy 4th of July! Be well, stay safe, and pace yourselves for the busy fall elections ahead, with so many important races! THIS MONTH… LWVOR Board Openings, LWVUS Convention! 😊 Ballot Measure News, Researchers Being Accepted Action, Read About Just-Posted Oregon Wildfire Risk Map LWVUS Oregon Delegation Comments and Photos CASE Method Teacher Nominations Accepted till July 15 Recommended Reading LWVOR BOARD The board is short-handed and setting up for the Nominating Committee revamp Task Force requested at our LWVOR convention. The LWVUS Nominating Committee shared their successful best practices. They reconfigured to assess needs, with detailed recommendations we will share with local League leaders. Contact us if you have skills to offer for these LWVOR OPENINGS: Program/Studies–OPEN! We need a program chair to promote the timeline for competitive local League study proposals for next May’s LWVOR Convention. HR Chair–OPEN! Ideally, experience with managing employees would be a real plus. Communications–OPEN! BALLOT MEASURES Read about why League volunteers matter more than ever, from PEW: Pandemic Petition Woes Derail Candidates, Ballot Initiatives, June 28, 2022. Retirements Cut Ranks of Scarce Frontline Workers, Feb 4, 2022. Want to DO SOMETHING?! There will be more volunteer opportunities in the August newsletter. You don’t need to wait! Here are volunteer opportunities: This weekend: Collect IP 17 signatures, deadline, July 7th. Research Ballot Measures: The Secretary of State has sent FEC (Financial Estimate Committee) news with four ballot measures, a good indication of strong footing for November elections. Researchers could start now. Contact Voter ED Chair, Peggy Bengry or staff, to apply. IRR 401, a constitutional amendment related to affordable healthcare access, school funds and essential services. IRR 402, a constitutional amendment related to removing language allowing slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime. IP 14, a constitutional amendment related to legislator unexcused absences. IP 17, related to firearms permits, firearm database, and ammunition magazines. ACTION League Action and Voter Education intersect with Ballot Measures! ACTION (for some): Collect petition signatures Endorse Ballot Measure V Fight for abortion rights! VOTER EDUCATION: Research state Ballot Measures Produce Vote411 & Voters’ Guides Speakers’ Bureau OREGON PROPERTY OWNER WILDFIRE RISK MAP This important real-time Oregon Wildfire Risk Explorer Map was released June 30. Expect slow download times given the heavy usage. Read about the wildland-urban interface (WUI) and statewide wildfire risk map now available through the Oregon Explorer, as required by Senate Bill 762 (2021). The map can help to decide and plan for mitigating wildfire risk for communities throughout Oregon. Oregon State University produced the map based on administrative rules adopted by the Board of Forestry at their June 8 meeting. The rules—developed in consultation with a rulemaking advisory committee comprised of 26 members representing a wide variety of stakeholder interests—outline: boundary criteria for the WUI, how each of five wildfire risk classes is assigned to individual properties how property owners in the extreme and high risk classes are to be notified how property owners may appeal their assigned risk class. LWVUS CONVENTION 2022 The LWVOR delegation organized with prep ZOOMs and group messaging, attended both virtually and in-person, and marched to the Denver state house to protest the SCOTUS repeal of Roe v. Wade. See our Facebook for the video overview from first-time attendee, Amber Nobe from Portland. We presented a caucus and concurrences for Privacy & Cybersecurity, partnering with LWV Colorado, who presented an election security concurrence, derived from our position. Neither was recommended by the LWVUS Board, nor did they pass, among 67 non-recommended items. The LWVUS Structural Transformation Plan was adopted, see full coverage in an upcoming edition of The VOTER. We are collecting delegation comments to share in The VOTER, watch for it! CASE METHOD The Case Method Institute’s August 20th Workshop for League-nominated teachers is still open for teacher nominations, welcomed on a rolling basis. The FINAL deadline to nominate teachers is 5pm Friday, July 15th 2022 (Eastern). To nominate teachers, send teachers’ names, email addresses and school affiliations to Deirdre Kamlani at: civics@lwvgreenwich.org. The team at the Case Method Institute will be in touch shortly thereafter to set up an introductory phone call. Leagues should look for enthusiastic teachers of US history, government, or civics (grades 9-12). We can only consider active high school teachers in these subject areas. This unique and exciting program includes: An afternoon of live, online training with Harvard Business School Professor David Moss on Saturday, “History of American Democracy” course and the case method teaching approach. A full curriculum of Harvard cases free of cost from “History of American Democracy.” An 4-hour training program, case method teaching. A certificate from the Institute detailing 32 hours of professional development, delivered upon successful completion of the course and related training and implementation. The training is the entry-point to a sustained partnership with the Case Method Institute for Education and Democracy, which aims to help teachers more effectively deliver on the democratic promise of a high school education. By completing the training, teachers gain access to the full curriculum of cases (which can be taught individually or as a stand-alone course) as well as ongoing support from the program staff to help with implementation. The Case Method Institute provides everything entirely free of charge. RECOMMENDED READING The LWVUS Convention 2022 Keynote Speaker, Valerie Jensen, JD, is the VP of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) for Planned Parenthood North Central States. She talked about CRT (Critical Race Theory) and recommends a book she loves: Inclusion On Purpose It sets out a DEI journey with a roadmap for each of us as individuals. From the author, Ruchika Tulshyan: “My focus is always on understanding and dismantling systems of oppression, rather than blaming individuals. The problem isn’t men, it’s patriarchy. The problem isn’t white people, its white supremacy. The problem isn’t straight people, it’s homophobia. Read this book to learn cutting-edge inclusion best practices.” Thank you for reading the state League update. Becky Gladstone, President, LWVOR Thank you for reading this newsletter! You can Manage Your LWVOR Subscriptions yourself for this monthly President’s Newsletter, the Legislative Reports, and the quarterly VOTER.

Written by Trish Garner, LWVOR Action Committee The Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health has overturned 50 years of precedent and deprives women of the ability to participate equally in our Nation's economic and social life. Its disregard for women's health, privacy and reproductive rights is shocking and untenable. The reasons SCOTUS used to justify this decision? First, the word "abortion" isn't explicitly stated in the Constitution. Secondly, it held that because the right to abortion wasn't "deeply rooted" in the law of the land when the 14th Amendment was ratified by "the people" in 1868, the right to abortion can't be protected by the 14th Amendment's guarantee of liberty. Of course, as noted by dissenting Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in 1868 "people" didn't include women. The fact that the right to an abortion has long been the law of the land also failed to convince the Court to adhere to its own "stare decisis" doctrine, which is Latin for the concept that court rulings should remain as decided unless there is a very good reason for change. The rationale behind this doctrine is that the people need to be able to rely on consistency and integrity in judicial decision making. In fact, the Dobbs ruling thrusts many previous decisions onto precarious ground. Although Justice Samuel Alito's opinion summarily dismisses concerns that the Dobbs ruling jeopardizes other decisions based on the 14th Amendment right to liberty, logic dictates otherwise. Justice Sotomayor characterizes this assurance at the level of "Scout's honor." In fact, the Dobbs ruling thrusts many previous decisions onto precarious ground. Some of these decisions involve rights to: marry a person of a different race (Loving v Virginia, 1967); make decisions about the education of one's children (Pierce v Society of Sisters, 1925); obtain contraception (Griswold v Connecticut, 1965); live in nontraditional family units (Stanley v Illinois, 1972); not to be sterilized without consent (Skinner v Oklahoma ex rel Williamson, 1942); to marry a person of the same sex (Obergefell v Hodges, 2015); and more. At least in his concurring opinion, Justice Thomas is more forthright. He indicates the Court should reconsider all these precedents. What can we do? Demand that Oregon enact a state Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing reproductive rights. Support the Women's Health Protection Act, which would provide federal protections to reproductive health services. Be vigilant and make our voices heard.

June is for fresh beginnings! Thank heavens for the extended rains; here’s hoping for a calm, beautiful summer! I hope COVID is diminishing. LWVOR is sending a hybrid delegation to the LWVUS Convention 2022 this month, half the size of our all-virtual, full 2020 delegation. The board is thrilled to resume an in-person retreat in a couple of weeks, even though we are short-handed! We are in very good financial help and enviably covered in Voter Education and Action (always room for more!). Please keep reading for news, keep in touch, be well, stay safe, and enjoy some strawberries! THIS MONTH… LWVOR Board Hail & Farewell, Openings, find one that fits you! 😊 Action, Oregon Revenue Forecast June Events, LWVUS Convention Voter Education, May Primary 2022 Recommended Reading LWVOR BOARD HAIL AND FAREWELL! Civics ED & Mock Elections–OPEN! A couple of committee helpers need a Board Director to oversee this important function, well-supported by staff and the Social Studies person at the Oregon Department of Education. Outgoing Chair, Retired Social Studies teacher Toni Lampkin is happy to help with the transition! Thank you, Toni! Program /Studies–OPEN! This lull time is perfect to learn the ropes to oversee the study process! We have two well-run study committees wrapping up now and will begin recruiting study proposals this fall for adoption at our May 2023 Convention. Professor Sheila McGinnis is stepping down from this well-organized process, happy to help with the transition. Thank you, Sheila! HR Chair–OPEN! Our staff are really good with project timelines and we need a liaison for staffing on the board. Ideally, experience with managing employees, perhaps labor or nonprofit law would be a real plus but is certainly not necessary 😊. We are recruiting and interviewing applicants again as staffer Amanda Crittenden leaves for school in July. We have an almost complete HR Handbook in the works. Thanks to outgoing but not departing HR Chair Kathleen Hersh, who kept us on track for staff meetings, thank you! Communications–OPEN! We are developing this committee and want a Chair to coordinate high-level vision for our extensive communications, from newsletters written by the president and VOTER Editor, Direct Mail from the Development Committee, Social Media overseen by our Digital Media staffer, and website, etc. The work is all being done smoothly, an informative communications survey has been done. We invite you to step in and whip this into shape! Technology–OPEN! We invite a tech savvy professional or motivated amateur with a little time to donate monthly, to step up and initiate progress on problems we may not even be aware of! We are not talking about helping members install printers or software. 😊 We need professional advice to adopt a security plan and as a responsible nonprofit advocating for Cybersecurity and Privacy nationally. We are looking forward to hearing from you! Co-Secretary–OPEN! Amelia Nestler is continuing as a Co-Secretary, covering but needing a partner to share taking minutes for our monthly virtual meetings! We use a minutes template to record decisions and usually have the simple draft right after meetings. This is an important job, but not a heavy lift if this is your skill set. Thanks to Amelia for continuing, along with having a toddler, being our officially appointed member of the Oregon Drinking Water Advisor Board, and wrapping up the Biocides & Pesticides study! Thank you for smooth transitions for these offices! Development Freddi Weishahn, from Lane, will work with continuing Development Chair, Jackie Clary. Freddi is already picking up on grants and direct mail letter work, thank you! Treasurer and Budget (musical chairs) Kermit Yensen is incoming Treasurer, taking over from our long-serving wonderful Treasurer, Ruth Kistler. With our deepest gratitude, we bid farewell to Ruth! Kathleen Hersh has been elected as off-board Budget Chair, a position she’s been looking forward to, now taking over from Kermit. We are in good hands, thank you! Membership, MLD Lisa Bentson, from Lincoln, will be Membership and MLD Chair, taking the reins from Kathleen Hersh. Lisa asked for more info during our LWVOR Council. After several chats about board work scope and time commitment, and the upcoming board retreat, the board voted to welcome her as an incoming director, in a separate vote after Council. Her Lincoln-League mate Ruth Kistler and I reassured her that her local League would really appreciate having a direct line of communication and influence on the state board. Welcome, Lisa! ACTION, REVENUE FORECAST The bottom line is: Unexpected revenue growth this year leaves us with unprecedented balances this biennium, followed by a record kicker into 2023-25. The projected personal kicker is $3 billion, to be credited to taxpayers when they file their Spring 2024 returns. The projected corporate kicker is $931 million, and that will be retained for educational spending. Even so, if balances are not spent, net resources for the 2023-25 biennium will have increased by $427 million relative to the March 2022 forecast. Thanks to Peggy Lynch for this update! Note: Action needs a number of volunteers with specific interest to learn or expertise already, for example, Revenue, Health Care, Forestry, Mental Health, Judicial Issues, and more! Follow our Legislative Reports! JUNE EVENTS The LWVUS Convention 2022 will convene virtually and in-person, June 23-26, anticipating a much smaller in-person gathering. An ambitious 67 non-recommended items will be considered, a logistics absurdity, honestly, with 11 concurrent caucuses scheduled, for example, to try to educate and persuade delegates to support them. LWVOR will present a caucus for Privacy & Cybersecurity concurrence toward two sections of our position, partnering with LWV Colorado, who will also present an election security concurrence, derived from our full position. None of these were recommended by the LWVUS Board, which is focusing on Voting Rights, Fair Elections, Redistricting, and Campaign Finance Reform. We submit that protecting our elections as critical cybersecurity infrastructure is an emergency priority! The LWVUS Structural Transformation Plan is a hot topic for Bylaws consideration at convention. At issue are simplifying the confusing 3-level membership issue, national, state, and local, with “PMP” (per member payments) funds all over the map, additionally confusing with donations. Our delegation will meet by ZOOM on Wednesdays beforehand to collaborate on issues like this and how to give a fair shake to all of those concurrence recommendations! Thank you to Mimi Alkire for organizing our delegation into a WhatsApp group! Stay tuned for reports on proceedings in the next few months, including news from our Board after the retreat. VOTER EDUCATION, MAY PRIMARY 2022 Thank you to our dedicated team of local League Reps around the state, to our Voters’ Guide production team, including our staff, with help from Jan Watson, the Vote411 pro, stepping in to help from LWV Mississippi! We don’t have analytics yet from our Voting In Oregon LWVOR website but we do have preliminary VOTE411 usage analytics for the weeks before our primary. Our Vote411.org numbers for April 11 to May 18, tracked clicks from 155 Oregon locations. The average reading time was almost 7 minutes, with almost 7,000 visits. That is a LOT of serious interest from voters! Thank you to voters for reading, to candidates for adding their campaigns, and to our volunteers and staff for working on this! RECOMMENDED READING Here’s to summer reading, the precious, healthy escapism, taking a breath and diving into a great book! I hope you can open this NYT’s essay, Did the Pandemic Change Summer Reading for Good? I Hope So. And make time for some of her suggestions. Then consider a look back at Madeleine Albright’s 2018 book, Fascism, A Warning. Last week’s Washington Monthly review includes references to Putin invading Ukraine, abortion, book-banning, shaping children into loyal supporters, and rejecting facts, like “Don’t Say Gay”. From the review: "Fascism is not an ideology, nor is it a political party. It does not belong to the right or left, nor to one region of the globe. Fascism is a commitment to obtain and retain power using whatever means necessary, even violence." Between us, I support a favorite local independent bookstore and I also want to rebuff a *simply wrong* comment floating in social media about the irrelevance of public libraries today! My public library has an eAudiobook, 3 print copies, another large print copy, and an eBook from Library2go. The paper copies are all on the shelf and the audio and digital copies have waiting lists! Thank you for reading the state League update. Becky Gladstone, President, LWVOR Thank you for reading this newsletter! You can Manage Your LWVOR Subscriptions yourself for this monthly President’s Newsletter, the Legislative Reports, and the quarterly VOTER.

Date: May 18th, 2022 To: All League Members From: Rebecca Gladstone, LWVOR President Marge Easley, Gun Safety Portfolio Chair Signatures Needed for IP 17, Safer Firearm Owners and Less Lethal Ammunition As we all know, gun violence has reached a crisis point in our state and in the nation. It is up to all of us to find solutions. Several days ago, the LWVOR Board voted to endorse IP 17, a statewide gun safety initiative sponsored by Lift Every Voice Oregon (LEVO). The initiative is now in the signature-gathering phase with the goal of being placed on the November ballot. The campaign is relying heavily on volunteer support, and we are asking League members for their help before the July 6 deadline. Here’s a brief summary of the initiative: Requires a permit-to-purchase for all firearm purchases, which includes classroom and live-fire safety training. This is the gold standard for gun safety regulations and has a proven track record of reducing gun violence where enacted. Requires a background check before purchasing a firearm, and no sale is complete before the check is completed. Includes an improved database system to assist the tracking of guns that are lost, stolen, or used to commit crimes. Prohibits the manufacture, sale, transfer, and possession of magazines over 10 rounds, with exceptions for law enforcement and military. Nine states and D.C. have already enacted such bans. ACTION REQUESTED: Please go to www.lifteveryvoiceoregon.com. If you’re willing to gather multiple signatures, click “Train to Gather Signatures” and follow the instructions provided. If you’d like to download and sign a one-signature petition sheet, please click “Sign Initiative Petition from Home.” After signing, you must also complete the circulator information at the bottom before mailing to the address provided. Please get the word out to friends and family members about IP 17 and how they can be part of the solution to prevent gun violence. Questions? Please contact Marge Easley, marge.easley@frontier.com

Date: May 6th, 2022 To: All League Members From: Rebecca Gladstone, LWVOR President Peggy Lynch, Natural Resources Coordinator Housing Planning Regional Forums Mark your calendars! The Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) would like to invite you to provide your feedback on housing planning in Oregon. In the coming months, DLCD staff will be hosting a series of regionally-based forums to discuss housing issues and policy solutions. The feedback from these events will be used to inform legislative recommendations the agency has been directed to develop and submit to the Oregon Legislature for consideration in the 2021-23 legislative session. To learn more about this effort, please review a Framework Report our team prepared in February outlining the legislative direction and parameters of the process. In these forums, DLCD staff will be facilitating discussion to hear your feedback on housing issues facing your community and potential proposals or solutions to address those issues. All forums will be held virtually. To attend a meeting, please visit the following Zoom link at the date and time associated with your geography listed below: Topic: Housing Planning – Regional Forums https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85288162044?pwd=djhVblkwV1pWS1dlN2pDV0hCT3Fkdz09 Time: See below for the schedule Meeting ID: 852 8816 2044 Passcode: 748783 One tap mobile +12532158782,,85288162044#,,,,*748783# US (Tacoma) +13462487799,,85288162044#,,,,*748783# US (Houston) Regional Forums by Date and Time Monday, May 9 - 3-5PM South Coast – Coos County and Coastal Douglas/Lane Counties Thursday, May 12 - 10am-12PM North Willamette Valley – Marion/Polk/Yamhill Counties Thursday, May 12 - 2-4PM Southern Oregon – Josephine/Jackson Counties Tuesday, May 17 - 1-3PM Central Oregon – Subregion Wednesday, May 18 - 1-3PM South Coast – Curry County Tuesday, May 24 - 1-3PM Southern Oregon – Douglas County Thursday, June 2 - 2-4PM North Coast – Clatsop/Lincoln/Tillamook/Columbia Counties Friday, June 3 - 1-3PM Central Oregon – Subregion Tuesday, June 7 - 1-3PM South Willamette Valley – Benton/Lincoln/Lane Counties Wednesday, June 8 - 1-3PM Metro Satellite Communities – Washington, Multnomah, and Clackamas Counties outside of the Metro Wednesday, June 22 - 1-3PM Metro Region - Washington, Multnomah, and Clackamas Counties within the Metro Thursday, June 23 - 2-4PM Eastern Oregon Thank you. If you have questions about any upcoming forums or would like an Outlook calendar invitation for a specific forum, please reach out to housing.dlcd@dlcd.oregon.gov

IN THIS ISSUE PRESIDENT’S COLUMN UPDATING LOCAL LEAGUE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES JOSEPHINE COUNTY CHARTER UPDATE LWVOR CONCURRENCE FOR LWVUS CONVENTION 2022 1ST CALL TO COUNCIL ELECTION THREATS NEED LWVOR’S EXPANDED ADVOCACY IN MEMORIAM: REMEMBERING BARBARA ROSS, A PILLAR OF OUR COMMUNITY PROFILE OF NEW LWVOR OFFICE MANAGER, ABBY HERTZLER PRESIDENT’S COLUMN By Becky Gladstone, LWVOR President LWV grassroots work begins with you! Please reach out to friends and colleagues and invite them to step up! DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) is a League priority. We want liaisons to bring their voices to the League. We need to expand our diversity from local grassroots up through boards. Native outreach is a focus for a grant we’ve crossed fingers for. We would like a Youth member on our board. Now is the time! Please contact us! Voter Education Reps and LWVOR staff, with hired LWV Mississippi support, are hard at work organizing VOTE411.org for the Primary Election, including our various Voters’ Guides! Be sure you send your campaign events to LWVOR at lwvor@ lwvor.org. Encourage your local candidates to look for their Vote411 invitation emails and to write to Vote411@lwvor.org with any questions. UPDATING LOCAL LEAGUE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES – PORTLAND CHAPTER By Debbie Kaye Separate from our Bylaws, the LWV of Portland has a “Policies and Procedures” document. Other League chapters around the state may have a similar document. Our “P & P” document starts by stating, “Policies as used here are procedures or practices that become established through experience and usage and are subsequently adopted as the best means of carrying out the purposes … as stated in its Bylaws”. Because our League is both a 501(c)(3) and a 501(c)(4), we have two sections: General Policies and Education Fund Policies. Examples of sections within the General Policies include the Nonpartisan Policy and how it pertains to specific roles within the League; Action, including who may speak for the League; Financial Controls; Reaching Member Agreement; Interest Groups; Diversity; and Anti-Discrimination. The Education Fund sections include rules about Recording League Meetings and Sponsorship of Candidate Forums. We update our P & P document when the stated policies no longer match our current needs and practices. For example, our current P & P doesn’t describe our process for Program Planning. We also noticed that the sections on Local League Autonomy, Reimbursements, Financial Controls, Social Media, and Recording Meetings are outdated. In March 2022, our Board held an online Zoom retreat to conduct a deep review of this document. We are incorporating the recommended updates and will vote on the revised P & P at our June retreat. Then it will replace the outdated document on our website. JOSEPHINE COUNTY CHARTER UPDATE By Dorothy Yetter The Commission was created on 28 April 2021 by the Board of County Commissioners with Order No. 2021-018. Nine members were appointed and our first meeting was held 9 September 2021. We set ourselves up for business, electing officers and hammering out bylaws, by 1 December 2021. After a few attempts to wrap our arms around the enormity of the task, we settled on a read- through and ‘mark-up’ of the existing document. Even as we do that, we have discovered that we need to invite experts to provide us with their observations in their areas of expertise such as finance (for instance, what is the actual budget process in use?) or administration (for instance, what recourse do exempt personnel have to political reprisal?) While that is the meeting-to-meeting activity, we have a few over-arching questions considering if the current structure of county government is adequate to the task. That currently manifests as: How many commissioners? Some advocate our county is small enough and homogeneous enough to be governed by the current 3, elected at large. Others think the county is more diverse and needs more commissioners actually from those diverse communities – either resident in that community or elected specifically by that community. Does the county need a County Executive? It would separate powers, split the administrative (executive) functions from legislative, but is it more overhead than we need? Is our product to be a report of recommendations or as a complete re-write of the charter? If a re-write, what form would that take? We know that those questions exist but before we tackle them, we do need to nail down the products of county government. County Counsel will be providing us with the statutory requirements but beyond that, there are the things some would like our county government to do. After deciding on those, then we have to determine what government structure will give us the tools to effect those objects. Right now, the Commission is going through the current charter, finding little things that should be cleaned up. We have not addressed the BIG question of “balance” but that question is wrapped up in the points above (number of commissioners and county executive). LWVOR CONCURRENCE FOR LWVUS CONVENTION 2022 By Rebecca Gladstone Photo by Lewis Kang’ethe Ngugi on Unsplash. LWVUS Convention is scheduled for June 23-June 26, 2022. LWVOR is taking our Privacy and Cybersecurity advocacy position (in segments) for adoption by concurrence at the 2022 LWVUS Convention. Their priority is to relate “recommended items” to elections so we are presenting with that perspective. Cybersecurity races to keep up with increasingly sophisticated and challenging threats. When LWVOR adopted our “election security” position in 2021, we didn’t foresee the need to link cyber warfare or other critical infrastructures like power and communications to elections. LWVOR advocated in February for elections workers and candidates’ personal privacy and harassment protection. Now we need to promote our position to protect elections from social media “MDM” interference, with thanks to the CISA MDM for the “Mis, Dis, and Mal-Information” social media campaign applied to Election Security Infrastructure. We hope for enthusiastic concurrence support, especially from the Oregon delegation! If you will attend, register for program information. You may need to log in to see the LWVOR details on the proposal page. LWVUS program planning advised us to segment our comprehensive position into smaller proposals: • Information Security and Personal Information Protection • Electronic Business and Social Media: Cybersecurity Responsibilities • We are working with LWV Colorado, which has excerpted from us and slightly revised an Election Security concurrence Our LWV Convention caucus request was accepted on April 5th. Please plan to attend! Scheduling details will be forthcoming. 1ST CALL TO COUNCIL By Robin Tokmakian Every even-numbered year, The League of Women Voters of Oregon holds their required state- wide council meeting. In addition to the LWV Oregon Board, each local league sends two delegates and each member-at-large group sends one delegate. The business of the council includes the election of the 2nd Vice President, the treasurer, and three at-large members of the board as well as a budget for the upcoming year. A quorum of 15 delegates, in addition to the LWVOR Board of Directors, is required for all decisions on the agenda. Only emergency changes to the program may be considered and such changes require eight weeks of notification to the membership. This year, the LWV Oregon Council will be during the week of May 9-14 and will be virtual. The business portion of the meeting in the afternoon of May 14, 2022. If you are interested in volunteering to help with Council, please contact Robin Tokmakian at rtokmakian@lwv.org. ELECTION THREATS NEED LWVOR’S EXPANDED ADVOCACY By Rebecca Gladstone LWVOR is advocating adoption of our privacy and cybersecurity position for elections. We have applied our position to protecting election workers’ privacy and to Legislative reports of crippling cyber-attacks. Social media’s “liar’s dividend”, which causes doubt in real news, calls for our attention, as well. Election cybersecurity is based on emergency preparedness. For example, an Oregon wildfire burned down a USPS site, affecting vote-by-mail there. Oregon’s power grids and transportation infrastructure are all vulnerable. Cyber attacks can disrupt elections by disrupting airports, GPS networks, traffic signals, bridges and dam-water controls, services from special districts, state agencies, and many businesses and organizations. We must safeguard cell and internet access. Democracy depends on us protecting all of our critical infrastructures. More information about LWVOR’s cybersecurity position can be found at LWVOR Cybersecurity and Privacy Today. IN MEMORIAM: REMEMBERING BARBARA ROSS, A PILLAR OF OUR COMMUNITY By Marion McNamara Our devoted and beloved League member, Barbara Ross, died April 4, on the 54th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr. Like Dr. King, Barbara’s life work focused on making the world more just and compassionate, albeit on a smaller canvas. She began her career as a social worker, and by the late 1970’s added public service to her resume, serving as a Benton County Commissioner, a Corvallis school board member, and a state representative. She brought her passion for fairness to every job she undertook. Barbara‘s family has always been a support to her, and she to them. Her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were an important part of her life, and were able to be with her in her last days. Barbara was mentor to many of those she met throughout her long career. She had a reliably good sense of spotting talent and introducing people to opportunities for service and growth. Several current state legislators got their start in politics with Barbara’s advice and occasional gentle pushes. The gift of her guidance was not limited to those who were up and comers. Working with her church, she was part of an effort to help people get back on their feet, providing material and emotional support. She volunteered to help with re-entry for people leaving incarceration, spending several hours a week conversing with them. And most recently, Friday evenings would often find her delivering food, clothing, and conversation to homeless women. Everyone who worked with Barbara valued her focus, determination, analytical abilities, kindness, and effectiveness. Her most recent work with the League was leading the Police Accountability study through a rapid research, interview and production process. She attracted a large and very capable committee; they completed the study in under a year. She went on to co-lead the Justice Interest Group with James Ofsink. This group continues to monitor many police-related organizations and to advocate using our position. At our annual business meeting last year, the Board was pleased to present the Volunteer of the Year award to Barbara. Here is the wording from the award: PROFILE OF NEW LWVOR OFFICE MANAGER, ABBY HERTZLER Greetings! My name is Abby Hertzler and I am thrilled to be joining the League of Women Voters of Oregon as the new office manager. Although I was born in the Midwest and raised on the East Coast, I have called Oregon my home since 2014 when I moved to Salem and fell in love with the beauty of the state and the wonderful community I found here. Living in the state capital afforded me the opportunity to live and work in the “room where it happens,” and I loved seeing the view of the Capitol building framed by the blooming cherry trees every spring. My first event at the Capitol was Oregon’s birthday bonanza, a lively and cheerful event that sparked my interest in the processes that are undertaken in those hallowed halls. I find the League’s work in building more informed communities, empowering citizens and utilizing education and advocacy to influence public policy in Oregon to be of the utmost importance in these uncertain times, and I have a deep admiration for the work that the League does to work towards building a better Oregon. The passion and dedication I have seen in my first weeks here has been inimitable, and I am thrilled to be joining such a wonderful group of talented and kind individuals. I look forward to using my years of administrative, communications and organizational experience to support the League in its laudable mission.

Hello LWVOR Members and Supporters! Remember Happy May Day, baskets of flowers on doorknobs? Let’s reconnect in-person! LWVOR is working on the May 17th primary, the Council to welcome new Board members, organizing Action to collaborate for the 2023 legislative session, then an in-person Board retreat in June. Local Leagues–you should have delegations set for both the LWVOR Council and the LWV Convention. THIS MONTH… Voter Education Upcoming Events LWVUS UN News Action Civics Education Recommended Reading VOTER EDUCATION For this May 17 Primary Election, contact us at lwvor@lwvor.org to help with this critical work. Please help your local Leagues to GOTV: Get Out The Vote! Promote VOTE411.org. For direct digital GOTV support through Outreach Circle, contact Elizabeth Anderson. We do not endorse, support or oppose candidates or political parties. This Chicago area League sent donuts for Election Worker Appreciation Day! LWVOR will continue legislation with the Secretary of State to strengthen harassment protections for Oregon’s elections workers, which is a tougher job than it should be. Think of ways your League can support our elections workers! UPCOMING EVENTS Please see the LWVOR calendar for local and other events as we receive them. LWVOR Council 2022 Our Council will again be virtual, Friday May 13 and Saturday May 14. I will miss being in Newport, seeing our delegates in-person, but invite you to a President’s Meet & Greet on Friday from 6-7pm, also our Workshop Friday, The Future of the League in Oregon. Our Saturday business session will conduct the required League business of voting for some officers and adopting the budget, for example. Presidents, register your delegates here. If you want to observe the proceedings, register here. LWVUS Convention 2022 We will coordinate and brief our delegation virtually before the hybrid virtual and in-person meeting in Denver, June 23-26. We will convene as a delegation to prepare and are counting on LWVOR delegates to lobby for support for our (unfortunately “not recommended”) two cybersecurity and privacy concurrences. We urgently need these to protect our elections, for example by protecting our critical cybersecurity infrastructures: DEFENDING DEMOCRACY is our League Mission! Our caucus will discuss defending elections, voting rights, and personal privacy through cybersecurity. We need the Oregon concurrence proposals today. IMPROVE ELECTIONS, a true critical infrastructure, by defending against cyberattacks. Today we must rally for cybersecurity to protect our elections, the heart of our Democratic process, and the multiple critical infrastructures that enable us to vote. Elections can be crippled by cyberattacks to power grids, communications, and directly to governments and elections. From airports to stoplights, to all government services, including elections, to the private sector and to each of us – we are all vulnerable to cyber-attacks. These can profoundly affect our elections and democracy at large. Cyber-retaliation for sanctions against Russia may be linked to supply chain disruption here but cyber-attacks in Ukraine knocked out government sites. We need to be ready with positions to protect these critical infrastructures. VOTING RIGHTS & REDISTRICTING Cybersecurity and privacy directly affect a confluence of elections vulnerability. Voter suppression from inaccurate census data needs strong cybersecurity. Census participation barriers included privacy concerns. Foreign interference in our elections, through bad social media, is well established. The new CISA “MDM” Team aims directly at defending elections from Mis-, Dis-, and Malinformation in social media, a welcome elections improvement. Our moderation aim is for civil discourse, not censorship. MONEY IN POLITICS The Oregon League has testified to numerous bills with these positions and we look forward to talking with you about them. LWVUS UN League members: Now is the time to consider attending the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt Nov-7-18, 2022. If interested, please contact Robin Tokmakian (rtokmakian@lwv.org) to request an application form (or download attached form) or more information. This is a self-funded opportunity. Deadline is July 1, 2022. ACTION Advocacy at the BALLOT BOX! Be sure to vote and help others for May 17! Our Voter Education volunteers will research state ballot measures (to be certified in August) and prepare Voters’ Guide and Speakers’ Bureau coverage for voters. The Action Committee will decide which measures may merit taking a League position, then forward those recommendations to the board. Our Voter Education never simultaneously presents any League measure positions. Please SHARE: The League never supports or opposes candidates or political parties. Sometimes, we support or oppose ballot measures based on our studied, nonpartisan positions. Legislative Advocacy We need more volunteers to observe hearings and report to us, and to help with research. We need your expertise (or willingness to learn) about issues including health care, broadband, and many others listed in our Legislative Reports (Subscribe). Our member experts write testimony to influence legislation by applying League positions and perspectives. Please apply your knowledge! Step up and find a way to help. Contact us today! CIVICS ED From Toni Lampkin: The LWVOR‘s online Civics Education curriculum is being updated and will be available to all students and teachers. Included in these materials is information for teachers to conduct a class or school Mock Election. We are hoping to also provide an online Mock Election available for this fall. Oregon teachers and Leagues are continuing to participate in the Case Study Method Institute to expand their teaching skills. This program was previously known as the Harvard Case Study Method. By expanding to a virtual training, they have been able to accommodate many more teachers. Applications are still open for the August 2022 workshop. From Donna Cohen: See this website to register for these events. Patrons/members who live in the Library/sponsor areas get registration priority, then it opens to others, a couple of weeks in advance. Civics for Adults: To Enhance Civic Knowledge and Inspire Political Engagement Free. Virtual. More info: https://www.civicthinker.info/ Citizen Activism 101—Making Change Happen Thursday, May 19. Evening; time TBA. Sponsor: Tigard, OR, Public Library. Register. Beyond Voting: Elections and Campaign Finance Wednesday June 1, 11-12:30. Sponsor: Wilsonville, OR, Public Library. Register: TBA The Constitution: Fulfilling Democracy’s Promise? - Democracy, The Constitution and Representation in Congress. Tuesday, June 21, 6-7:30 EST. Sponsor: Schenectady, NY, Public Library. Register: TBA RECOMMENDED READING For May 2022, our “recommended reading” is to use, share, and promote our voting information. See our Voting in Oregon webpages, which include our Voters’ Guides, in English and Spanish, audio for each, our Vote411.org access, and Video Voters’ Guide interviews and event recordings. From my desk to yours, please take care and find something to appreciate every day. We send condolences to our Rogue Valley League, for Shiena Polehn. We are a grassroots political organization and, importantly, our members mentor and support each other. I am counting on that being easier with things opening up in warmer spring weather. Thank you for making a difference with the League! Becky Gladstone, President, LWVOR Thank you for reading this newsletter! You can Manage Your LWVOR Subscriptions yourself for this monthly President’s Newsletter, the Legislative Reports, and the quarterly VOTER.

LWV grassroots work begins with you! Please reach out to friends and colleagues and invite them to step up! DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) is a League priority. We want liaisons to bring their voices to the League. We need to expand our diversity from local grassroots up through boards. Native outreach is a focus for a grant we’ve crossed fingers for. We would like a Youth member on our board. Now is the time! Please contact us! THIS MONTH… Voter Education Upcoming Events Action Recommended Reading Have you seen our SHOP? VOTER EDUCATION Voter Education Reps and LWVOR staff, with hired LWV Mississippi support, are hard at work organizing VOTE411.org for the Primary Election, including our various Voters’ Guides! Be sure you send your campaign events to LWVOR at lwvor@lwvor.org. See the calendar info below. Encourage your local candidates to look for their Vote411 invitation emails and to write to Vote411@lwvor.org with any questions. This is a screen shot of the recent Lane League debate with the Springfield City Club, tip o’ the hat to Paula Grisafi! Please check for local and other events and promote them to the LWVOR calendar. If you don’t see your events, send them to us! Want a brief sprint volunteer task? Our Voter Education volunteers research state ballot measures after certification in early August to prepare Voters’ Guide and Speakers’ Bureau coverage for voters by September. We never simultaneously present Voter Education and advocacy positions. Please SHARE: The League never supports or opposes candidates or political parties. Sometimes, we support or oppose ballot measures based on our studied, nonpartisan positions. The LWVOR may take positions on the November 2022 state ballot measures, after certification in August. UPCOMING EVENTS LWVOR Council This will be a virtual event, registration details here. Local League leaders should register their two delegates. Observers can register themselves - registration information coming soon. The business meeting will be held on Saturday afternoon, May 14th. LWVUS Convention 2022 LWVOR has filed to present concurrences for our Privacy and Cybersecurity position. LWVUS encouraged us to bring smaller portions of our very comprehensive full position. LWV Colorado will bring a portion as Election Security, nearly as we developed it a few years ago. Please stand by to bring your support! ACTION Volunteer organizers are needed! Please contact Chair Alice Bartelt, lwvor@lwvor.org. The League Redistricting and Campaign Finance Reform initiative work is now working toward 2024 ballots. Please be ready to help collect initial filing signatures later this spring. The LWVOR may take positions after certification in August. Recommended Reading From Yale U Press: "A fresh, persuasive and deeply disturbing overview of the baleful and dangerous impact on the nation of widely disseminated false speech on social media. Richard Hasen, the country’s leading expert about election law, has written this book with flair and clarity.”—Floyd Abrams, author of The Soul of the First Amendment What can be done consistent with the First Amendment to ensure that American voters can make informed election decisions and hold free elections amid a flood of virally spread disinformation and the collapse of local news reporting? How should American society counter the actions of people like former President Donald J. Trump, who used social media to convince millions of his followers to doubt the integrity of U.S. elections and helped foment a violent insurrection? What can we do to minimize disinformation campaigns aimed at suppressing voter turnout? With piercing insight into the current debates over free speech, censorship, and Big Tech’s responsibilities, Richard L. Hasen proposes legal and social measures to restore Americans’ access to reliable information on which democracy depends. In an era when quack COVID treatments and bizarre QAnon theories have entered mainstream, this book explains how to assure both freedom of ideas and a commitment to truth. LWVOR Store Have you seen our stuff? Show your League support! Check it out here. Thank you for reading this newsletter! You can Manage Your LWVOR Subscriptions yourself for this monthly President’s Newsletter, our Legislative Reports, and the quarterly VOTER. Here’s to Spring! From my desk to yours, Thank you for making a difference with the League! Becky Gladstone, President, LWVOR

Date: February 26, 2022 To: All League Members and Supporters From: Rebecca Gladstone, LWVOR President The League strongly urges immediate support to fund Oregon cybersecurity defense: FUND HB 4155: Oregon cybersecurity defense, League testimony; We are not protected. DEADLINE: Session ends in days, contact your legislators to heed these dire warnings! All of us are vulnerable to impending cyberwar, now beyond cyber criminals, with active cyber-retaliation threats against US sanctions to protect Ukraine. Delaying HB 4155 to the 2023 session would truly make us “sitting ducks”. We must act now. Do cyber-attacks affect you? Think of Ukraine this week. Cyber attacks knocked out their government sites. Global markets are destabilizing for Energy, Technology, Finances, and Communications. Crippling cyber-attacks (committee video last week) are already in Oregon, with news partly veiled because we lack adequate defense. We need to safeguard our cell and internet access. Oregon's power grids, financial sector, transportation- from airports to stoplights, bridges and dam-water controls, services from Special Districts, School Boards, cities, counties, and state agencies, to many businesses and groups - are all vulnerable. Oregon elections are a well-documented target. “One legislator on the committee said, “If you aren’t scared, you’ve had your audio off during these hearings.” We urge the Legislature MOST STRONGLY to protect us. Now budget funding is the only avenue left for HB 4155, despite extensive collaboration and broad bipartisan support. House Revenue Chair Nathanson, urging also on behalf of the Joint Information Management and Technology Committee, calls for funds while $15M in federal funds are still available to leverage. “Oregonians and our “critical infrastructures”, anything connected digitally, are not adequately protected.” LWVOR’s Privacy and Cybersecurity study showed that rapid changes require more urgent attention from our policymakers. We don’t need technical expertise to understand that cyber-attacks choose the most vulnerable targets. Cybersecurity defense funding cannot wait. Contact your legislators to support funding for HB 4155, the cybersecurity omnibus bill.

Date: February 4, 2022 To: All League Members From: Rebecca Gladstone, LWVOR President Josie Koehne, LWVOR Forestry Portfolio We are asking local League members throughout the state, especially in southern, eastern and central Oregon: Support: SB 1534, Natural and Working Lands and Waters Contact: Your Legislators To Support SB 1534, This Very Important Bill Deadline: TU Feb. 8 public hearing in Senate Natural Resources and Wildfire committee SB 1534 proposes state policy to increase carbon storage and resilience in our natural and working forest, range and agricultural lands and in Oregon’s coastal wetlands and marine waters. The bill is the result of the Oregon Global Warming Commission (OGWC)'s 2021 Climate Change and Carbon Proposal and its carbon sequestration goals. SB 1534 will enable Oregon’s natural and working lands to be voluntarily managed as a resilient and robust carbon sink while supporting the health of our economy and communities and enhancing social equity and quality of life. Senate Bill 1534: Defines natural and working lands (N&WL) in Oregon statute. Declares it state policy to advance N&WL strategies based on equity and land manager interests, resourced with incentives and technical assistance support. Directs the Commission to create an Advisory Group to inform its N&WL efforts. Directs the OSU Institute for Natural Resources and certain state agencies to support the Commission in: Developing a carbon baseline and activity-based metrics by 4/30/23. Advancing a N&WL carbon inventory. Completing a N&WL Workforce and Economic Development study. Directs Reporting: From agencies on the carbon inventory and metrics to the OGWC. From the commission on progress toward these targets and metrics in its Biennial Report to the Legislature on a changed date. SB 1534 lays the foundation to ensure that Oregon is investing to protect our rural economies, fish and wildlife, and drinking water supplies as we navigate changing environmental conditions. Carbon sequestration supports a strong economy, especially for timber-dependent communities in rural parts of the state. The bill will pave the way for a strong, incentive-based program to help small forest owners thrive and make sure our forestlands are not only protected but are economically resilient. Read the Bill. We welcome your testimony in support. Please call or email your legislators today! Ask them to support SB 1534! For more information, contact Josie Koehne.

Hello LWVOR Members and Supporters! February is a short but intense month for LWVOR! The 2nd is Groundhog Day and the 2nd day of the 35-day 2022 Oregon Legislative session. There are some parallels with promising bills from last session returning for another try amid echoes of walkouts. Read our pre-session Legislative Report. Confirm your LWVOR subscription settings for our weekly Action News Summary Emails. Please contact your local Voter Education Rep to help with the 2022 primary. Watch for more information in the winter 2022 LWVOR VOTER, arriving shortly. IN THIS MONTH’S NEWS… Voter Education, read for ways you can help! Action is in full gear now and needs your help. Upcoming Events, OR Council, US Convention, and Civics ED Public Library presentations Recommended Reading Congratulations to LWVOR for our organization advancing to the GuideStar Platinum Transparency status! Guidestar is an important tool that demonstrates our impact and helps amplify our voice as a nonprofit. Your League can sign up at guidestar.org. VOTER EDUCATION Contact your local League’s Voter Education rep to help your League with your local candidate and ballot measure entry for Vote411.org. Elections offices are gearing up to prepare for the primary, too.Check with your County Elections offices to help as temporary elections staff for this primary, probably training soon. Contact us at lwvor@lwvor.org for other information on how to help with this critical work. Here’s a question from the LWVOR President’s INBOX: I am with the LWV Klamath for over 30 years. What can we DO besides just send money to LWVUS? Oregon is one of the few states that maintains democratic principles, so there is not much work to be done here. BUT, I participate in VOTE FORWARD to encourage voters in other states to get to the ballot box. Why isn't LWVUS setting up a similar campaign or piggy backing on the Vote Forward work? –A long time member Hi long time League member, Thank you for your devotion to League work over these many years! I looked up Vote Forward and it seems to be GOTV (paper, USPS) letter writing outreach. This was popular with some local Leagues members during previous election cycles. LWVOR is not coordinating writing postcards at the state level. I haven’t heard of any LWVUS plans for this. Here are a few things we’re doing. LWVOR Advocacy Our Action Committee to increase digital outreach, including advocacy to support the Oregon Secretary of State's proposed 2022 legislation to facilitate voter registration help from 3rd parties, something LWVOR has been advocating toward for a long time. Read our LRs for progress, details in this letter. Outreach Circle We want League members to help expand digital networking outwards to our other circles, our families, friends, and other groups we belong to, who depend on us as trusted voices. Contact the LWVOR Outreach Circle Coordinator, Elizabeth Anderson, for details, via lwvor@lwvor.org. County Elections Election Observer teams are important League functions around the country, including sometimes in Oregon. Observers monitor ballot processing steps including signature verification and ballot tallying. This year elections offices are again addressing anticipated staffing shortages. League members could be ideal workers given our awareness of the importance of our elections. Please see the staffing request in Voter Education. Election Protection 1-866-Our-VOTE We fight voter suppression with League members taking calls during elections. LWVUS belongs to this coalition and yes, voters in Oregon call in here for help! ACTION Chair Alice Bartelt We are getting ready for the legislative session, which begins TODAY, February 1st. We will meet on Tuesdays at 10:30 am. The session is supposed to address issues that cannot wait until the 2023 long session. Our committee members are already working on many bills of concern. The Action Committee recommended and the LWVOR Board has endorsed these four ballot initiative petitions. IP 43, 44 and 45 Campaign Finance Reform. Becky Gladstone is a chief petitioner on all three. These are similar in content. Which goes forward will be based on the coalition’s findings for which has the best chance of passing. LWVOR was instrumental in drafting the measures’ language. IP 34 reintroduces IP 54 regarding redistricting, which failed to make the ballot in 2020. Norman Turrill is the chief petitioner. Watch for an email summary linked to a full Legislative Report each week during the session (Subscribe). We will update the Issues for Action after the end of the short session. Action needs several volunteers to serve as Coordinators. Our committee has grown, expanding needs for the intermediate level of oversight. We are missing a coordinator for education and for social issues. If you have any ideas of folks who might be interested in taking on those jobs, please let me know, Alice Bartelt (contact via lwvor@lwvor.org. UPCOMING EVENTS Please check the LWVOR calendar for your local events. If you don’t see them, send us details to post so we can help publicize them! LWVOR Council [May 20-22, Newport OR, hosted by Lincoln Co League]. We are currently planning an in-person event, and will change to virtual if need be. With program planning underway, we invite you to submit your ideas for caucuses and workshops. Contact the LWVOR Events Chair, Robin Tokmakian, forwarding via lwvor@lwvor.org. LWVUS Convention June 23-26, 2022 Read for varied instructions for proposing bylaws changes, sponsoring caucuses, etc. I hope all our Leagues updated their membership rosters by the end of January deadline for your League’s membership roster to get full delegation voting access! Civics Education Partner Events Toni Lampkin, LWVOR Civics Education Director, and Donna Cohen, presenter, are coordinating with the Oregon State Library for regional presentations. Here’s the update. Citizen Activism 101, and The Constitution: Fulfilling Democracy’s Promise? – Democracy, the Constitution and Representation in Congress. Three library districts (Umatilla, Jackson and Deschutes) and Harney County will enlist multiple libraries from their four regions. Nine libraries are currently planning to participate. Corvallis PL Oregon City PL Umatilla County SLD Hillsboro PL Deschutes PL District Eugene PL Salem PL Jackson County LD Harney County PL (drawing from other eastern Oregon counties) Here are some of Donna Cohen’s free virtual February workshops. Misinformation, Fake News and Political Propaganda. Feb 1 (TODAY!) TU, 7-8:30pm. Albany Public Library. REGISTER Feb 16 W 6:30-8pm. Cedar Mill Public Library. REGISTER Feb 27 Sun, 2-3:30pm. Hillsboro Public Library. Registration available mid-February. Beyond Voting: Elections and Campaign Finance Feb 26, Sat 11am-12:30pm. Hood River County Library District. Registration available mid-February. Recommended Reading Oregon’s February weather is often great for indoor reading! This month’s recommended reading came to me from Santa and is newly relevant with SCOTUS Justice Stephen Breyer’s recent retirement announcement. For February, consider reading JUSTICE ON THE BRINK, the Death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the rise of Amy Coney Barrett, and twelve months that transformed the Supreme Court, by Linda Greenhouse. Please send your recommended reading! Thank you for reading this. I am so grateful for the many ways our members work together! Perhaps some of us will be able to safely see each other in person soon, locally, or at the LWVOR Council or LWVUS Convention. I am sending virtual chicken soup as I hear of friends contracting omicron. I hope you all have been vaccinated and boosted to help ease the severity of symptoms in case you contract the disease. Here’s to a healthy, productive February, Yours in League. Becky Gladstone, President, LWVOR

Happy New Year, LWVOR Members and Supporters! I hope you had wonderful holidays and are excited to get to work in the new year! LWVOR’s top priority is voter education and advocacy, and we need volunteers to support the 2022 midterm elections. Watch for more information in the winter 2022 LWVOR VOTER, coming in early February. Please remember, as a grassroots organization, League work begins with you! Please reach out to friends and colleagues who may be interested in our work and invite them to join our work! IN THIS MONTH’S NEWS… Voter Education, contact your rep to help locally with Vote411 and campaign events Action never pauses. Our 2022 legislative advocacy needs your help. Studies are progressing and some are thinking about new ones! LWVUS Convention, concurrence Events and Civics Education Recommended Reading Have you seen our SHOP? The above photos were taken at Deschutes County League’s Holiday Party! VOTER EDUCATION Voter Education Reps will meet this month to coordinate nonpartisan candidate outreach for VOTE411.org. We are already answering new requests; we do not endorse candidates and we do not support or oppose candidates or political parties. After primary election candidate filing closes on March 7th, we will invite all Oregon candidates whose filings include contact emails to publicize their information on our VOTE411 site. Please encourage and remind your candidates to look out for their VOTE411 invitation! If you enjoy event planning (forums) and/or database work (harvesting data from county and municipal elections websites), contact us at lwvor@lwvor.org for information on how to help with this critical work. UPCOMING EVENTS Please see the LWVOR calendar for local and other events as we receive them. LWVOR Council The Lincoln County League will host, June 17-19, hoping for in-person, subject to change as needed. More soon. LWVUS Convention 2022 The “first call” for June 23-26 and other information is posted. Note the end of January deadline for your League’s membership roster to get full delegation voting access! LWV Webinar: WED January 19, 10 am: Democracy, Disinformation & Distrust: How do we Break Through to Advance Truth & Build Trust? Explore ways to build resilience to the impact of mis / disinformation. LWV Civil Discourse Network & the National Institute for Civil Discourse. Civics Education partner events The LWVOR has met with Oregon State Library staff to facilitate federal funding to underwrite Oregon Libraries Civics ED presentations later this year, partnering with the Oregon State Library and League member Donna Cohen, who would present them. These would be designed for attending library patrons. You may recall Donna’s Fall Workshop presentation several years ago, not recorded at her request. Her topics and schedule are on her website, www.civicthinker.info. For example: Misinformation, Fake News, and Political Propaganda (registration listings at the individual libraries). Thursday, January 20, 6:30-8 pm, Tualatin Public Library Tuesday, February 1, 7-8:30 pm. Albany Public Library Wednesday, February 16, 6:30-8 pm. Cedar Mill Public Library Sunday, February 27, 2-3:30pm. Hillsboro Public Library ACTION Advocacy at the BALLOT BOX! The League is on firm ground to defend and push for these national and global efforts: Voting Rights, safeguard our elections Climate change, prepare to adapt where prevention deadlines have elapsed The Right to Choose League leaders are Chief Petitioners pushing Redistricting and Campaign Finance Reform initiatives to Oregon’s November 2022 ballots. See “People Not Politicians” (IP 34), and see Honest Elections, Fight Political Corruption and Require Transparency, parts I (IP 43), II (IP 44), and III (IP 45). Please watch for volunteer calls to collect petition signatures. Our Voter Education volunteers will research state ballot measures certified in August and prepare Voters’ Guide and Speakers’ Bureau coverage for voters. The Action Committee will decide which measures may merit taking a League position, then forward those recommendations to the board. Our Voter Education never simultaneously presents any League measure positions. Please SHARE: The League never supports or opposes candidates or political parties. Sometimes, we support or oppose ballot measures based on our studied, nonpartisan positions. Legislative Advocacy Action volunteers virtually attended 2022 pre-session hearings last week. We need more volunteers to observe hearings and report to us, and to help with research. We need your expertise (or willingness to learn) about issues including health care, broadband, and many others listed in our Legislative Reports (Subscribe). Our member experts write testimony to influence legislation by applying League positions and perspectives. Please apply your knowledge! Step up and find a way to help. STUDIES Most of our study committees took some holiday time and are still on track with timelines. Recommended Reading For directly sourced reading instead of interpreted analysis, here’s the Congressional January 6th Report. From Kathleen Hersh, with thanks: Our Marion and Polk County book group started in 2000. Each year in August participating members suggest a book they have read and think others might enjoy. Some years the group agrees on an overall theme such as Oregon authors, and other years our list is eclectic. We have two rules: the member must have read their selection and our library should have at least one copy of the book on its shelves. In years past we met on the first Wednesdays, usually at a member’s home, shared tea and treats, and time to discuss the book. For the past two years, we’ve held a Zoom gathering. The member whose book is featured leads the discussion and begins with a brief explanation of why they selected the book. Then we do a round-robin, one minute for each member to talk about their major impression of the book. After that, the group begins discussion with the leader sometimes offering prompting questions. In October we read The Lathe of Heaven, a novel by Oregon author Ursula K. Le Guin. It was published in 1971 and is a science fiction classic. Le Guin set the story in Portland in the late 20th or early 21st century. She refers to many places we all know. The world is dealing with exponential population growth, pollution, racism, climate change, decimation of the land and its natural resources, warming of the atmosphere, and war between nations. The story is about a man, Orr, who is frightened when he realizes that his dreams can become reality, and about his therapist Doctor Haber, who is trying to treat him. The doctor, in an attempt to cure Orr’s problem, realized that he is able to alter the world through his suggestions to Orr when he enters a dream state. Haber can “improve the world” and his own life as he treats his patient. All this leads to many unintended consequences, such as every person being the same shade of gray, millions of people suddenly vanishing from the earth, and an alien invasion as a way to bring all the nations of the world together. Although it was written 50 years ago, these are contemporary problems for us today. Our discussion covered many topics such as unintended consequences of our actions in our own world today. Who has the authority or right to implement changes? What is ethical behavior? Are there solutions to our problems? How do we remain true to our core values in changing times? Whether our book is a work of fiction, or a book about the life of birds, or US diplomacy, we never lacked for discussion. LWVOR Store We’ve got new merch! Our store was looking a little bare and dusty, so we designed some new swag for you to show your League support! Check it out here. Thank you for reading this newsletter! You can Manage Your LWVOR Subscriptions yourself for this monthly President’s Newsletter, the Legislative Reports, beginning again in February, and the quarterly VOTER. Again, Happy New Year! From my desk to yours, please take care and find something to appreciate every day. That can be knowing you are making a difference with the League! Becky Gladstone, President, LWVOR

LWVOR is deeply grateful for the support of our members, volunteers, and donors who continue to show up for democracy. All that we accomplish is thanks to your support. We are proud to do this vital work protecting democracy - together! As we look back on our 2021 accomplishments, we are also preparing for the work ahead. Here’s a look at some highlights: VOTER EDUCATION In 2021 we hosted several election-related events, including a People Powered Fair Maps online redistricting presentation to educate and encourage Oregon voters to make their voices heard in the process. This fall Rebecca Gladstone, LWVOR President, spoke at the USC Election Cybersecurity Initiative to share tips with regional partners on how to make our elections more secure. And LWVOR is already preparing for the 2022 midterms, building teams and outreach strategies to extend our election coverage to reach more voters across the state with our nonpartisan resources. STUDIES Our League studies propel us forward with fresh ideas and perspectives to strengthen our communities through education, and ultimately through advocacy. In 2021, LWVOR Convention delegates approved two new initiatives: a Childcare Restudy and an Election Systems Study update. Work is well underway for both. We invite you to get involved! Contact lwvor@lwvor.org. In 2022, we plan to bring our Privacy and Cybersecurity position to LWVUS, where we hope to effect real policy change to support election security, cyber safety, and privacy-related issues. ADVOCACY Topping this year’s advocacy list is LWVOR’s recent campaign finance reform ballot initiative filings, with our coalition partners. We firmly believe elections should be about voters, not big money interests. That’s why we’re working for fair elections for all Oregon voters and restoring voters’ confidence in democracy. We continue to push for an independent redistricting commission. Subscribe to our weekly League advocates’ email briefs and full Legislative Reports during the legislative session, from the state legislature, government task forces, linking to extensive League testimony. Our resources include ways you can help, too! As we reflect on all we’ve done last year, we are also planning ahead, thinking about how our advocacy can build and maintain more equitable communities. LWVOR will continue to empower voters to make their voices heard in every election. We will continue to hold our elected officials accountable, demanding they support legislation that works toward the common good. And we will continue listening to and learning from youth leaders and our diverse coalition partners across Oregon. We are preparing now to cover the 2022 elections through VOTE411.org, for candidates and ballot measures, including new opportunities for gun safety reform, establishing a right to healthcare for all Oregonians, and strengthening our democracy through campaign finance reform and independent redistricting. We look forward to speaking out and taking action with you in the new year. Thank you for your support. -LWVOR Leadership Team Help us continue bringing our nonpartisan resources to Oregon voters with a tax-deductible donation!