LWV Offers Non-Partisan Info on the 53 Races on Westchester’s Nov. 8 Ballots

In addition to the candidates for President of the United States, Westchester County ballots have candidates for 53 other races: one United States Senate seat and all Congressional seats, the New York State Senate and Asssembly seats, a special election for Westchester County’s District Attorney, and a handful of local elections.

The League of Women Voters, which does not support or oppose candidates or political parties, offers nonpartisan information about all these candidates on the web, in print, on cable television, and in person:

• The LWV website, www.vote411.org, steers each typed-in address to all candidates in that address’s election district. In addition to other election information, it includes brief biographies of each candidate, answers to questions posed to them by the League, and links to further information from every candidate who has responded. This information can be printed out for future reference.
• The League’s familiar printed Voters Guide, which contains all the candidate information from www.vote411.org, will be mailed to registered voters in some communities and will be available in all 38 libraries in the Westchester Library System, miscellaneous other locations, and the League of Women Voters of Westchester office (call 979-0507). The Guide is also on line with links from the LWVW website, www.LWVW.org, and its facebook page, www.LWVWestchester.org.
• Candidate forums sponsored by the ten local Leagues are advertised locally and listed on the LWVW website. They are replayed on local cable channels and on-demand on the web. In addition, the two candidates for the countywide office of District Attorney will participate in a candidate forum hosted by the LWVW, to be held at 7 pm Oct. 27 in the Chappaqua Public Library Theater, 195 South Greeley Ave., Chappaqua.
• The LWVW office in Elmsford can respond to election questions at 914-949-0507 or LWVW@optonline.net.
• The LWVUS recommends the following nonpartisan, toll-free Election Protection hotlines: 866-OUR-VOTE (led by the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law), 888-VE-Y VOTA (led by NALEO Education Fund) and 888-API-VOTE (led by APLAVote and Asian Americans Advancing Justice). Volunteers will take reports of problems and answer election questions.

“The act of voting brings us together as Americans,” said Marylou Green, LWVW president. “It should not be taken for granted, nor should it be blocked for partisan reasons. In the end, every vote counts and makes a difference. We urge every eligible citizen to vote on November 8th.”

Founded in 1920 by leaders in the suffragist movement (including New Rochelle’s Carrie Chapman Catt), the League of Women Voters took as its mission the promotion of informed citizen participation in government. To that end, League members, both women and men, have been registering thousands of voters--in New York State until the Oct. 14 deadline.

At the national and state level, the LWV has been protecting voting rights by opposing obstacles to voting such as discriminatory voter identification requirements and early closings of, or even elimination of, polling places. In the past few weeks, the LWVUS, together with other concerned groups, has won critical courtroom victories striking down such laws.

Graphic via Patch