League of Women Voters Offers Nonpartisan Internet Info to Westchester

Nonpartisan information about the candidates in local Westchester races is available online from the League of Women Voters of Westchester.

The information is provided by the candidates themselves and includes biographical information, answers to League questions, and links to the candidates’ websites. The League, whose mission is to promote informed citizen participation in government, does not support or oppose candidates or political parties.

Here are sources of information from the LWVW, both for this election cycle and beyond.

• The LWV website, www.vote411.org, provides candidate information by election district. By typing in his or her address, a voter will access information about candidates from that particular voting address plus one’s polling place location. This information can be printed out for future reference.
• The League’s familiar Voters Guide, which contains all the candidate information at press time in www.vote411.org, is available in print at public libraries in the LWVW office (call 914-949-0507), or in PDF on the LWVW website, www.LWVW.org.
• The videotaped debate sponsored by the LWVW with the two candidates for Westchester District Attorney, Anthony A. Scarpino Jr. and Bruce Bendish, at the Chappaqua Public Library is also linked on the LWVW website. A videotape of the New Rochelle LWV forum with a shorter debate between the District Attorney candidates and another with State Senate District candidates George Latimer and Julie Killian is available at www.NewRo.org.
• The LWVW office in Elmsford can respond to election questions at 914-949-0507 or lwvwestchester@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 League of Women Voters was founded by Carrie Chapman Catt in 1920 during the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The convention was held just six months before the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote after a 72-year struggle.

In an article about the LWV's 75th anniversary, the New York Times wrote:

The Westchester League was active from the beginning, holding its first meeting in New Rochelle in the fall of 1920. A 1923 document from the county league stated that its purpose was "to educate women voters and help direct them into active, intelligent citizenship before they settle into habits of inertia and blind following of precedent" as well as "to train women leaders for intelligent service in their political parties."

By 1925, the county league had undertaken an intensive study of the County Charter, conducted voter-registration drives, sponsored candidates meetings and worked toward passage of a Juvenile Court Bill in state. They also sponsored citizenship schools, which taught the newly franchised women the fundamentals of government.

During the 1920's, the county league had its office in Grand Central Terminal, because the terminal was easier to reach than most places in Westchester. By 1925, the county league had 1,259 members. Dues were $1. By the 1930's, the first evening meetings were held in Mount Vernon and Yonkers, and the county league office was moved to White Plains.