Sleep Key to School Start Time Change 02/01/2012
Lisa Bogan of the Connecticut League of Women Voters, recognized as an expert on school start times and a former vice-chairperson of the Wilton (CT) Board of Education, addressed a Barrington, RI audience on Jan. 26. Read the full Barrington Patch article here. 
Lisa Bogan, a school start time expert for the Connecticut League of Women Voters Credit: William Rupp
Coalition finds continuing problems with audit integrity – Provides calculations and official data on the web for public review and verification -download pdf- For Immediate Release: January 26, 2012 Contact: Luther Weeks, 860-918-2115 or luther@CTElectionAudit.org Hartford, Connecticut –Today, the Connecticut Citizen Election Audit Coalition released its report on the November 2011 post-election audits. Coalition spokesperson Luther Weeks stated, “For the first time, in the interest of public information and transparency, we are making all official municipal audit reports and the data we complied available for everyone to review on the web. Citizens can see the reports from their own town, other towns, and perform their own audit of the Coalition’s data entry and calculations based on those official reports” The report concluded:
discrepancies either to humans or to the voting machines. In many cases, these discrepancies are not thoroughly and reasonably explained. Without adherence to procedures, accurate random drawings, a reliable chain-of-custody, and transparent public follow-up, when discrepancies are reported, if there was ever a significant fraud or error it would not be recognized and corrected Cheryl Dunson, League of Women Voters of Connecticut’s President, noted, “We note little change in our observations and conclusions and little progress by officials in improving post-election audit integrity. Because of ongoing shortcomings in the performance of post-election audits, we continue to urge our state election officials to offer more guidance to local personnel and to require more consistency in the conduct of the audit.” This is the eighth major post-election audit observation report by the Coalition since the adoption of optical scanners and paper ballots statewide. Observers came from the membership ranks of the coalition partners -- The League of Women Voters of Connecticut, The Connecticut Citizen Action Group, Common Cause Connecticut, and Connecticut Voters Count. The coalition’s reports and data are available online at: http://www.CTElectionAudit.org. Help Put Super PACs Out of Business 01/19/2012
How can you fight back against the big money pouring into the political campaigns this year? Sign the petition on The White House website* urging President Obama to appoint new commissioners to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The FEC is supposed to be the government agency that enforces campaign finance laws, but it isn’t working and hasn’t for a long time. Of the six commissioners at the agency, three of them simply refuse to enforce the law, and five of the six are serving despite the fact that their terms expired some time ago. It is time to clean house and President Obama is the one that needs to do something about it. Click here to urge President Obama to clean house at the Federal Election Commission (FEC). If you are tired of the millions of dollars flooding our political campaigns courtesy of SuperPACs,sign the petition and help us reach our goal of at least 25,000 signatures of support by February 10, 2012. Don’t just sign it yourself; post the petition on Facebook, Tweet about it and forward this note to all of your friends. Together, we can make sure that the votes of millions of Americans are more valuable to our elections than a big pile of money. * In order to successfully sign the petition, you will need to create an account on WhiteHouse.gov and respond to a confirmation email. If you need guidance on creating this account please use our helpful step-by-step guide to creating your account and signing the petition. The Connecticut Voter: Fall 2011 12/31/2011
The Fall 2011 edition of The Connecticut Voter is now available online. Click below to download your copy. 
HARTFORD, Conn. - Companies both big and small stand to gain from Gov. Dannel Malloy's jobs bill, which passed the state legislature with almost unanimous support. The $626 million in bond funding will support a variety of programs. The new law is expected to be among the topics at a League of Women Voters of Connecticut forum about workforce development on Dec. 3, to be held at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work, West Hartford. Catherine Smith, who heads the Department of Economic and Community Development, will be one of the speakers. Information on the forum, "Back in Business: Workforce Development for Connecticut's Economic Future," is available at www.lwvct.org/events.html. READ or LISTEN to the full Public News Service story here. How will Connecticut spur job growth? How can Connecticut develop a competitive workforce and reinvent itself for a 21st century economy? Find out the answers to these questions and more at an engaging discussion with a stellar panel of leaders from key economic sectors. You can register for our 2011 Conference online or by mail — follow the link below! When: Saturday December 3, 2011 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon Where: University of Connecticut School of Social Work 1800 Asylum Avenue Zachs Community Room Greater Hartford Campus West Hartford, CT 06117-2659 Click here for details or to register online. Download our flyer with mail-in registration form. Symposium on International Relations 11/20/2011
Save the date: The 2012 SIR will focus on international media issues. It will be held at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield on Tuesday, May 15. 2011 Legislative Wrap Up Now Available 11/02/2011
The League's Public Issues Team is pleased to provide an end of session legislative wrap up for members and friends. We hope you find it informative. Please go to the Advocacy and Action Alert pages of our website to see the actual testimony, communications or alerts on the bills outlined in the update. Download the 2011 Legislative Wrap Up (November 2 2011) Connecticut Voters Don't Need Photo IDs 10/25/2011
Public News Service-CT October 25, 2011 HAMDEN, Conn. - Voting fraud by individuals posing as someone else in order to cast a ballot is almost non-existent, and yet 14 state governments have passed laws in the past year that they say will protect the integrity of the process by requiring proof of citizenship or photo IDs for voting. Connecticut is not one of them. Opponents of the more restrictive laws charge that they are aimed at disenfranchising voters who tend to be older, poorer, and members of ethnic minorities. Cheryl Dunson, president of the League of Women Voters of Connecticut, says that, heading into elections next month, it's important to know a few things. "There are all these states that are now requiring photo ID. Yes, that kind of thing has been introduced in Connecticut, but it hasn't passed, so people that are going to the polls need to know that Connecticut still has a variety of IDs that we find acceptable." She says voters can prove their names and addresses by bringing a utilities bill with them to the polls, or provide their name and signature, or name and photo, which is preferred but not required. Dunson says there are ways to make voting easier without risking fraud. "Connecticut is looking at removing the restrictions on the use of absentee ballots, letting people use absentee ballots for whatever reason they want, and they call that 'no-excuse absentee.'" She notes that precautions would need to be taken to minimize coercion or fraud in the use of absentee ballots. Municipal elections will be held November 8. The 14-state statistic is from New York University's Brennan Center for Justice at www.brennancenter.org Click here to view this story on the Public News Service site and access an audio version of this and other stories. October 17, 2011 For immediate release Contact: Cheryl Dunson, President, LWVCT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A wave of legislation tightening restrictions on voting has suddenly swept across the nation ahead of the 2012 national elections. More than a dozen states have already passed laws imposing new restrictions on voter registration drives, cutting back early voting periods, or requiring new stringent photo identification. The League of Women Voters of Connecticut assures state residents that there will be no new changes in requirements for voting in the upcoming elections to be held on Tuesday, November 8. As before, a registered voter will have to show identification or sign an affidavit. Acceptable polling-place identification can be:
For more information, visit the LWVCT website at www.lwvct.org, or call (203)288-7996. And most importantly, don’t forget to vote … remember, if you don’t vote, you don’t count! ### |  NewsroomCategoriesAll ArchivesMay 2012 | ||
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