League of Women Voters draws about 40 to informational meeting

A crowd of about 40 people from Belleville, Van Buren, and Sumpter came out in sub-freezing temperatures Monday night, Jan. 18, to learn about the work of the League of Women Voters.
The meeting originally was set for The Something to Talk About restaurant in the former Paula’s location in Belle Plaza shopping center, but on Friday that restaurant closed.
Gina Hamilton of The Q Banquet and Event Center, next door to the restaurant at 879 Sumpter Road, opened her doors to the meeting.
For a new League of Women Voters to organize, it has to be mentored by another league and the Northwest Wayne County chapter is Belleville’s mentor.
Angela Ryan of Livonia, president of Northwest Wayne, and Paula Bowman of Plymouth Township, vice president of Northwest, were present Monday to explain the procedure, along with state vice president Christina Schlitt of Grosse Pointe.
Eight people wrote checks for $60 each to be members of the mentor league and five or six said they didn’t bring their checkbooks and will send in their dues later. (They explained that the bulk of that amount goes to the national LWV and a portion to the state LWV, with just $5 going to the local unit.)
The minimum number for a LWV chapter is ten, so Belleville is close to qualifying.
Barbara Miller, Belleville attorney who invited the LWV into Belleville for this meeting, said she was glad there was such widespread interest from all three communities and that such insightful questions were asked. She said she was especially glad that so many people joined.
Schlitt said the LWV will be 96 years old next month. It started out as a suffragette organization and then when women got the vote it switched to working “for providing stronger, healthier, more-vibrant education on issues and candidates.”
She said it provides non-political, unbiased information for voters.
Bowman said one of the first things the mentor group will do, once the Belleville group has 10 members, is to help set up voter services for this geographical area.
That includes voter guides for the elections coming up – two townships and the school board – and candidate forums.
Miller asked if the forums will be filmed and Bowman said they would. Bowman said they hire a young man and he films the forums and posts them on a You Tube link. It also is available to local cable channels, but she said Comcast no longer is very cooperative.
Miller asked how much they paid the person who filmed the forums and she was told they pay the young man $100, but some chapters have people in their membership who know how to do that and so they pay nothing.
Bowman said when you film a forum you don’t feel bad that only ten people showed up in the audience because you know others will see it later.
“The league is all about fairness,” Bowman said, noting every candidate is asked the same question and each has the same amount of time to respond. Most of the questions come from the audience, written on cards, and they go through two “screeners,” who take out personal attacks and make sure the question hasn’t been answered already. Then, the questions are handed to the moderator to ask the candidates.
Most of the LWV guides these days are accessed online, but some people prefer paper guides so they continue to print a reduced number and leave them at libraries for pick up by voters.
Because of state law recently signed by the governor there is some question whether they will be able to leave these guides at libraries, or any other public unit, 60 days before an election.
Van Buren Township Clerk Leon Wright said there also is a question whether the candidate forums could be shown on public cable TV 60 days before an election.
There was a lot of discussion on Senate Bill 571 that the LWV believes is an “anti-democratic bill” that takes away straight-party voting and limits information 60 days before an election.
“We have a position on convenient voting, so we opposed that bill,” Schlitt said, adding the LWV urged the governor to veto that bill, but he signed it.
Bills are being introduced to fix the problem and law suits are being filed. The LWV believes it will be solved by the courts.
Schlitt said “Making Democracy Work” is this year’s national goal for the LWV.
“This is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” Ryan said of introduction of laws making it more difficult to vote. “Rights are being taken away and it’s not the time to coast.”
The local LWVs, made up of volunteers, have no offices or phone numbers. Belleville’s mentor LWV, the Northwest Wayne County president Ryan can be reached at [email protected] and vice president Bowman is at [email protected] .