Read the November issue of the LWV St. Paul Voter Newsletter.

Read the November issue of the Upper Mississippi River Region Inter-League Organization newsletter.

As part of our core service of the League of Women Voters of St. Paul, informing the electorate, we completed two major projects in fall 2017: mayoral candidate forums and sharing voter registration and election information. This work wouldn’t have been possible without the help of 17 different volunteers, 30 St. Kate’s students, and the direction and efforts of Amy Perna and Sig Johnson. In all, 73 two-hour shifts were worked!

We hosted four mayoral candidate forums in four quadrants of Saint Paul. Each was a success! Our September 27 event at Hallie Q Brown had a full auditorium with 175 people in attendance. Our October 10 event at Wellstone Center was in a round table format and garnered 150 attendees. The October 11 event at Highland High School had a full auditorium with over 300 attendees! And, lastly the Minnesota Humanities Center, another round table format event hosted on October 17, had 100 people in attendance and required many extra folding chairs to be added to the room!

Besides the host community organizations, other community partners for these forums included: the District of Counciles of Highland, Mac-Groveland, Payne Phalen, and WSCO; the NAACP; the African-American Leadership Council; and the Neighborhood House organization.

We received kind praise for these forums:

“I really appreciate the League’s fairness and courtesy for a minority party advocate like me,” stated one candidate.

“I’m really glad I came. It helped me decide what candidate I want to vote for and who to choose for my second choice,” shared a forum attendee.

We also completed voter registration work and shared election information between September 6 and October 17. This included work at nine branch libraries in multiple shifts; two weekly shifts at food shelves at Merrick Community Services and Hallie Q. Brown; tables at Metro State, Century College, and Hubbs Learning Center; plus opportunities at Highland Fest, Mt. Airy Boys and Girls Club, and a Communications class at St. Kate’s University.

Through this effort we submitted 120 voter registration forms (with registrations and address updates). We also provided voters with the Voter Guide of mayoral and school board candidates, flyers on the candidate forms, and information on Ranked Choice Voting for the 10 mayoral candidates. We reprinted the Guide and flyers several times.

Thank you to everyone who made this work possible!

You can use these voter guides to candidates in local races on your 2017 ballot.

LWV St. Paul Voter Guide in English.

LWV St. Paul Voter Guide in Spanish.

The LWV Upper Mississippi River Region Inter-League Organization is a regional organization linking more than 50 local LWV Leagues and four state LWV Leagues in protection of the Upper Mississippi River. Read the September 2017 issue of their newsletter!

Read the October 2017 edition of LWV St. Paul's The Voter Newsletter!

Our voter registration efforts are continuing to go strong. We have lined up a few more locations/dates in which you can make a difference. If you can volunteer to help us register voters at any of the below opportunities, please email Wendy Jones (wajone@gmail.com).

Metro State University (700 7th Street E, St. Paul, MN 55106) would like us to have voter registration available at 6 p.m. on September 22, 2017 to coincide with the Mayoral Candidate Forum taking place. 

Century College (3300 White Bear Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55110) and Metro State University would like to have voter registration available from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on September 26, 2017. The Hubb Center for Lifelong Learning (1030 University Ave W, St. Paul, MN 55104) would also like to have volunteers register voters from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. that night. This is National Voter Registration Day so we'd love to have volunteers to make this happen!

We are so thankful for the continued volunteer efforts of our League members and friends.

We are seeking volunteers to translate our 2017 Voter Guide into Hmong, Spanish, and Somali. 

We are also seeking volunteers to provide interpreter services during our candidate meet and greet on October 10 for Spanish, Oromo, Karen, Somali, and Amharic.

If you would like to volunteer, please contact us at office@lwvsp.org.

As we continue to plan for this fall's registration efforts, we have partnered with a number of libraries and food shelves in Saint Paul. We need volunteers for any of the locations and times listed below up until October 19 which is the cutoff for early registration. 

We are especially hoping to have a volunteer presence in areas where the voter turnout has been low, especially: Rice Street Library, Hayden Heights Library, Arlington Hills Library and the food shelves.

Please sign up for a 2-hour shift this fall by emailing Wendy Jones at wajone@gmail.com. If you have any questions about our voter registration initiatives, please email Sigrid Johnson at sigrid.johnson@comcast.net.

George Latimer Central Library
90 W. Fourth Street (downtown)

No preference for when volunteers are present in 2017. 2016 preference was: Mondays 12-2 p.m., Tuesdays 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., and Sundays 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Arlington Hills Library
1200 Payne Avenue

No preference in 2017, but they do not want volunteers on Sept. 5, Sept. 30, or Oct. 14. There is a busy job fair taking place on Sept. 14--we would love to have volunteers at the library on that date. Also, they are open to volunteers on other dates within the following schedule: Mondays-Thursdays 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Fridays-Saturdays 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., and Sundays 1-5 p.m.

Highland Park Library
1974 Ford Parkway

Open to volunteers within the following schedule: Mondays-Thursdays 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Fridays-Saturdays 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., and Sundays 1-5 p.m.

Hayden Heights Library
1456 White Bear Avenue

Open to volunteers on Mondays or Wednesdays 12-8 p.m., and Tuesdays or Thursdays 10 a.m.-8 p.m. They would also welcome volunteers on Saturday, Sept. 9 or Saturday, Sept. 23 from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Merriam Park Library
1831 Marshall Avenue

Open to volunteers on Mondays-Thursdays 12-8 p.m., and Saturdays-Sundays 1-5 p.m.

Rice Street Library
1011 Rice Street

Open to volunteers Sundays 1-5 p.m. and Mondays either 4-6 p.m. or 5-7 p.m.

St. Anthony Park Library
2245 Como Avenue

Open to volunteers on Mondays or Wednesdays 12-8 p.m., and Tuesdays or Thursdays 10 a.m.-8 p.m. They would also welcome volunteers on Saturday, Sept. 9 or Saturday, Sept. 23 from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Rondo Library
641 N. Dale Street

Currently under renovation but will be open to volunteers between October 9 and October 19 during library hours.

Sun Ray Library
2105 Wilson Avenue

Open to volunteers Monday, Sept. 11 10 a.m. - 12 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 12 4-6 p.m., and Monday, Sept. 25 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Merrick Food Shelves
Gustavus Adolphus Church, 1669 N. Arcade Street

Open to volunteers Mondays 3-4 p.m. and Tuesdays 10-11 a.m.

Merrick Food Shelves
1740 Van Dyke Street

Open to volunteers Wednesdays and Thursdays 10-11 a.m.

Hallie Q. Brown Food Shelves
270 N. Kent Street

Open to volunteers Wednesdays 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Thank you to everyone who volunteers their time to help us register voters and make democracy work for all.

You can make a difference by registering voters in our upcoming registration events this summer and fall. There are opportunities to volunteer for one shift, or if you're looking to get more involved, consider becoming the National Night Out Coordinator. LWVSP will provide signs, forms and information. All we need is you!

If you have interest in any of the below opportunities, please email Sig Johnson (sigrid.johnson@comcast.net) to learn more and/or sign up.

Highland Fest Voter Registration

Coordinator for National Night Out

We are in need of a volunteer to coordinate voter registration in various communities during National Night Out, held on August 1. This would involve getting contact names from participating communities to help coordinate opportunities for voter registration.

Registration Tables in Libraries this Fall

We are looking for volunteers to register voters in five branches of local libraries this fall. The library managers are open to dates that fit our volunteers' schedules, but suggest evening hours of 4:00-6:00 p.m. or 5:00-7:00 p.m. when the libraries are most busy.

Thank you for your continued dedication to the League and our cause!

The LWV Upper Mississippi River Region Inter-League Organization is a regional organization linking more than 50 local LWV Leagues and four state LWV Leagues in protection of the Upper Mississippi River. You can read the June 2017 issue of their newsletter here.

LWV St. Paul sponsored a community education class at St. Paul Public Schools. You can use these links to review things we discussed during the class.

Civic engagement is committed, active participation on issues concerning rights, duties, and quality of life within your community.

News Literacy

• Ten Questions for Fake News Detection
• How to Spot Fake News
• Best Fact Checking Sites

Registering to Vote & Voting

• Secretary of State Elections: http://www.sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/
• Ramsey County Elections: https://www.ramseycounty.us/residents/elections-voting
• Why local elections matter

Political Parties & Candidate Campaigns

• Political Parties in Minnesota: http://www.sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/how-elections-work/political-parties/

The Legislative Process & Contacting Elected Officials

• Legislative Process in Minnesota by Senate Counsel
• How a Bill Becomes Law by House Research
• Who Represents Me?
• How to contact your elected official if you have social anxiety
• Elected officials are at every level!
• • President and Vice President
  • US Senators
  • US Representatives
  • State-wide offices (e.g., Governor or State Auditor)
  • State Senators
  • State Representatives
  • County Commissioners and Officers (e.g., Sheriff)
  • City Mayor and Council
  • School Board (a.k.a. Board of Education)
  • District Councils (technically not a public official, but still responsive to constituents)

Commissions & Boards

• State boards and commissions: http://www.sos.state.mn.us/boards-commissions/
• Ramsey County Advisory Boards: https://www.ramseycounty.us/your-government/volunteer/advisory-boards-committees
• St. Paul Boards: https://www.stpaul.gov/departments/mayors-office/committees-boards-and-commissions
• St. Paul District Councils: https://www.stpaul.gov/residents/live-saint-paul/neighborhoods/district-councils

Volunteering

• http://www.minnesotanonprofits.org/
• https://www.justserve.org/
• https://www.volunteermatch.org/
• http://www.handsontwincities.org/
• https://www.idealist.org/ 
• https://www.ramseycounty.us/your-government/volunteer
• https://archive.spps.org/GetInvolved.html

Letters to the Editor

• Writing Letters to the Editor
• Additional Tips