Founded 1939 Type Political advocacy | Founder Carrie Chapman Catt Location Tallahassee, Florida | |
Focus Political action, responsible government Key people Pam Goodman (President) | ||
The League of Women Voters of Florida (LWVF) is a civic organization in the state of Florida. The organization is nonpartisan; the League's Bylaws mandate that the organization will not support any political candidate or party. League promotes political responsibility through informed and active participation of citizens in government, acts on selected governmental issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. League's members do advocate on policy issues.
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History
The Florida State League of Women Voters was founded on March 31, 1921 by May Mann Jennings, at a meeting in Jacksonville. It immediately voted to affiliate with the national League of Women Voters, although unlike the national organization and the Leagues in other states, the FSLWV was not the successor of a suffrage organization. In the 1920s the FSLWV included many of the most prominent women in the state and was a strongly feminist organization, with women's issues at the top of its priorities.
Following a decline in the 1930s, the organization was reorganized in 1939 first as the Florida Non-Partisan League of Women Voters, subsequently renamed the League of Women Voters of Florida. Its first project was a study of state government with a particular focus on the state's Constitution. In 1949, the League worked to pass the 1949 permissive jury service statute. Prior to 1949 and the work done by the LWVF, women in Florida could not serve on juries.
Early advocacy efforts encouraged the Florida Legislature to end the process of gerrymandering. In 2011, Florida voters approved two gerrymandering-related redistricting amendments which were placed in the State Constitution. The LWVF and other groups sued over the redistricting. In addition, the LWVF suspended operation for a year during that time, and when the gerrymandering aspects of the provision were blocked by a federal judge. The gerrymandering was ruled unconstitutional in Florida since it strongly favored one party over another. In 2012, the group worked again to register voters, this time with a five-week deadline. The LWVF continued to monitor district maps and redistricting. The LWVF also fought against a 2012 proposal to purge voting rolls which Deirdre Mcnab called an effort to "disproportionately impact minority voters and erroneously disenfranchise those that are eligible."
Modern League
More than thirty local Leagues statewide hold candidate forums, issue election year Voters Guides, and sponsor public seminars. Pam Goodman is President of the League of Women Voters of Florida. She is the former CEO of Express Limited. The current (2013-15) board of directors for the Florida League includes Patricia Brigham, First Vice President; Cecile Scoon, Second Vice President; Patricia Drago, Secretary; Theresa Francis-Thomas, Treasurer; and seven additional directors, including former state Representative Annie Betancourt and former state Senator Paula Dockery.
LWVF encourages civic engagement and is strictly nonpartisan, though it has been accused of partisanship. LWVF works tirelessly "to educate, mobilize, and register voters..." stated Attorney General Eric Holder.
LWVF has engaged in a number of statewide and local projects, including recommending the initiation of a recycling program in St. Petersburg; supporting the Central Florida commuter rail network SunRail; endorsing a court case which ended voter purges held 90 days before a federal election; striking down of restrictions on volunteer voter registration efforts; the re-institution of early voting days and early voting on the Sunday before election day; and the redrawing of both congressional and state legislative district lines after extensive litigation. As a result of that litigation, new district maps will be implemented for the 2016 elections. During election year cycles, LWVF maintains two comprehensive, fact-based, nonpartisan Florida voter websites, Be Ready To Vote and Vamos A Votar, the Spanish language version. It has lobbied for gun safety for years, but after the 2016 shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the group became a driving force in a statewide initiative to establish stricter gun safety guidelines through the Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence. In 2016, the LWVF hosted a screening of the documentary about gun violence, Making a Killing: Guns, Greed and the NRA.