The League of Women Voters of the United States celebrates its 102 anniversary on Monday.
The LWV of Amarillo plans to celebrate the day by advocating early voting and informing the public about the candidates for the date of Feb. 14, the same day early voting begins.
“Voting is simply the essential way that we as citizens participate in our government, and it is something that every eligible citizen can do. It is one of our responsibilities as citizens. It's also a privilege that we have that people have struggled for (for) many years. Voting gives us a voice,” said Sonya Letson, president of League of Women Voters of Amarillo.
According to Letson, the local chapter plans to celebrate the anniversary in several ways. LWV aired its candidates forum on Panhandle PBS over the weekend. The 90-minnute broadcast was to inform the public of the local candidates in the upcoming election for Potter and Randall counties, as well as the state Senate race.
The LWV also plans to celebrate the 102nd anniversary by participating in and helping run the polls this Monday.
“From its beginning, the goal of the League of Women Voters was to educate people about elections, the candidates, their rights to vote, how to go about voting, and where to vote. All of the things about elections, the LWV have tried to educate people about that since the beginning in 1920,” Letson said. “That’s still the mission of the league, to empower voters so they have the confidence, the knowledge and the desire to participate in every election.”
It was this mission that led league member Delores Thompson to join.
“I joined the LWV within the past couple of years. One of the things I truly believe in is voting, and everybody has the right to vote, all citizens. And so I appreciated the fact that the league is a non-partisan organization encouraging people to get out to vote,” Thompson said.
Letson spoke about the next 100 years and some of the goals that she hopes will be accomplished.
“Over the next 100 years, we would love to see politicians and office holders of all persuasion embrace the concept that voting is important for all of us and not just some of us. We would like to see voting made accessible and convenient for all citizens. We would also love to see online voting registration for all voters in Texas and take away the voting restrictions against those who vote by mail,” Letson said. “We believe that by everyone voting, we’d have the best representative democracy.”
Individuals can go online to
https://www.vote411.org to learn more information on the candidates for the upcoming elections.
For more information on the Amarillo League, go to
https://www.lwv.org/local-leagues/lwv-amarillo .
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