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Voter Turnout, Safety Center, Agriculture Position and more>>>>>>>
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League of Women Voters of Knoxville and Knox County
Knox Voter
September 2013
Getting it done

Time to grow

Take action!


Our studies

Around the League

You should know


Contact the League
Facebook
Twitter
Website
MARK YOUR CALENDAR!
LWVKKC Candidate Forum

Monday,
Oct.14th

7:00 PM


Cansler Family YMCA
Moderator: WBIR's John Becker
2013–14 Calendar

September 24:  City primary

September 24:  National Voter Registration Day

October 9: Board Meeting

October 12: LWVTN Fall Conference

October 14:  LWVKKC Candidate Forum

November 2: New Member Orientation

November 13: Board Meeting

November 20: Happy Hour
LWVKKC Board of Directors

Officers


President
Kimberly Lauth

First
Vice President
Judy Barnett
e

Second Vice President
Rynn Dupes

Secretary
Vivian Shipe

Treasurer
Stephanie Matheny

Directors

Lisa Carroll
Crista Cuccaro

Jamey Dobbs
Susanne Dalton Dupes
Mary English
Theresa Pepin
Debbie Sharp
Tammy Sommers
Faith Yandell
Join a League Committee Today!

Voter Services
Contact Theresa Pepin

Observer Corps
Contact Crista Cuccaro

Citizens Academy
Contact Rynn Dupes

Naturalization
Contact Lisa Mixon

Land Use and Environment
Contact Mary English

Education
Contact Tammy Sommers

Special Events

Contact Debbie Sharp

Childcare and Preventive Health Studies
Contact Jamey Dobbs


Communications Committee
Contact Susanne Dupes
Quick Links

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A PDF version of the
Knox Voter is
is available for printing
on the newsletter page
of  our website.
A PDF version of the
Knox Voter is
 available for printing
on 
the newsletter page 
of  our website.

President's Message

Greetings All,

The last few months have been busy ones for the Kim LauthLWVKKC.  Committees are active, events being held and lots of great work being done.  We continue to be a voice for democracy and have had several wonderful media opportunities.  Our partnership with the Pellissippi State marketing and advertising classes has begun – and we have had some great meetings with the students.   It was a pleasure to see so many at the Fall Gathering last Thursday, including several new or prospective members.

In October we will have the opportunity to attend the state LWV meeting AND will be hosting our own candidate forum.  I know that we will have great representation at both of these important events.

I continue to be amazed by the level of commitment and knowledge of our membership and board.  I also find myself challenged by the opportunity to represent you all in the way that you and this important work deserve.  Thank you for all the work you do, for extending grace to me while I learn, and for seeing every obstacle as an opportunity to make things better.

In League,

Kim

2013 Fall Gathering

Getting It Done

Yearbook's in the Mail

The 2013-2014 LWVKKC Yearbook should be arriving in your mailbox at any time.  Note that we have established a new email address that allows you to send changes to your contact information if you see something in the Yearbook that needs to change.  The email address, Updates@lwvknoxville.org, goes to the membership database administrator and to the Yearbook editor.


PSTCC Marketing & Graphics Classes Studying LWV

This semester, marketing classes in research and advertising at Pellissippi State, working under the direction of instructor (and League member) Lisa Bogaty, have taken on the League of Women Voters of Knoxville and Knox County as their "client."  The graphic design class with instructor Vida Hashemian is working with the two classes to create materials to support the output of the two classes.

The purpose of this project is to give the students real-world experience that also benefits a local nonprofit organization.  The research class is examining why people join or don't join the League, and why people continue to be members.  The advertising class is developing a campaign to attract attention to the Candidate Forum on October 14th and overall to the League. 


City Election Cycle
Voter Services Committee

September Report 

9/4-19 Early voting for Knoxville city primary election
Tues, 9/24  Knoxville city primary election AND National Voter Registration Day
Voter Guide email goes out to final candidate list Sept 25th with projected deadline Oct 1st
Mon, 10/7 Last day to register to vote in the Knoxville city general election
 
Mon, 10/14  LWVKKC General Election Candidate Forum 7 pm, Cansler Family YMCA
10/16-31  Early voting for Knoxville city general election
Tues, 11/5 City general election
 

Voter Services seeks questions for candidates from our membership to address in the Voter’s Guide and the Candidate Forum; please get those to Anne Mayhew (amayhew@utk.edu) and/or Judy Poulson (jpoulson319@comcast.net) as soon as possible.

Please mark your calendar and plan to attend—and encourage others to attend — the LWVKKC-led General Election Candidate Forum on Monday, October 14, 7 pm at the Cansler Family YMCA. John Becker of WBIR-TV will be the moderator.

Voter Turnout

In our first couple of months on board, we have chosen to emphasize this issue because it is so fundamentally antithetical to a healthy democracy and representative government. Typical voter turnouts for Knoxville City elections are less than 10% and this election cycle promises to be much worse than usual.

What can League members do?

If you live in the City of Knoxville, vote and urge family, friends, and neighbors to register and vote as their patriotic duty, whether or not the choices stir their souls. If you’ve been following the local political media you’ve seen that voter turnout for early voting is exceedingly scant. Politicians and newspaper editors are predictably wringing their hands and calling for changes in the election calendar.
 
(See Doing Better for a broader view, including election law changes, from a metropolitan area that has boosted local turnout in a big way.)
 
Voter Services has begun to address this issue on the LWVKKC listserv and The Voter. We have also interviewed candidates and elected officials to ask how they believe higher levels of voter participation can be achieved. We will continue to research this issue and have identified both people and a process for a relevant and rigorous study at the local level.

Stay tuned!

Time to Grow


Welcome Newest Member

Please help us welcome our newest LWVKKC members:

Be sure to greet Emily at the next LWV event you attend or drop her a quick note of welcome from the link here.


LWVTN Honors Judy Poulson 

Long-time LWVKKC member Judy Poulson is the 2013 recipient of the Martha Ragland Award from LWV Tennessee.   The award is given biennially to a member whose "life and contributions demonstrate multi-dimensional service within their local League, community, and the LWVTN."  

Judy has served the League on local boards, our state board, and on the LWVUS national board. We are proud to have Judy as a member of LWVKKC and wish her heartfelt congratulations on the award!

Take Action!

Safety Center Task Force

News Update: Judy Barnette

Vivian Shipe and I attended the City/County Safety Center Task Force Meeting on September 5th. A Safety Center would provide a compassionate public health response to individuals who suffer from untreated mental illness instead of treating them as criminals and housing them in jail. Closing the state mental hospitals has resulted in reinstitutionalization as offenders and many with untreated mental illness wind up in jail.

The overcrowded Detention Center at Maloneyville is under a court order to reduce the number of its inmates. About 20% of the 2,000 inmates are in need of psychiatric care on any given day.  The Safety Center capacity will be limited to 20-30 at a time. The goal is to reduce jail overcrowding through stabilization and treatment. The alternative is a bigger jail, costing more money than treatment at a Safety Center!

The task force meeting focused on describing the decision-making process to screen for appropriate candidates and to determine how many might have qualified.  The Justice Information Management System (JIMS) will collect data from the field using the proposed diversion process for about six weeks to report back to the task force with current data.

Four steps:

  1. Eligible offense: JIMS will alert if the offense is eligible for diversion (generally, nonviolent, misdemeanor offenses). 
  2. Officer recommendation: The arresting officer will be asked by the Magistrate for a positive or negative recommendation (with reasons) for diversion. (Officers will be trained to recognize symptoms and situations that would be appropriate for referral to the Safety Center.)
  3. Records check for ineligible conditions: The Magistrate will review JIMS to determine if there are negative reasons (probation, bail) the candidate is unsuitable for the Safety Center. The booking staff at the Detention Center runs a check for detainers or warrants that would make the candidate ineligible.
  4. Willing candidate: The booking staff asks the candidate if they would be willing to accept transfer to a Safety Center.

Sheriff "JJ" Jones and Attorney General Randy Nichols are strong advocates for a Safety Center. Once there is current data and a budget, a new RFP will be issued. Helen Ross McNabb, Inc. is a likely service provider. 

Next meeting: Thursday Nov 7, 2013, at 3:00 pm,  6th floor Conference Room, City/County Building.

Our studies (updates)...

Local:  Preventive Healthcare

LWVKKC has formed a new committee around health and is working to develop a policy statement that will allow our members to advocate around various aspects of health and wellness within Knoxville.  Our approach is to define health broadly: physical, mental, spiritual and social health.  We recognize that many entities have a role to play in community health, other than doctors and care providers.  Churches, libraries, nonprofits, law enforcement, business, foundations, and community groups, among others, are involved in health and wellness. 

We are looking at a position that will allow us to advocate on prevention through policy, systems, and environment change: making the healthy choice the easy choice.  It is our hope that by promoting health equity, community members' health will not depend on who they are or where they live, but rather on the choices they make. 


National: Agriculture Position update

We should be reading the background material to prepare ourselves for the consensus meetings that we will need to hold on the national Agriculture position under study.  The study is focused on two specific items: 

  1. Current technology issues in agriculture, including genetically modified organisms (GMOs), herbicides, pesticides, agriculture water pollution, aquifer depletion, antibiotics in livestock, and accurate food labeling; and
  2. Current agriculture finance issues, including consolidation in agriculture industries, crop subsidies and the federal agricultural regulatory process.

From their web page about the study, LWV is making three specific background documents available for us to read to prepare for an informed discussion.  They are available here.  Please read these so that you can be prepared for our Consensus meeting.  We will be setting the date and time for that meeting soon.

Available documents are:

  1. The administration’s perspective on the key agricultural policy issues that need to be addressed in 2013 as reported in Challenges and Opportunities in U.S. Agriculture (Chapter 8 of the Economic Report of the President- 2013). The document can be downloaded in PDF.
  2. The Union of Concerned Scientists policy brief entitled The Healthy Farm: A Vision for U.S. Agriculture
  3. A short article from Scientific America entitled "Will Organic Fail to Feed the World?"

Around the League

FROM LWVTN

FALL CONFERENCE – Still time to register

There is still time to register for the Fall Conference that's being held at the Nashville Club Hotel off Briley Parkway on Saturday, October 12, 2013 from 10 am to 5 pm CDT. The theme, Thinking and Moving on Our Feet for Education, will focus on assessments, charters and vouchers.  Each 90-minute topical workshop will have a panel presentation followed by breakout strategy sessions. The conference registration fee of $30 includes a box lunch. Complete registration information is available at lwvtn.org/Conference.html.


FROM LWVUS

New Election Improvement Agenda

The League has released its new Election Improvement Agenda.  According to the document, the report "draws upon the insights and localized field reports" from nearly 800 state and local volunteer activist teams nationwide: "It provides an action plan for overcoming the fallout from recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and sets in motion the League’s plans to overcome the unprecedented and well-organized state-level voter suppression crusades taking place nationwide." 

You Should Know

Doing Better: Theresa Pepin

You’ve been hearing me say, over and over again, that typical voter turnout in Knoxville City elections is less than 10%. I’ve been saying that so much because citizens locally tell me, in response, that they had no idea turnout was so bad. (And for the upcoming odd-year City election, the turnout rate is likely to be much lower than 10%. The first day of early voting in the primary attracted a mere 41 voters in a total of five polling locations.)

But I am also acutely aware that you all may also be saying, "Theresa, you’re getting me down!" 

Well, I don’t like to do that; in all of the jobs I do every day, I am known as something of a cheerleader (albeit at times irrationally so). Hence, in the next Knox Voter, I’ll try to write in an upbeat way about what we can do in a proactive way, locally and in Tennessee.

But, in the meantime, I thought you all might like to know that significant improvement of voter turnout is possible. See what they are doing in Minneapolis.  Read these highlights and rejoice at what a city and state that take voter service seriously can do!

Minneapolis and Minnesota have steadily accelerated their voting modernization efforts since the 1970s; as a consequence, they inch up nearly every year to astounding levels of voter turnout.

Not only that, but they don’t rest on their laurels. Every election cycle, they rigorously examine how they could do better. Have a look at their full sample review.   

That’s what I call a government doing its job on behalf of its people!

Contact the League

General phone number: 865-408-8GOV

General email: league@lwvknoxville.org

Membership: membership@lwvknoxville.org


Voter Services: voterservices@lwvknoxville.org

Update your contact info:  updates@lwvknoxville.org

Comments or suggestions? Contact our Knox Voter editor at KnoxVoter@lwvknoxville.org.
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