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VALPARAISO — The four candidates vying for two at-large City Council seats discussed everything from affordable housing to the merits of an elected school board during a Thursday night debate.

Sponsored by the Porter County League of Women Voters and the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce, the debate featured Democratic candidates Ellen Kapitan and Emilie Hunt and Republican candidates Matt Murphy and Michelle Harris.

Look what Taylor Swift got the Swifties to do! The superstar, 33, is confirmed to have gotten over 35,000 first-time voters registered to vote from the Instagram post she made on Tuesday for National Voter Registration Day.

The CEO of Vote.org Andrea Hailey shared on X the numbers that resulted from the link in the pop star's statement encouraging her fans to use their voices and vote. In addition to signing up over 35,000 registrations, 50,000 people also confirmed that they were registered. Read the full story here: https://people.com/taylor-swift-encourages-35000-fans-voter-registration-7973809

On August 26, 1920, the U.S. Secretary of State received the official notification from the governor of Tennessee that his state had ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify the amendment, and the last one necessary to make the amendment the law of the land once the secretary of state certified it. He did that as soon as he received the notification, making this date the anniversary of the day the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified. See full article at https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-26-2023

Draft federal regulations for toxic coal byproducts could cover nearly 50 exempted dumps spread across 14 locations in Indiana.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s rule — released last week — would extend monitoring, closure, and cleanup provisions to certain landfills, ponds and other sites for the first time. “Coal ash,” the catch-all term for particulate matter produced by burning coal, can contain dangerous carcinogens like arsenic, cadmium and mercury.

“This is a really big deal,” said Lisa Evans, senior counsel for nonprofit environmental litigator Earthjustice, in a news release. The proposal arises out of settlement to a lawsuit involving the organization, several Hoosier plaintiffs and others.

This blog was written by Diz Swift and Mary O'Kicki of the LWV Climate Interest Group; the Food Waste Toolkit was created by the Group's Soil and Agriculture Team.

Over one-third of the food produced in the US is never consumed — it is wasted. Food waste means all resources to grow the food are also wasted — energy, labor, water, and fertilizers. The energy loss alone is enough to power 50 million homes annually.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program protects certain people who immigrated to the United States as children from being deported. Since the program began in 2012, DACA has allowed more than 800,000 people to remain in the US, where they attend school, work, and raise their families as vital members of our communities.

Of the 1,154 bills filed in the 2023 Indiana Legislative Session, 252 passed and were signed by the Governor. More than half of those bills, 143, were amended and went to conference committee for consensus before final votes in both chambers.
The League actively supported some of those bills and just as actively opposed others, testifying before committees and contacting legislators to make our positions known.

The 2020 election saw historic voter turnout. But in a divided democracy, how else can we commit to our civic duties? This hour, Baratunde Thurston joins Manoush with ideas on how to citizen.

VALPARAISO — Valparaiso residents submitted a "record" number of redistricting maps, said attorney Brian Bosma of Kroger Gardis and Regas LLP.

This year, the city allowed public participation in the City Council redistricting process, providing a toolkit to help residents craft their own maps. Five people submitted six maps; however one was later withdrawn. At the same time, City Council President Casey Schmidt, R-3rd, and Council Vice President Diana Reed, D-1st, worked with Kroger Gardis and Regas to create a map, called the "coordinator's map."

Voters living in northern Porter County and northwest LaPorte County won't find Karen Tallian's name on their ballots this year for the first time in nearly two decades.
Instead, the retired senator's endorsed successor, state Sen. Rodney Pol Jr., D-Chesterton, is competing against Republican former Porter County Councilman Jeff Larson, of Chesterton, for the opportunity to represent Indiana Senate District 4 — which gave up Wheeler and took in all of Michigan City last year as part of the state's once-a-decade redrawing of legislative boundaries.

In recent years, some Indiana colleges and universities say they’ve seen an upward trend in student voting, and many students and faculty members hope to see that increased participation continue.

Valparaiso residents are encouraged to attend a Thursday public forum on local redistricting--which will explain the population formula and impact on election voting precincts--sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Porter County and Common Cause Indiana.

The Democratic and Libertarian candidates vying to become Indiana's chief elections officer each have a long list of voting reforms they hope to implement if elected secretary of state Nov. 8.

Destiny Wells, the Democratic nominee, and Jeff Maurer, the Libertarian, agreed that maintaining and improving election security must be a top priority for whoever succeeds Republican Secretary of State Holli Sullivan next year.

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VALPARAISO — The Porter County Elections & Registration Office is looking for workers to staff early voting sites, which open April 5.
“If you have any friends, relatives, strangers on the street that you know,” County Clerk Jessica Bailey said, let them know the county is hiring. Pay for poll workers at early voting sites ranges from $13 to $15 an hour, depending on experience.
In addition, another staff member is needed to work inside the office.
Read the full story at https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/porter-county-needs-early-vote-staffing/article_c75418bb-41e8-555a-a1a5-3bde81f24fd7.html

PORTAGE — Porter Town Council President Erik Wagner was named to the Porter County Council on Saturday, replacing the late Robert Poparad. Read the full article at https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/town-councilman-shifts-to-porter-county-council/article_b7cce03d-3101-56ac-821c-d172ca31a7fc.html

Longtime Porter County Council member Robert “Bob” Poparad, 64, died early Friday after a long battle with lung cancer.
Poparad, D-1st, was first elected to the County Council in 2002, following his service on the Burns Harbor Town Council. While on the Town Council, Poparad helped guide the town through the devastating blow from Bethlehem Steel’s bankruptcy in 2001. The steelmaker was the lion’s share of the town’s tax base.

See full story at https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/porter-county-councilman-robert-poparad-dies-at-age-64/article_35bc07c4-1ed3-57b1-89a0-4d8585816182.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

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VALPARAISO — Every election, voters show up at the wrong polling place. That would be a thing of the past if Porter County shifts to using vote centers.
The 10-year average for voter turnout is just 33%, said Becky Rauch, assistant director of the county Elections and Registration Office.
The two primary aims of vote centers are voter convenience and increasing voter turnout. State law requires a unanimous vote by the bipartisan Election Board for vote center locations.
Already, 55 of Indiana’s 92 counties use vote centers, which allow voters to cast a ballot at any polling place in the county, Porter County Clerk Jessica Bailey said at the first public hearing on switching to vote centers.
“During the 28 days of early voting, you can vote anywhere,” she said. “Why not on election day?”
See the full story at https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/voter-centers-convenience-could-boost-porter-county-election-turnout/article_b7192ec8-bf6f-5cfe-bb51-d7f337fea2fb.html

"I've never been more scared about American democracy than I am right now, because of the metastasizing of the 'big lie,'" says election law expert Rick Hasen, co-director of the Fair Elections and Free Speech Center at the University of California, Irvine.
"This is not the kind of thing I expected to ever worry about in the United States," Hasen says. "I kind of feel like a climate scientist from five years ago, or [an] expert on viruses a couple of years ago, sounding the alarm and just hoping that we're not too late already."
Read or listen to the full story at https://www.npr.org/2021/12/23/1065277246/trump-big-lie-jan-6-election

VALPARAISO — Porter County is taking the first step toward implementing vote centers beginning with the 2022 midterm election.

Vote centers allow voters to cast a ballot anywhere in the county instead of the one polling place that serves their precinct. “You can stop by anyone closer to your grocery store or your office,” County Clerk Jessica Bailey said.

Being able to vote anywhere in the county would be a benefit if a polling place isn’t able to open on time.

See the full story at https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/porter-county-may-shift-to-vote-centers/article_c41fb87a-ba6b-5ca6-a1e0-8bdd6d0cb440.html

MICHIGAN CITY — Naomi Anderson was a nationally renowned suffragette in her day, but she was forgotten in her hometown until recently. A group of activists is planning to make sure she isn’t forgotten again. Plans for a statue in her honor were unveiled Saturday at the LaPorte County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The League of Women Voters of Indiana expresses our dismay at the recent display of disrespect on the floor of the Indiana Statehouse. Members of the Indiana House of Representatives booing their dissent while Black members spoke of their experience with discrimination is beneath the office of an elected official and an offense to the voters who elected that legislator.

"Senator William H. Seward’s enemies in Congress called him a villain and a traitor, but they rarely missed his parties. Invitations to his soirées—which took place several times a week in the eighteen-fifties, during Washington’s winter social season—were more coveted than those to the White House. " Please see the attached article from the January 2021 issue of the New Yorker.

WASHINGTON – Today the League of Women Voters of the United States president Dr. Deborah Turner, CEO Virginia Kase, and the full board of directors issued the following statement in response to the violent demonstrations at the U.S. Capitol:

“This is a dark day in the history of the United States of America. Today’s activity on Capitol Hill should have been a procedural exercise to finalize the 2020 election. Instead, our nation's Capitol was attacked by domestic terrorists seeking to invalidate the will of the people.

1/4/2021
WASHINGTON – Today the League of Women Voters of the United States CEO Virginia Kase issued the following statement ahead of this week’s joint session of Congress to count and certify the Electoral College votes:

“This week, Congress will count the Electoral College votes as required by the Constitution and affirm Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States. Any objection to this process is simply political theater which directly mocks and defies our Constitution. Still, these actions will not change the legally proven result of the 2020 election.

“In November, the American people turned out in record numbers to elect the next president of the United States, and the Electoral College confirmed the people's will last month..."