LWV-Wake Update 11/25/2024 | Welcome back to your exclusive, bi-monthly newsletter of the League of Women Voters of Wake County. If someone forwarded this to you and you'd like to become a member, just click here.
| | Dear ~~first_name~~,
HAPPY THANKSGIVING – May you all have a joyous day, and may your holiday be filled with peace. We are blessed and lucky to enjoy life and thankful for all that we cherish during the Thanksgiving holiday.
This holiday season please remember Giving Tuesday for the League of Women Voters of Wake County. Giving Tuesday is a Global Generosity Movement that takes place Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It was started by the Giving Tuesday nonprofit organization in 2012. The day is dedicated to charitable giving and is celebrated worldwide in 85 countries. This year Giving Tuesday is on Tuesday December 3, 2024.
LWV-Wake’s Giving Tuesday Donation Campaign has started and every donation received between now and and the end of the year will be credited to Giving Tuesday.
We are going to have a little fun with this donation campaign! Each person who contributes to Giving Tuesday will receive (wait for it) HELEN’S SCRUMPTIOUS CHEESECAKE RECIPE. It goes great with pumpkin pie and/or cherry pie for your Thanksgiving Day dessert. However, there’s a little story behind this recipe...
Helen Plant (Zimmerman) and Joel Zimmerman graduated from the Northwestern University Undergraduate Program Saturday, June 17, 1967. They were married the next day, Sunday, June 18, 1967, at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. After a brief honeymoon in the Poconos, they lived for two months at the Evanston Inn - basically entertaining their friends each weekend – then they went off on their first adventure. The young couple went to West Lafayette, IN, so Joel could get his master’s degree at Purdue University.
When one of their favorite couples, Lexie and Alan Brown, came over and brought dessert, it was CHEESECAKE PIE!!! This was a different cheesecake – creamier than New York style cheesecake – and topped with sour cream. (Very yummy) When Helen asked, “May I have the recipe?” Lexie said, “Sure,” and it all began. When Mom and Dad Zimmerman came to West Lafayette for Thanksgiving, the turkey was a disaster (that’s another story), but the cheesecake was glorious.
For the next 57 years, Helen has made this cheesecake for every birthday, every Thanksgiving, every Christmas, and every Hanukkah. Counting parents, kids, grandkids, friends, North Carolina beach vacations, California vacations and Washington state vacations, Helen must have made more than 350 cheesecakes! Now is your chance to get “HELEN'S SCRUMPTIOUS CHEESECAKE RECIPE.” Each contributor to the Giving Tuesday campaign for the League of Women Voters of Wake County will receive this fantastic recipe.
Remember the real secrets – beat after adding each egg – and a double-sized recipe usually takes a full 40 minutes to cook.
Bon Appetit!
Helen
| | Election 2024 - Our Social Media Impact
By: Breanna Benz-Santos, LWV-Wake Communications Director
Did you see our social media posts during the election, encouraging and inspiring voters of all backgrounds, giving essential voting rights information, as well as educating on upcoming rules, regulations and facets of ballots, with calls to utilize www.vote411.org? Chances are you saw more than one!
We created more social media posts than ever before (277.1% more than usual on Facebook alone). In fact, we surpassed our competition by a long shot, putting out out 61 more pieces of content than our competition, on average, over just one month.
We had a whopping 9.9k views on Facebook with 3.3k people viewing. However, with less than two thousand followers, we reached well beyond our membership, to influence groups who may never have come in contact with a pro-democracy organization like ours.
Similarly, we saw 10.2K views of LWV-Wake Instagram posts during the election, with almost 3,000 people reached, all with an Instagram following of just 827 people. This is important because it allows the LWV-Wake's page to be "suggested" to more viewers.
The true stars of the show were TikTok and YouTube "shorts," though TikTok and YouTube have smaller followings. However, with the virality of a few of our posts popping up into viewers' feeds across the area, we saw 25,665 video views. Our most popular video, being viewed more than 7,200 times, was one of our more serious videos that contained facts about vote counting and the reporting process (canvass) in North Carolina.
Some of our most popular posts were fun memes with trending hip-hop music, which may show that we did affect the youth vote, enticing them to pay attention, to follow, to get their voice heard, and maybe even join the League.
So much of this social media outreach was made possible by donations throughout the year, including Women's Equality Day and Giving Tuesday 2023. These donations supported the the work necessary to research, design, schedule, test, and monitor our social media feeds and reach, which impact so many folks across the area.
We MUST keep that momentum going, during Giving Tuesday 2024, and heading into 2025. Make a decision now, and join us during Giving Tuesday (which actually extends through the end of the year) to help us continue to bend the ears of our members, potential members and the entire Wake County and North Carolina community alike, all in the name of Empowering Voters and Protecting Democracy.
As a reminder, as a 501(c)3 organization, all donations are tax-deductible. You can donate by clicking the link below or by mailing your check donation to:
League of Women Voters of Wake County
3509 Haworth #306
Raleigh, NC 27609
| League 101: Introduction to LWV-Wake
LWV-Wake membership committee will again host League 101: Introduction to LWV-Wake, for our new members at our League office.
Our last meeting for the year is Wednesday, December 4, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Join us and learn about the League structure, our history, and how you can get the most from your membership. This is a great opportunity for new and new-ish members to learn more about the League, make new friends and explore opportunities to get involved.
Click on the link below to register.
| | LWVNC Presents "Citizen Initiative"
Join the Citizen Initiative Study Team on Zoom Wednesday, Dec. 11, 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. to learn about the Citizen Initiative (CI) process. This is the second of the two-part series and features guest speaker, Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins, a two-term LWVUS President and the first woman of color to hold the position.
She is an internationally respected educator, author and speaker on voting rights, women's rights, and racial equity. Carolyn, who currently lives in NC and is a member of League of Women Voters of DC, will share the importance and practical use of CI from her earlier work with the Colorado LWV. This presentation series is being organized by the LWVNC Study Team on Citizen Initiative.
Click to Register
Click here to learn more about Citizen Initiative, including:
- Video: Study Team’s Nov. 2024 talk by Justin Phillips, a Columbia University professor and expert on CI, who made an important point: CI enhances the relationship between what government does and what citizens want
- Video: May 2024 talk on CI by Asher Hildebrand, a professor at the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy, who discusses the Pros & Cons of CI
- Document: LWVNC Citizen Initiative Study Team Proposal
| LWV-WAKE LEGISLATIVE UPDATE | | Bill SB 382 Review and Summary
On November 19, 2024, the North Carolina Legislature signed SB 382 - Disaster Recovery Act of 2024 and sent it to Governor Roy Cooper to sign. This bill is ostensibly about Hurricane Helene recovery, recommending over $277 million in Helene disaster relief, although Governor Roy Cooper recommended $9.3 billion to be allocated to relief efforts. Current damage estimates total about $53 billion.
Unfortunately, much of SB 382 isn't really about Helene disaster relief at all. In fact, this bill:
- Restructures the "State Board of Elections from an independent agency under the Governor to a board operating under the Department of the State Auditor." The State Auditor would be responsible for the appointments to the State Board and the chair of each county board of elections.
- Transfers the appeal decisions of the State Superintendent of Schools to the Charter Schools Reviews Board.
- Transfers the oversight of the Center for Safer Schools from the North Carolina State Department of Instruction to the State Bureau of Investigation.
- Declares that the Attorney General not have any position on behalf of the state inconsistent with the position of the General Assembly.
In addition, SB 382 contains last minute changes to voting requirements:
- Because the State Auditor will appoint Boards of Elections, the State Auditor will appoint the fifth, deciding position rather than the Governor.
- Voters will have one week less to request an absentee ballot.
- Voters will have only three days to cure (fix) any issues with voter registration, absentee ballots and photo ID issues. Voters currently have until 5:00 p.m. the day before Canvass (10 days for general elections).
The governor is likely to veto the bill, but the NC General Assembly currently has veto override power. There will likely be lawsuits if the bill goes into effect.
However, there are three House members from the Helene disaster area who voted against this bill: Karl E. Gillespie (R) Mike Clampitt (R), and Mark Pless (R). If they can be persuaded to vote against the veto override, it is possible that the law will not pass. We encourage members to call or email these three members and ask them to sustain their vote against passage of this bill.
| | November Timely Topics Highlights
We had 52 attendees at our November Timely Topics on Extremism and its Effects to Democracy. This was a great turnout! Speakers discussed different types of hate groups and their messaging. The takeaway from this lecture was that, while we may be tired, we MUST not remain silent.
Speakers encouraged attendees to attend public meetings, especially board of education and county board of election meetings, to both support our elected officials and to express disapproval of public comments made from groups that spread conspiracy theories and false and misleading narratives.
Thank you to all of our attendees that attended and supported this important League program.
| | VOTE411 Sets New Usage Record
Google Analytics results for the 2024 general election were released last week and Wake County results were extremely impressive: a record 58,134 voters accessed Vote411! Of these voters, 53,319 were using Vote411 for the first time.
By comparison, in 2020 we had 20,000 Wake County voters who accessed Vote411.
This is a testament to the work of the volunteers from our Voter Services AND Communications teams! From those who promoted VOTE411 at voter outreach events, community presentations and through social media in the months leading up to the election, to those who lead our VOTE411 team and called candidates and installed VOTE411 signs at polling places, THANK YOU for your time and efforts to LWV-Wake!
| | |
A Request From the Affordable Housing Committee
Our neighbors in Western NC are still grappling with the vast devastation caused by Hurricane Helene. Habitat for Humanity of Wake County raised $22,000 to donate to recovery efforts in the area through ReStore roundups and online donations.
To learn more about Habitat for Humanity's efforts to assist those affected by Hurricane Helene, click here.
| Looking for information from a past newsletter? Previous League Updates can now be viewed on our website's home page. Look for the "League Updates" blue tab on the top menu.
Thank you for continuing to support the League of Women Voters of Wake County.
Sincerely,
Helen Zimmerman
President | The League of Women Voters of Wake County is a designated 501(c)3 nonprofit charitable organization by the IRS. Donations and membership dues are fully tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. | |