League of Women Voters Huntington NY

Empowering Voters. Defending Democracy

Key Issues

Call to Action from LWV Huntington and NY State

LWV of Huntington strongly encourages all our members to get involved. We must all do what we can to Defend our Democracy.  Democracy dies in Darkness. 

Light for Our Democracy & April 5 Hands Off Mobilization

  • Leagues and over 24 partners mobilized 79 events nationwide.
  • LWV is joining national organizers for “Hands Off” events, a national day of action currently with over 200 events planned. Leagues are welcome to join or create events using this sign-up link.
  • A Community Field Call will take place on Thursday, March 27 at 5:30pm ET. This call is an excellent opportunity for local and state Leagues to learn more and coordinate on upcoming LWV activities and actions. Register for next week’s call here.

Congressional Recess Actions

Congressional Action

Upcoming Elections + VOTE411

  • Clearly there’s A LOT of important things happening right now, AND it’s still an election year; there’s really no “off-year” for elections.
  • Many of our communities’ most pressing issues hang in the balance, and Leagues have a chance to make some of their greatest impact in these local and special elections.
  • We have over 2,000 races on VOTE411 right now.
  • Election Prep Toolkit: https://www.lwv.org/league-management/voter-services/election-preparation-toolkit

Stop the SAVE Act: Huntington League of Women Voters Calls for Immediate Action to Prevent Disenfranchisement of Millions of Americans

Huntington, NY — The U.S. Congress is fast-tracking passage of the so-called
SAVE Act, a bill that would require all Americans to provide a birth certificate, passport, or one of a few other citizenship documents when they not only register for the first time, but need to register again because they’ve moved, or, as married women often do, have changed their names.

“The potential passage of this bill calls for emergency action to stop this effort to disenfranchise millions of American voters,” said Deb Cosher, a leader of the Huntington League of Women Voters. More than 21 million American citizens don’t have the documents named in the proposal readily available, according to survey data.

The bill, H.R. 22, euphemistically called the “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act,” was moved to committee with a vote of 81-0 by House Republicans. A full vote in the House is expected on or around Feb. 25. It is already illegal for noncitizens to register and vote in federal or state elections.

Americans do not need MORE obstacles to vote.

Calling this an emergency because of that time frame, the Huntington League urges voters to immediately contact their Congressional representatives. “This is a blatant attempt to prevent and suppress voting, particularly people of color and young people, groups of individuals who are less likely than the average American to have the necessary documents,” according to the Brennen Center for Justice. Compared to white U.S. citizens, citizens of color are three times more likely to lack documents such as birth certificates, passports, naturalization certificates, etc., or face difficulties accessing them. For example, while approximately half of all American adults possess a passport, two-thirds of Black Americans do not.

What’s more, the bill would obliterate or upend longstanding and popular methods of voter registration for all voters, including registration by mail, voter registration drives, online voter registration, and automatic voter registration. The bill would functionally eliminate mail registration by requiring voters registering by mail to produce citizenship documents “in person” to an election official before the registration deadline.

Registering voters has been essential to the League of Women Voters since our founding 105 years ago. “We won’t stand by and let this attack on democracy go unanswered,” concluded Cosher.