Tuesday, 12/3, 10:00 AM - Bylaws Committee Meeting. For more information email Ruth Harenchar.

Wednesday, 12/11, 4:00 PM - LWVMC Board Meeting. All are welcome! Click here to join the Board Meeting.

Tues, 12/17, 4:00 PM - Education Action Team Meeting. Click Here to Join the Education Action Team Meeting. For more information, email Education Chair, Merrie Lynn Parker.

Wednesday, 12/18, 5:00PM - Voter Services Action Team Meeting - Click here to register for the Voter Services Team Meeting. For more information, email Voter Services Chair Terri Kondos

The Following Action Team Meetings that will Resume in January

• Government and Gun Safety Action Teams Meeting. For more information email info@lwvmanatee.org or email Gun Safety Chair Holly Kennedy.
• Reproductive Rights Action Team Meeting. For more information, email Nancy Hughes.
• Membership Committee Meeting. For more information, email Lyle Landon.
• Natural Resources Actions Team Meeting. For more information email Ruth Harenchar.



Manatee League Registering Students in Manatee High Schools

From November 4, 2024 to January 28, 2025, the Manatee Chamber of Commerce is running a program at area high schools titled "The Big Bank Theory." Eight different Manatee District High Schools are participating: Southeast, Palmetto, Manatee, Lakewood Ranch, Braden River, Team Success, Manatee School for the Arts, Parrish Community. The League of Women Voters will have a table at all 15 dates (for most of the schools, it is a two-day event), registering students, encouraging voting and distributing useful voting information.

The Chamber’s Big Bank Theory program is designed to help build the financial literacy skills of high school students in Manatee County. Students are engaged in a hands-on, real-life financial simulation that introduces them to the realities of being a financially responsible adult. It’s sort of like playing the “Game of Life”. Students visit various stations representing typical expenses young adults need to navigate – like housing, transportation, food, clothing and more. Students will make spending decisions while working to stay within their monthly budget. ONE table is real, ours, where they can register or pre-register to vote and learn where they can get nonpartisan voting information when they do vote for the first time.

Two years ago our League registered 400 students. Since the change in the law that created new rules that has necessitated virtually all 3rd party voter registration organizations go from "voter registration" to "voter registration assistance", it has been a challenge to handily help voters to register and we were either handing paper and a stamped envelope to them or getting them to register on one laptop which frequently had connection problems. This year the Manatee League purchased 5 tablets and a wifi "hot spot". During Big Bank, students now register themselves easily, with the assistance of League members.

As we hope to broaden our program of activities with our county high schools beyond Big Bank, we have invited the students in the Lakewood Ranch High School Civics Club to join us at our table when Big Bank comes to their school this month to further encourage voter registration among their classmates. We are also taking the opportunity of being in the schools to make connections to each high school’s Student Government sponsor/teacher or social studies teachers as future partners in exploring other programs LWVMC can offer to high school teachers and clubs.

Our member volunteers not only find these days at the high schools rewarding, but have fun interacting with the students and other Big Bank Theory volunteers. More volunteers are welcome. If you are a member, willing and able, contact Voter Services Action Team Chair Terri Kondos at terri.kondos@gmail.com.

High School Students and Voting Literacy

On 4 November, at Southeast High School, LWVMC Voter Services Chair Terri Kondos presented a program on Voting Literacy and a summary of the considerations of the Florida constitutional amendments and Manatee County referenda that were on the 2024 ballot. The students that chose to then anonymously voted yes, no, or undecided. The results were posted. If it were up to the students:

• Amendment 1, partisan school board elections, would have failed at 17%
• Amendment 2, right to hunt and fish, would have failed at 56%
• Amendment 3, recreational cannabis, would have passed at 80%
• Amendment 4, limit government interference in abortion, would have passed at 87%
• Amendment 5, homestead exemption adjustment, would have passed at 73%
• Amendment 6, repeal public financing for political campaigns, would have failed at 39%

In the actual election, three of the six Amendments (numbers 2, 3, and 4) fared differently than these future voters would have chosen, demonstrating at a local level how young voters vote differently than older voters. This program sparked student interest, helped them understand the voting process and appreciate the important issues that are decided in elections. Their teachers were able to then discuss with them how their preferences on the Amendments compared to actual Election Day results.

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2024 Post Election Analysis

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The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization working to protect and expand voting rights and ensure everyone is represented in our democracy. We empower voters and defend democracy through advocacy, education, and litigation, at the local, state, and national levels.