Empowering Voters. Defending Democracy.

LEADERSHIP NOTES

Nearing the Finish Line for the November 2026 Election

So much has been accomplished!
In September and October LWVVC members have registered voters, put on Pros and Cons events, 
and hosted Candidate Forms. 
Many thanks to all those who participated. As a local League, we can congratulate ourselves for doing a great job!

What’s still left to do (two things)

Members have volunteered to take goody baskets to all 52 Vote Centers in Ventura County and are busy delivering treats to our intrepid election workers during this weekend before the election.

MAJOR: A last minute need for a few more Observers at Vote Centers on Election Day: We have most Vote Centers covered—can you help us meet the challenge of having one LWVVC member present for 45 minutes to an hour at EVERY Vote Center in Ventura County? For more information, please contact Betti Mentzer as soon as possible.

After Election Day We encourage our members to enjoy a well-deserved rest, and to spend some time reflecting on all we’ve accomplished together and considering what challenges we will face in the coming year.

Looking forward to 2027 Let’s keep the momentum going! Our Winter Quarterly Meeting (in late January or early February) will focus on Program Planning for 
(1) LWV California and (2) our own LWV of Ventura County.

State League Program Planning is the first step in the process that ends with the LWVC Convention in June 2027, where our plans and goals for the next two years are chosen. At the same time, LWVVC members will work together to decide what our own local plans and goals will be.

Thank you for being an active member of LWVVC!!

Your membership, your participation in local league activities, and your enthusiasm for making a difference in our community is what makes LWVVC such a vital organization. We are proud to be members working alongside you to promote our common goals.

Yours in League,

Cheryl Collart and Barbara Doyle, Co-Presidents

P.S. We want to give a shout-out to our local election officials, who will not comply with a U.S. Department of Justice request for records on 300-plus names that the federal government alleges are noncitizens registered to vote, while providing no evidence that any individual on the list is not a citizen. See the full story in VC Star

FORUMS >>> Click HERE for recordings of FORUMs and PROs & CONs <<<

Tue, Nov 3, 7am - 8pm - ELECTION DAY

Wed, Nov 4, 5:30 pm - League Happy Hour at Aloha Steakhouse,

364 S. California Street, Ventura, CA 93001 - RSVP to Matty Park. 

Sun, Nov 8, 4:00 pm - Housing and Homelessness Meeting on Zoom

Thu, Nov 12, 11:00 am - LWVVC Board Meeting at The Colleges of Law, Ventura

Wed, Nov 18, 5:30 pm - League Happy Hour on Zoom, RSVP to Kay Armstrong 

Thu, Nov 19, 3:00 pm - Climate Change Committee

Thu, Nov 19, 4:00 pm on Zoom - Social Justice and DEI Meeting

See the latest press releases from the US League

FROM LWV California

IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T VOTED YET, WE ARE REPEATING THIS INFORMATION FROM LAST MONTH

Are you looking for guidance on state Ballot Measures? Check out the League of Women Voters of California's resources for analysis and recommendations HERE and see the graphic below for a quick reference. 

LWVC actively campaigns for initiatives that strengthen our democracy and mobilizes to defeat measures that create barriers to the ballot. Read more about our positions here:

There's a lot happening in California - read all about it on the LWVC website.

FROM LWV Ventura County

On the Final Stretch to Election Day

It's been quite a month heading into the General Election - educating ourselves on the issues, conducting candidate forums and PROs & CONs presentations, voter registration, voter education, supporting election workers, meeting with our colleagues and friends - and now it's time to VOTE! - although with this crowd, no doubt many of us have already voted.

In addition to forums and Pro's and Con's presentations, we had our Fall General Meeting, registered young voters in school, tabled at No Kings Day, attended 'Rock the Vote' at Ventura College, began delivering goody baskets to all 52 vote centers to show our appreciation to the workers. (We'll take pizza to the Election Division workers at the Government Center after the election.) Now we're closing in on the finish line. Above are just a few pictures from this month's activities.

FYI - Important Election Dates:

10/20-11/03   Conditional Voter Registration Period

10/24-11/03   In-Person Voting at Vote Centers

11/03/2026   STATEWIDE GENERAL ELECTION

11/10/2026   Last day to receive Election Day postmarked VBM ballots

Are you registered? Verify HERE

Need to register? Register HERE

See the League's Easy Voter Guide

***LWVVC's Sustaining Members***

Become a Sustaining Member of the League of Women Voters by donating any amount each month.  You can set up a recurring payment through your bank’s bill-pay services, or use the “Donate” button on our website (this requires that you have a PayPal account). Contributions of any amount are gratefully accepted, although there are perks for donating at least $50/mo.

By default your contributions go into the "General Fund”, but you may direct your contributions to the "Scholarship Fund" or the "Voter Registration Fund" by notifying our treasurer of your choice.  

Thanks to Melanie Ashen and Joanne Abling who became Sustaining Members this month.  We are pleased to also thank all our existing Sustaining Members: Laura Hernandez, Kathy Morgan, Wayne Morgan, Matty Park, Pat Butler, and Jim Moynihan

Learn more HERE. Questions? Contact Pat Butler, Treasurer

Get informed & Get involved

Contact Kathy Morgan or Pat Essick

Get informed: Check out the Voter Information Page on our website.

Voters Services has had a busy two months. We are so grateful for the many volunteers who stepped up to make the Candidate Forums and Pros and Cons presentations possible.

We successfully hosted 18 different Candidate Forums on 10 different dates around the County. We were joined as co-hosts by some other community organizations, including the Moorpark Chamber of Commerce, the Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce, the Ventura County Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., AAUW Thousand Oaks, and AAUW Camarillo, and we thank them for their collaboration. 

All the forums were recorded and are available on our website.

We especially thank our moderator, David Maron, who was instrumental in the planning and execution of all 18 forums, and has been moderating our forums for 25 years! We couldn’t do it without him and are so grateful for him!

We also held 9 Pros and Cons presentations about the 14 CA ballot measures. 
A big thank-you to all the volunteers who assisted with this effort. We recognize the huge time commitment involved in studying the propositions and doing the presentations. Attendees thanked us and told us how grateful they were for the information. Special thanks to AAUW Camarillo and AAUW Thousand Oaks for organizing two of the presentations. 

Thank you to the League of Women Voters of San Diego for allowing us to post the recording of their Pros and Cons presentation on our website. It's a valuable resource for members and the public who couldn't attend one of our presentations and want to learn more about the ballot measures.

Questions? Reach out to Pat Essick or Kathy Morgan

Pat Essick and Kathy Morgan

Co-Chairs, Voter Services

Reaching the Next Generation of Voters

Voter Registration Report for November 2026

This fall, our voter registration volunteers visited schools across the county. Here are the numbers:

A sampling of student feedback comments:

• "they made learning about voting fun.”
• “eye opening - maybe I should vote.”
• "I didn't think I was going to vote, but this presentation changed my mind and made me realize how important it is.”
• “I liked women speaking to the class and educating the class on things the school doesn’t.”
• “great support on how to register, the process of voting and how we can become better informed so we know how to vote.”
• "You're all so energetic and fun, I love how welcoming and how you don't judge if we don't know."
• "They were unbiased and also very sweet."

And from the teachers:

• “I liked the new video, the LWV always does a great presentation for my students.”
• “Presenters were enthusiastic, welcomed questions. Love to have you back next year!”

Thank you to all the dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers - we could never do this without you all. 

Special thanks to our voter registration coordinators:     

Mary Bergen - Ojai 

Pat Belt - Ventura 

Sylvia Cohen - Conejo Valley

Pam Cwiklo and Cathy Trevino - Oxnard, Fillmore, Santa Paula

Marla Donley - Moorpark, Oak Park

Kathy Morgan - Voter Services Co-Chair

Betsy Patterson and Pam Cwiklo - Voter Registration Co-Chairs

Doris Simmelink - Materials Coordinator

Rick Wells - Simi Valley

We will take a holiday from voter registration and start back up again in February-May. Please contact us at lwvv.info@gmail.com if you are interested in being trained, helping in the classroom, or helping with student-led voter registration drives in the Spring.

Betsy Patterson & Pam Cwiklo

Co-Chairs, LWVVC Voter Registration Committee

Community Outreach Committee (Tabling)

Community Outreach volunteers hit a home run during the month of October!

We clocked 60 volunteer hours and were very busy

• Ventura College held two separate events, and we were there.
• Oct 5th “Rock the Vote”
• Oct 14th “Engage, Educate, Motivate, and Activate”
• No Kings Day (Oct 17th) found us at three events 
  from 10:30 am - 6:00 pm from Ventura to Thousand Oaks, 
  and we were there.
• Ventura Church of the Foothills “Peace Fair”
• Rally at the Ventura County Government Center

Thank you to all the volunteers who represented the League of Women Voters of Ventura County at so many events. We are educating the electorate one event at a time.

Bravo! Thanks for your help and support.

Please reach out to Cathy Trevino with any questions or to sign up:

LWVVC.info@gmail.com or (805) 757-3677 by text message.

We are still working to build support for a direct popular vote system. For more information, including watching the presentation, see our website

If you want to participate, or would like us to give a presentation at your organization, please contact Pat Butler

The LWVVC Observer Corps observes county and city meetings of governing boards and councils. When we observe, we wear our league shirts and observer buttons. Join us as we let elected officials know we're keeping an eye on our local government.

Please reach out to Betti Mentzer if you are interested in becoming a part of the Observer Corps. You can participate as your time permits, and you will be providing a great service to other League members.

Dates for upcoming County Board of Supervisors meetings: November 17th

Contact: Kay Armstrong

We are now raising funds for next year's scholarships

Our goal is to provide three $2500 scholarships to deserving students with financial need and a demonstrated interest in political science - one at each of our three local community colleges: Moorpark, Oxnard, and Ventura. Contact Kay if you have any questions.

These scholarships are funded by the generosity of our members and supporters.

If you would like to help, all donations - of any size - are very much appreciated!!

Housing & Homelessness Committee: Join Our Mission!

We did not have a meeting in October, but will be back on November 8th.

If you would like to join the committee meeting, or receive this information, contact Kay Wilson-Bolton

For more information see our Committee Page

In our last meeting we discussed some of the climate related bills that were signed into law by Governor Newsom. Here are some highlights:

• AB2313 "Gas corporations: gas distribution service line replacements: alternatives", also known as The Home Energy Choice Act, would give gas customers the option, instead of replacing their gas line, to get a monetary incentive for alternatives, primarily electrical alternatives. 

• AB1738 "State Housing Law: remote inspections" would require cities and counties to give homeowners or contractors the option to have permit inspections done remotely. This should speed up the inspection process.

• AB1684 "Common interest developments: cooling systems." This bill prohibits HOAs from denying the installation of cooling systems.

• SB868 "Electricity: portable solar generation devices", also known as balcony solar, will allow homeowners and renters a quick way to add up to 1.2kW of solar without permits or other fees. 

This coming winter will be challenging for much of the Nation as El Niño is set to become one, if not the most, impactful El Niño to date. The ocean water temperature is the highest since recording started in 1950. Be prepared for lots of water.

For the latest on what the League is doing about climate change, see our committee page on the LWV Ventura County website. It contains the slide deck from our most recent meeting, which contains links to all kinds of interesting and important climate information.

See our recommended reading (and video) list.

We meet by Zoom at 3pm on the fourth Thursday of the month, unless it is a holiday, then we meet on the third Thursday. Next meeting will be November 19th.

For more information and to join, please send an email to Wayne Morgan.

Meetings 3rd Thursday of the month, 4:00pm on Zoom

Contacts:

Kay Armstrong (Social Justice) or

Laura Hernandez (DEI)

We did not have a meeting in October, but will be back on November 19th - a week early due to the Thanksgiving holiday. You can always contact us with any questions or comments by clicking on our names above.

Thank you,

Laura and Kay

For Questions about Membership or Local Action Units

Contact: Doris Simmelink

Welcome to our newest members:

• Camarillo – Patricia Thomas, William Thomas
• Newbury Park – Margaret Tillman
• Ojai – Lucy Ford, Joyce McCarthy, Douglas Schmalenberger
• Ventura – Beverly Benton, Fran Hickman, Eileen Perry, Lori Redding, Dana Worsnop
• Westlake Village – Susan Hodgson

Please remember to use our Membership Portal to join or review your League membership. Questions? Contact our Membership Committee.

RENEWING MEMBERS: Many thanks and gratitude to our members who have renewed their membership, and to those who have made an additional contribution toward the operating expenses of the LWVVC and towards the scholarship fund. Your support is vital to our continued success.

UPDATES

247 MEMBERS TOTAL

LOCAL ACTION UNITS NEWS

These smaller groups are a way to form friendships and plan ways to get involved. From social get-togethers to tackling local issues, this is a chance to bring the league to your immediate community and be more active.

During this past month many of us have volunteered for league sponsored activities in our local communities with candidate forums, pros and cons presentations and voter registration. There are still a few days left before the election to sign up as an observer at your local vote centers.

November will be our time to regroup and bring ideas and suggestions to our meetings. The next election is two years away, but if we start organizing early to bridge national and local issues, we can continue to offer opportunities for our friends and neighbors to share their concerns and get involved during this critical time. Invite someone new to your group. They don’t have to be a member but might be inspired to join.

We will also continue to develop our VC-Clubhouse intranet site so the Units can share what we are all working on in one place. 2027 is the second year since we launched the Local Action Unit program, and through this site we can provide central, easy access to information about League activities and projects without the need to search through emails.

If you have basic technical skills and can help manage the site’s content, please let us know. To access the site you must use a functioning Google account that has been shared with us. If your Unit is interested in participating, please contact Doris Simmelink

If you would like to start a group in your area, or if you have any questions, please reach out. We have ideas, suggestions and materials to get you started.  

Doris Simmelink



• Camarillo - Contact Catherine (aka Kitty) for information.

• Ojai - Please RSVP to the email or contact Pat Essick or Judy Murphy for details.

• Thousand Oaks - For the next Cool Girls Dinner, contact Joan Palmieri or Elizabeth Zernik for details.

• Ventura - We’ll re-group after the election, and if you want to share agenda ideas (we have a few in the works) contact Doris Simmelink
  
  We may set up a new schedule, so look for email updates. 

• Oxnard - Contact Kay Armstrong for more information.

• Moorpark/Simi Valley has met twice this month! Look for emails from an enthusiastic group of members.

If you would like to be added to the mailing list for reminders and meeting agendas, contact Doris Simmelink



November 18th @ 5:30pm (3rd Wednesday), ON ZOOM

RSVP to Kay Armstrong.

Happy hour events are not just for new members – everyone is welcome, including guests. Join us for an informal conversation about all things LWVVC. Interested in becoming more involved in our mission of "Empowering Voters, Defending Democracy"? Then come, learn about what we're doing, and how you can help.

You don't have to be a League member to join us for happy hour. Come for five minutes, the whole hour or anywhere in between. We hope to see you there! You are welcome to attend either or both Happy Hours. Please register with the host in advance. 

If you would like to start an in-person Meet the Members in your area

please contact us



Participate in LWVUS and LWVC. Sign up for Updates and League Groups -

Open to all League Members

Join by signing in at: Join an Online Discussion Group and work with other leagues, LWV California staff and LWV US staff.

For all relevant news about the County of Ventura: https://www.ventura.org/

• View Board of Supervisor agendas, documents, broadcasts, and videos.

• Connect with County services.  

• For Elections: Vote.VenturaCounty.gov

Why Join or Renew? Your membership supports our critical work in:

1. Voter education and registration
2. Advocacy for important local and state issues
3. Promoting civic engagement in Ventura County

How to Join/Renew? Visit the LWVVC website by clicking the button below and select the Join/Renew link to access the Membership Portal.

Once you are a member you can renew at any time, but the Portal will automatically remind you by email when it's time to renew and send you a renewal link. Or you can set up your account for auto-renewal - in that case the Portal sends an email notifying you that your auto-renewal will happen soon so you can make any changes if needed.

Questions? Contact our membership team for assistance.

Donate 

Would you like to become a donate-every-month "Sustaining Member"?

Check out the details here: Sustaining Member Program

Tax deductible donations may be made to:

•      General Fund

•      Scholarship Fund

•      Ann Gist Scholarship Fund  

•      Ann Gist Voter Education Fund

 OR make your check payable to LWVVC and send it to

P.O. Box 6786, Ventura, CA 93006

If you wish to donate in remembrance of someone, please include their name and a few lines about their life. Please specify the fund you want to support.

Thank you  

Raise Awareness of the League

NOW AVAILABLE!! Hats with LWV logo - $25 donation

For shirts or hats, please contact: Karen Savitt

Email: lwvvc.info@gmail.com

Mailing Address: LWVVC, P.O. Box 6786, Ventura, CA 93006 

Phone Number: (805) 303-1476 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LWVVenturaCounty  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LWVVenturaCo/

The League of Women Voters of Ventura County is a 501(c)3 organization.

All contributions are tax deductible.  

The League of Women Voters, a grassroots non-partisan political organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.

The League of Women Voters does not support or oppose candidates or political parties.