Two years have passed since the LWVC met in San Francisco. While it was wonderful to have that in person experience after the years of pandemic isolation, we also recognized that the time and expense of travel for events like that limited who could be with us. After conversations with League leaders all over the state, we concluded that alternating in person and virtual conventions was a good balance for us. 

Over the past two years, we have had a national election with huge consequences for our work nationally — and also at a state and local level. Recognizing that, these are a few of the major accomplishments of the LWV California over these eventful two years.

Advocacy and Policy

The League does not engage in merely reactive advocacy. League advocacy is deeper because it follows bills through the whole legislative process. For every single bill we act on, this involves sending letters to each Legislation Committee that hears the bill, the floors of each House, and to the Governor if the bill gets that far. Sometimes the League negotiates amendments and helps write bill language. We go through a process of re- analysis of a bill if it is substantially amended. In addition to letter writing, the LWVC staff actively lobby in Sacramento. They meet with legislative staff and legislators, testify in hearings, and work with coalition partners and other stakeholders to achieve results.

The LWVC has continued a very robust advocacy and policy cycle over the biennium. 

Highlights of our legislative work in 2023 include:

• sponsoring a bill to prohibit the consideration of incumbent protection, and ensure that the safeguards of the Fair Maps Acts include educational and special districts; 
• ensuring that all in-person voting locations offer curbside voting, allowing voters to cast ballots received in the mail at vote centers, and making it easier for No Party Preference voters to vote partisan ballots in a presidential primary;
• requiring companies that do business in California disclose their annual greenhouse gas emissions, encouraging the installation of solar power infrastructure along California highways, and requiring the Air Resources Board to establish a trading system for embodied carbon;
• continued to work on criminal justice bills, doing a lot of education work with new legislators in hopes of passing the bills in 2024;
• creating affordable housing, including extending a streamlined permitting process, and easing barriers for educational and religious institutions building affordable housing on their property.

2024 was, if anything, an even busier advocacy year for the LWVC. In June, CalMatters published an analysis that identified the League of Women Voters of California as the third most effective advocacy organization in the state, achieving 85% of our desired policy outcomes by that point toward the end of the legislative session.

Highlights of the legislative advocacy in 2024:

• ensuring that the gains made in increasing voter registration at the DMV will continue and be protected;
• moving an important recall reform forward; we expect it to appear on the November 2026 ballot;
• helping pass a bill that makes California a national leader in protecting voters and elections officials against intimidation and violence;
• defending voters from election misinformation through deep fake and deceptive content;
• continuing to improve the policy implementation of previous housing bills;
• more important bills in criminal justice and education.

Beyond legislation, in 2023 the LWVC:

• was an active member of the Secretary of State’s Motor Voter Task Force, monitoring the DMV voter registration process; 
• published two comprehensive reports on redistricting, one evaluating the state process, and the other evaluating the effectiveness of independent redistricting reforms for local governments;
• worked to make voter registration more accessible to people who were formerly incarcerated;
• worked with partner organizations to fight voter suppression in Shasta County.

And in 2024:

• continued our leadership in a Voter Education and Outreach Coalition, working to reduce the participation gap between white and non-white voters
• local League leaders worked together on sheriff oversight and accountability, gathering data and resources to support local League advocacy on sheriff oversight
• on the November 2024 ballot, supported six measures and opposed two, with mixed results. Three of the measures we supported passed; the other three failed, and both of the measures we opposed passed. 

And these are just the highlights of hundreds of bills we acted upon. Peruse our Advocacy Wrap Up Reports for 2023 and 2024 for more details and more bills not listed here.

Voter Engagement

Participation and voter turnout in California’s elections continues to reflect disparities in communities of color and young voters. Ample research and data that shows that elected officials pay attention to who votes and that those voters have outsized influence on policy. Our commitment is to a more just and equitable California, where every eligible voter shows up to vote and the power to influence the future of the state, and local communities, is more equitably shared amongst all of California’s diverse residents. As we develop and implement voter engagement initiatives, some are done exclusively to support the expressed desires of local Leagues and the work they wish to do on the ground. The remainder are focused on our goal of closing the voter turnout participation gap in CA.

November 2024 Elections

As our democracy is under constant attack with structured disinformation campaigns, it is critical that the LWVC Education Fund continues to step up and provide diverse California voters with trustworthy, multi-lingual, plain language information. We also continued to focus on closing the participation gap between older white voters, and voters from communities of color, and younger voters.

We made a major switch for our online voter guide, and joined Vote411, the voter guide sponsored by the LWVUS. The LWVC staff worked to ensure that this changeover went as seamlessly as possible for Leagues throughout California. Our network of volunteers earned a huge shoutout for their work to learn the new system, and offer their assistance to others.

As part of the change to Vote411, the LWVC staff led a major overhaul of our LWVCEF website, cavotes.org. It was restructured and updated to include much more information about voting – information that had been available on Voter’s Edge, but didn’t have a place on Vote411. 

The LWVCEF also produced the Easy Voter Guide (EVG) in 2024 in five languages. The EVG was created to provide unbiased ballot measure information in plain language, and in five different languages. Almost 158,000 print copies were distributed across the state by local Leagues. We were happy to continue our partnership with AltaMed this year, to provide the EVG to medical staff and patients in their healthcare communities across the state.

Finally, we continued with increased support for the Pros/Cons in the 2024 election. The Pros/Cons publication was authored by staff and volunteers, and edited by different volunteers. For the second time, we translated the Pros/Cons publication into Spanish. We have continued to invest increasing staff time and support each election cycle over the past 5 years to support local Leagues with Pros/Cons. 

During 2024, nearly 3,000 League volunteers donated almost 35,000 hours of their time providing voter information to Californians. These volunteer hours were applied at over 2,000 individual activities, including voter registration drives at high schools, colleges, and local community events; hosting “pros and cons” speaking events to educate the public regarding upcoming ballot measures; hosting candidate forums; and conducting get out the vote events, often in partnership with other community organizations, to educate, engage, and turn out voters in the period leading up to an election.

Future of California Elections Network

The LWVC has participated as a member of the Future of California Elections (FoCE) Network for nearly a decade In 2021, due to a lack of funding FoCE sunsetted as a standalone organization. Because the collaboration that happened in the FoCE network was important to the participants, the coalition continues, with organizations sharing the work of convening discussions. 

Internal League Operations

The LWVC and LWVCEF continue to operate with a small, but mighty, staff of seven people. As you can read in this report, we continue to do more and more with the same small staff.

The revenue pressure we faced in the past is only increasing. Grant funding for democracy organizations like the League has always been difficult to attain; current pressures on funders is making that even more difficult.

The LWVC no longer has a central office location, though we do maintain a physical mailing address in Sacramento. All Board meetings were held virtually to keep costs in check even after the world was going back to in person meetings. 

We continue to provide the My League Online (MyLO) website platform for Leagues across the country. MyLO is a League website platform, by League for Leagues, and we work with Leagues all across the country. Key features include access to a media library, syndicated content across national/state/local Leagues, comprehensive training and customer service, and a huge training and support library online to support League webmasters. LWVC CivicTech Manager, Amaris LeBron, is available to League members when they need support for MyLO and holds open Office Hours every Friday for any questions or support needs MyLO customers may have. 

We continue to provide administrative 501(c)3 fiscal sponsorship financial services for almost 30 California local Leagues. We process deposits, hold funds, ensure 501(c)3 compliance in activities, provide consultation on 501(c)3 compliance, receive and manage stock donations, review/approve grant applications, ensure grant compliance, send donor tax documentation for donations of $250 and up, provide financial reports, and provide the structure so that these Leagues do not have to separately file taxes. They are included in the LWVCEF tax returns. We also continue to bid for and procure liability insurance for all local Leagues in the state, saving Leagues from having to go to bid annually for liability insurance, to incur the more significant expense of acquiring individual policies, and preventing local Leagues from needing to track the renewal timelines. Local Leagues simply pay their portion of the statewide policy when we send the invoice.

The LWVC doesn’t rest. Whether it is advocacy, driving public policy impact, supporting the implementation of state laws, litigating, engaging voters, working to close the participation gap, or supporting local League operations and community engagement – there’s never a time to rest. Democracy needs us now more than ever – and we are here for it. Yet, as we all continue to work through uncertainty and when it seems like there is always more and more to do, not enough money or people to do it all, and it all feels like it’s of the utmost urgency, we also have to care for ourselves and each other. As we have mentioned here, as Leagues, we are powerful – each of us on our own. But when we come together as one, and we work in alignment and with powerful collaboration, we are immensely stronger and more effective than any of us could be on our own. This is what it’s going to take to build a better democracy and we could not be more proud to be working with you and for you to accomplish it. And we will accomplish it.