Empowering voters and defending democracy

The League of Women Voters provides area citizens opportunities to ask questions of their local candidates and legislators in respectful, non-partisan moderated forums. In keeping with our mission of empowering voters and defending democracy, we invite candidates and legislators of all political parties to be accessible to all constituents.

Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase “All politics are local.” The League of Women Voters is not a political organization. Actually, we’re not just open to women! Anyone 16 and older can join. But we do believe in actively registering voters of all political parties, and we organize forums to provide access to candidates for local offices and area legislators. What happens in area school boards, city councils and the Board of Supervisors affects Linn County residents, first and foremost. We elect legislators to represent us in the Statehouse, and our legislative forums make it possible to meet them in person.

The Linn County League of Women Voters is holding school board candidate forums on Oct. 3 for the Cedar Rapids and College Community school districts. The two forums will be held in Beems Auditorium (B) of the Cedar Rapids Main Public Library. The Cedar Rapids school board candidate forum will be held from 5:30-6:15 p.m. followed by the College Community school board candidates from 6:30-7:15 p.m. On Oct.r 17, a forum for Linn Mar school board candidates will be held at the Marion Public Library from 5:30-6:15 p.m. with the Marion school board candidate forum following from 6:30-7:15 p.m.

Legislative forums are held on the third Saturday of the month during the legislative session from 10:00-11:30 a.m. The January and February forums are tentatively scheduled to be held at the Marion Public Library. The March forum will be held at the Hiawatha Public Library, and the final forum will be held in Central City in the Lynn Dunn Building at the Linn County Fairgrounds.

Local citizens deserve the opportunity to meet candidates and legislators from all political parties to address their questions and concerns. The sharp divisions in political viewpoints have diminished participation in LWV forums. We hope all school board candidates for these four area school districts accept our invitation. We thank the area legislators who faithfully make themselves available for our legislative forums during the legislative sessions, so citizens can ask questions about bills currently under consideration. To those area legislators who consistently decline to participate because they claim the LWV is partisan, their lack of participation reinforces that false narrative. We hope constituents will expect participation from their elected officials in our 2024 legislative forums, regardless of political affiliation.

Janet Boddicker Rampulla and Karen Lewis are co-presidents of the League of Women Voters of Linn County.