Santa Monica voters will have a number of chances to learn more about candidates for local office, thanks to the League of Voters of Santa Monica Education Fund (LWVSMEF) and partner organizations this election season.
Ann K. Williams, president of the LWVSMEF, said the organization was excited about the many opportunities it is giving Santa Monica’s voters to make the best choices they can come Nov. 4.
“Our goal is to make sure our citizens are well-informed and engaged in civil dialogue,” Williams said.
On Wednesday, October 1, candidates for the Santa Monica Board of Trustees and the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) School Board will take part in candidates forums co-hosted by the LWVSMEF and the Santa Monica-Malibu PTA Council.
The Board of Trustees candidates forum will begin at 6 p.m. in the SMMUSD board room at 1651 16th SMMUSD School Board candidates will take the dais at 7:45 p.m. Both forums will be televised for replay by CityTV and posted on smvote.org.
LWVSMEF Voter Service Director Thea Brodkin will moderate a Town Hall Q-and-A between Sandra Fluke and Ben Allen, sponsored by the YWCA Santa Monica/Westside on Friday, October 17. The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the YWCA at 2019 14th.
The public is welcome to attend these events. Questions at the October 1 forum will be pre-selected and curated by event sponsors. Questions for the Town Hall on October 17 will be submitted by the audience and pre-screened by a review panel.
Continuing a long-standing partnership, the LWVSMEF will co-sponsor city council candidates forums with the Center for Governmental Studies and CityTV of Santa Monica.
This year, there will be two live forums, broadcast on October 20 and October 27 from 7 to 9 p.m. and taped for replay. They will be shown on cable channel 16, reaching the over 20,000 cable television households in the City of Santa Monica and on CityTV’s new digital broadcast channels 20.2 and 25.2 posted on smvote.org.
Questions for the forums co-sponsored with CityTV will be selected and curated by the League of Women Voters of Santa Monica. Contact program@lwvsantamonica.org to submit questions.
The LWVSMEF will also offer voters a variety of ways to learn more about the ballot measures they’ll be voting on in the upcoming election.
The Voter Service arm of the LWVSMEF is already scheduled to make a number of unbiased presentations outlining the pros and cons of state and local ballot measures, and is available to organizations wishing to schedule such presentations.
Finally, LWVSMEF supports smartvoter.org, a website that gives detailed information on each voter’s ballot. Voters can simply go to the website smartvoter.org, enter their address where indicated and an array of information about their ballot will be displayed.
It is the mission of the LWVSMEF to educate our community’s voters so that they can make informed decisions at the ballot box.
The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization which encourages informed and active participation in government. The League does not endorse either political parties or candidates running for office but seeks to influence public policy through education and advocacy.
