League of Women Voters Publishes Native American Voter Guide for New Mexico Indian Country

October 2, 2018:

The League of Women Voters of New Mexico is for the first time publishing separate Voter Guides for the 12 New Mexico counties with substantial Native American Populations. In this pilot project the League is publishing and printing 15,000 Voter Guides for Native Americans in these counties.

“Our hard-working volunteers and a generous grant from the Thornburg Foundation for printing have made this possible. The Native American Voter Task Force is collaborating on this effort and will handle distribution throughout Indian Country. Given the short timeframe for this project, we were unable to include the candidate questionnaires in these guides but plan to do so in the future,” said Judy Williams, President of the League of Women Voters of New Mexico.

The guides will contain a listing of all candidates and ballot issues for those areas.

“The League is excited about the opportunity to provide these special voter guides for the Native American population of New Mexico. We believe an informed electorate is the key to our democracy. The vote is the essential part of making democracy work. We are grateful to the Thornburg Foundation for underwriting the printing of the guides ,” said Williams.

The Counties are: Bernalillo, Cibola, McKinley, Otero, San Juan, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Socorro, Luna, Taos and Valencia.

The guides will be made available on our 2018 Voter Guide page.

LWVNM Urges Governor to establish a Complete Count Committee for the 2020 Census

September 4, 2018:

An accurate Census count is of critical importance to New Mexico, as the results are the basis for the $6.1 billion coming into the state each year for health care, education, transportation and more in New Mexico. The state uses the census data to plan roads, public safety, elections and its own apportionment of legislative districts.

The League of Women Voters of New Mexico asks Governor Martinez to immediately sign an executive order to establish a Complete Count Committee for the 2020 Census.

Read the full letter: LWVNM Urges Governor to establish a Complete Count Committee for the 2020 Census.

LWVNM Opposes Separating Immigrant Children from Parents

June 22, 2018: The League of Women Voters of New Mexico is opposed to the practice of separating children and parents who are guilty only of trying to escape violence in their countries.

An order has been signed, but we do not believe this crisis is over. Thousands of children have been sent to other locations, and the government has yet to say how it will find them and undo the damage already done. Sometimes the only link is a phone number memorized by a small child.

Aside from being condemned internationally, our collective conscience is repulsed by these actions. We call for action to end this policy for good and to reunite families.

It is past time to examine the policies that have led to this crisis, and to fix them. Those who are committed to true reform of our broken immigration system must speak up for decent policies, loud and clear.

Letter to the Editor, Santa Fe New Mexican (also in the Albuquerque Journal).

LWVNM Objects to Dummy Bills

February 2, 2018: "The practice of using dummy bills needs to stop. They are not just an inconvenience; they subvert democracy and deny the public of their right to provide comment in our Citizens' Legislature," says LWVNM president Judy Williams.

Read why: LWV OF NEW MEXICO AGAIN OBJECTS TO USE OF "DUMMY BILLS" IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE.

This was mentioned briefly in the Santa Fe New Mexican's Legislative Roundup.

For older news items, see the LWVNM News Archive.