Gwinnett County has been without a League of Women Voters chapter for about 5 years, but Stephanie Wright is eager to change that. After spending two years managing an Indivisible group in Duluth and coordinating several candidate forums throughout Gwinnett County (including two school board forums with Gwinnett SToPP) Stephanie has decided to focus on non-partisan work and the best way to do that is with the support of the League of Women Voters.
The League of Women Voters has existed since the suffrage movement, has a national, state and local presence and a sterling reputation for providing fair and objective information about elections, voting and candidates while remaining non-partisan. They take positions on issues impacting women – voter suppression, redistricting, fair and free elections as well as public education, public transportation, sensible gun control, women’s reproductive health, and ending capital punishment.
“I found over the past two years that I really enjoy coordinating candidate forums and putting together public events around hot-button issues,“ she said, “I think I can best serve the community by holding space for non-partisan education and voter drives, so people with partisan work to do can focus. 2020 is going to be a huge year for politics and we all need to find our role in shaping the future of this democracy.”
Without even a chapter in place, the member-at-large group already has two events planned:
January 30, 7:15-8:15pm – The League is partnering with Georgia Equality to offer a legislative training session at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Gwinnett (12 Bethesda Church Rd. Lawrenceville.)
February 17, 2-4pm – The League is offering a Transit Forum with Gwinnett County Commissioner Charlotte Nash, members of the Gwinnett Planning and Development team and MARTA representatives at Collins Hill Library (55 Camp Perrin Rd NE, Lawrenceville).
In getting the chapter started, Stephanie says the biggest challenge is membership. “As women, we all have complicated lives and are pulled in many directions. Obviously, no one can attend every meeting every time, but we welcome as many women – and men – as we can get. We have a lot of work to do!”
If you are interested in community engagement and this sounds like the perfect avenue for you, visit the League Facebook page here or contact Stephanie directly at stephwright@charter.net. Just remember that once you are in the Gwinnett SToPP family you never leave!