President’s Message

The focus of the LWVUS this year is Defending a Democracy Under Siege. I attended the LWVUS National Convention in Columbus in late June where we affirmed this program focus which includes Voting Rights, Protecting Elections, Redistricting, Immigration, Individual Rights, and The Presidency. Michigan is a strong, active state in the League and I was proud to be with our state presidents (who received an award for Unite & Rise participation) and the Oakland Co. chapter (which received an award for DEI partnerships). Christina Schlitt from the LWV N. Central Mich was elected to the national nominating committee. Michigan made a splash! 

Your LWVNLM board met on June 29 to plan for the 2026/27 year and to welcome JoAnn and Jackie, our newest BOD members. We scheduled forums, member gatherings, and pondered how to engage more of you with our work. Most of you are renewing your membership so we know you at least want to support the LWV financially. But we hope you joined because you intend to be involved! Visit our website lwvnlm.org and find a committee meeting to attend or an information table to staff.

Here is an easy assignment for July: Ask any young adult Michigander you know what their plan is for voting in the primary. Help them make a plan if they don’t have one. Tell them how good it feels to vote in person if they can. It’s a wonderfully American experience during our 250th anniversary. They have 9 days of early in-person voting or they can vote absentee. Let’s get our young relatives, friends, and neighbors to the polls.

Take Care and Take Action, 

Lisa Blanchard 

LWVNLM Upcoming Events

September 9th, Wednesday: General membership meeting, hosted by the BOD

October 21st, Wednesday: Public Forum: What Universal Health Care Would Look Like, hosted by the Health Care Committee

November 11st, Wednesday: Public Forum: LTBB Government Center (topic TBD)

December 2nd, Wednesday: Annual Holiday Party, organized by the Membership Committee

January 13, Wednesday: Public Forum: Election Review, hosted by the BOD

Reach out to info@lwvnlm.org for information about joining a committee or questions about upcoming events.

Day of Action: August 8th, 5-6pm

SAVE THE DATE: LWVMI will offer a livestream on YouTube of the documentary, Three Marches, Two Sisters, One Bridge, which all local Leagues and partners will be able to attend. This is part of the LWV National Day of Action for Voting Rights. 

August 6 is the 61st anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Act (VRA) is one of the most significant elections statutes ever enacted. The law prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or language-minority status in registration and voting nationwide. The VRA also provides protections for blind, disabled, or illiterate voters. We invite members to view the documentary and hear from the two sisters who star in the film. Look for a flyer soon with details on how to participate. Contact Marcia Meyer to learn more, marciakmeyer@gmail.com

Prepping for Midterms 2026- We Need You!

The Voter Services committee has been busy getting ready for the Michigan primary August 4 and the November 2 midterm elections. 

Voter information materials have been updated and new handouts created which will be available shortly. We need volunteers to staff our Voter Information tables at local Farmers’ Markets and other local events. Sign up below!

Our League plans to mail a total 2500 Get Out the Vote postcards, targeting 18-29 year old new voters and women over 40 in our 3 counties. With this many postcards to personalize and hand address, we are going to need all the help we can get!

Information about state races and candidates in the August election is available now on Vote411.org. Local race and candidate information, along with information about local proposals and measures in our 3 counties was published on June 30. The August election information will be available only on the website, but the November election will also have printed voter guides available at many locations. We will be looking for volunteers to help with distribution in late September and October! Please contact Rose Fitzgerald, rosefitzgerald183@gmail.com.

And finally, with the continued emphasis on election security, we hope to have as many observers at local testing sessions for voting machines and at County Canvasser Meetings. Info on how to volunteer for these important activities will be available soon.

Native Plant Garden

The ENR committee continues to work with Wild Ones  to design the Petoskey library native plant/ education garden. Once the garden design is completed and the library board approves, we will be looking for ways to raise money to pay for the plants. Any ideas or help in grant writing is welcome! The committee will not have regular meetings in July and August. In September we will meet with old and new members to plan for the 2006/2007 year. Anyone is welcome to join!

LWVNLM Annual Meeting

Thanks to our friends at Walloon Lake Winery for providing the venue for our 7th Annual Meeting. Fifty nine members attended and enjoyed good food, wine and camaraderie as we attended to the business of the LWVNLM. President Lisa Blanchard highlighted the many events and accomplishments that our league completed this year. 

• Held 7 public forums on a variety of topics including palliative care, the effects of public policy on local farming, new sources of local news, voting security, and migration due to climate change.

• Supported the No Kings protest.

• Funded a billboard on US 31 asking our neighbors to Protect the Constitution.  

• Cosponsored a candidate forum in Boyne City.

• Staffed informational tables promoting voter registration and voter engagement at NCMC, farmer’s markets, high schools, flea markets and festivals.

Five-Year members who received a League pin are: Sarah Baughman, Cheryl Staats, Christine Carpenter, Pamela Carpenter, Beth Freeman, Betsy Lawerence, Linda Casasanta, and Holly Angileri.

We enjoyed a performance of Jane Addams’ 1911 speech on women’s suffrage by Ellen Blanchard in period costume. It was rousing and inspiring, and still timely today!

We have several new members to the LWVNLM Officers and Board of Directors. A BIG THANKS to outgoing board members Dibby Smith and Sue Vandeventer for all of their hard work over the years. They both wore many hats and we are so grateful for their willingness to do this work from the very earliest days of our League!

So much of our travel is keeping up with family! We also go to San Miguel de Allende Mexico in the winter.

Visiting here, I knew I would feel at home and love this special place that offered music, arts & culture and a wide variety of services where I would eventually volunteer and be engaged in the community. I’ve also been active as a lay leader in our congregation at Emmanuel Episcopal Church.

I knew Lisa Blanchard before ever visiting Michigan. When I moved here she was a wealth of information and inspiration on ways to be engaged and contribute to the health and well being of our community. She invited me to join the League of Women Voters. My mother was a LWV member for years in Texas where I grew up. I was drawn to LWV in this region and have served as an election, vote certification and recount observer since 2020 in Cheboygan County. I look forward to being more engaged in the work now that I have more time!

Tabulator Testing

Did you know that Michigan's voting tabulators and Voter Assist Terminals (VATs) are tested before every election? State law requires that all tabulating machines undergo logic and accuracy testing at least five days before Election Day to ensure they are functioning properly and counting ballots accurately.

These tests are open to the public, and notice is typically provided through local newspapers, the jurisdiction’s website and on social media. Yet, year after year, few people attend, and many voters don't realize these public demonstrations even take place. Most city and township clerks report that only they and their staff are present as blank and test ballots are fed through the tabulators and VATs to verify that both the software and equipment are working as intended.

It's one of the many behind-the-scenes safeguards designed to help ensure Michigan elections are accurate, secure, and transparent. I strongly encourage you to contact your clerk and attend the tabulator and VAT testing.

Immigration Action Steps from LWVMI

The League of Women Voters of the United States has approved the Michigan League’s request to take appropriate action to oppose ICE facilities in Michigan. LWVMI contacted ACLU of Michigan and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center to learn more about their work and how League members can partner to:

• Oppose the inhumane and illegal detention of people at the existing ICE facility in Baldwin MI.

• Oppose converting a warehouse in Romulus MI into a detention facility.

As a result the LWVMI Board approved the following action steps local League members can take:

1. Action Alerts. Respond to and lift up the Action Alerts available from ACLU-MI and MIRC. Here are the links: Take Action with ACLU of Michigan; MIRC's Action Alerts

2. Be Informed. Sign up to receive ACLU notices of Immigrants Rights issues: https://www.aclumich.org/actions/

LWVMI Legislative Action

National Popular Vote Compact

LWVMI will once again be working with the National Popular Vote Compact in 2026 and 2027. The goal is to pass a Michigan law to require Michigan’s Presidential electors to vote for the Presidential candidate that wins the popular vote nationally. The National Popular Vote Compact is an agreement among states that the candidate who wins the popular vote will also win the electoral college vote. So far states with 222 electoral votes have agreed to the Compact, with Virginia being the most recent state added. A total of only 270 electoral votes is needed, and the hope is Michigan’s 15 votes along with the votes of 4 or 5 other states can be added in 2027. Here is a link to a 2-minute video from Ari Berman, voting rights correspondent at Mother Jones with a brief explanation.

Support for Michigan Voting Rights Act

LWVMI wholeheartedly supports the Michigan Voting Rights Act, Senate Bills 961-964. These bills passed the Michigan Senate on June 16, 2026 and have been sent to the House where their future is uncertain. The bills would update Michigan’s election law to ensure the right to vote of all citizens, regardless race or ethnicity, and regardless of any decisions by the US Supreme Court weakening the National Voting Rights Act. 

Other Legislative Action in June

This month LWVMI took the following additional actions on Michigan bills:

• Oppose prohibiting and punishing gender transition treatment and procedures. House Bills 4466-4468.

• Support for requiring any large-scale Data Center to be a contested case at the Michigan Public Service Commission HB 5982.

• Support a one-year moratorium on any approvals of Data Centers.House Bills 5594-5596 and Senate Bills 1018-1020.

• Oppose School Aid Funding Cuts. House Bills 5872-5874, 5878 and 5880.

2026 Biennial National Convention

The League of Women Voters held its 57th Biennial National Convention in Columbus, Ohio. More than 1,000 delegates from across the country gathered at the end of June in Ohio, and virtually, to elect national leadership, set priorities for the next biennium, and launch the League's next phase of organizing through lwv.org/uniteandrise.  

The League announced its newly elected national leadership for the 2026–2028 biennium, with Sania Irwin as president of the national Board of Directors. Together, the new Board will help lead the League's nationwide movement to empower voters, defend and strengthen democracy, and mobilize communities ahead of the 2026 midterm elections and for sustained civic participation.

At the National level, the LWV continues to lead the fight to keep and to restore voting rights of ALL citizens.

The LWV continues to be engaged in numerous lawsuits in Mississippi, Washington, Pennsylvania, Colorado and other states to prevent voter intimidation at the polls, ensure that all mail-in votes are counted, etc. Visit the LWV Legal Center to get an overview of the battles the LWV and partner groups are engaged in to protect our constitution and our right to vote.

Hundreds of League members from around the country were on Capitol Hill in June and brought with them a tough message on voting rights for their U.S. Senators and Representatives. Members fanned out across the Capitol to tell their elected representatives that it is well past time to pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA), legislation that will put protections back into place to ensure that Americans have equal opportunity to access the polls.

Committee Chairs and Meeting Times

Observer Corp Chair: Penny Crim, pennycrim04@gmail.com. Meet as needed.

Health Care Committee Chairs: Patty Fralick, plfralick@gmail.com, Jackie Mitchell jackiemitchell06@me.com Meet 1st Thursday of the month, 9:00am. Zoom

Environment & Natural Resources Committee Chairs: Marcia Meyer, marciakmeyer@gmail.com and Ann Scott, alscott2050@gmail.com. Meet 2nd Tuesday of the month, 4:00pm. ZOOM

Membership Committee Chair: Mary Netzky, mary.netzky@gmail.com, 2nd Monday of the month, 3:30pm. ZOOM

Voter Services Committee Co-chairs: Rose Fitzgerald, rosefitzgerald183@gmail.com. Meet 2nd Wednesday of the month, 10:00am. ZOOOM

Unite and Rise Committee: Chair: Marcia Meyer, marciakmeyer@gmail.com, 3rd Monday of each month, 3:30-4:30pm, ZOOM

LWVNLM Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statement

The League of Women Voters Northern Lower Michigan is an organization fully committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in principle and in practice.  There shall be no barriers to full participation in this organization.  Diversity, equity and inclusion are central to the organization’s current and future success in engaging all individuals, households, communities, and policy makers in creating a more perfect democracy.