The League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Columbus encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. The League is where hands-on work to safeguard democracy leads to civic improvement.

The League of Women Voters is strictly nonpartisan; it neither supports nor opposes candidates for office at any level of government. People of all parties and political persuasions come together within the League for civil discourse about our community’s most pressing issues. At the same time, the League is wholeheartedly political and works to influence policy through advocacy. It is the original grassroots citizen network, directed by the consensus of its members.

The organization remains true to its basic purpose: to make democracy work for all citizens. The League of Women Voters makes a difference in the lives of citizens because of the energy and passion of members – throughout central Ohio and throughout the nation – committed to our principles.

The Metropolitan Columbus League was founded in 1920 and continues to:

• sponsor candidate forums throughout the metropolitan area prior to each election, working with the Franklin County Consortium for Good Government;
• hold open forums on issues important to the community;
• register central Ohio residents to vote;
• produce the Central Ohio Civic Directory;
• provide the nonpartisan, unbiased Voter Information Bulletin (VIB) to the community prior to each election; and
• advocate for public policy changes consistent with our positions in Franklin County.

 

More information:

• History of the League
• Highlights from 2006-07
• Board & Staff
• Most recent 990 tax return
• League of Women Voters of the United States
• League of Women Voters of Ohio

History of the League

The League of Women Voters was founded by Carrie Chapman Catt in 1920 during the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The convention was held only six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote after a 72-year struggle.

The League began as a “mighty political experiment” designed to help 20 million women carry out their new responsibilities as voters. It encouraged them to use their new power to participate in shaping public policy. From the beginning, the League was an activist, grassroots organization. Its leaders believed that citizens should play a critical role in advocacy. It was then – and is now – a nonpartisan organization. League founders believed that maintaining a nonpartisan stance would protect the fledgling organization from becoming mired in the party politics of the day. However, League members were encouraged to be political themselves by educating citizens about, and lobbying for, government and social reform legislation.

Today there are Leagues in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Hong Kong, in addition to the hundreds of local Leagues nationwide.

 

Highlights from 2006-07

In 2006-07, the League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Columbus:

• Prepared a nonpartisan Voter Information Bulletin (VIB) for the 2006 election and, working with The Columbus Dispatch, distributed the VIB to more than 400,000 households;
• Sponsored nine candidate forums throughout central Ohio prior to the 2006 election, in partnership with the Franklin County Consortium for Good Government;
• Staffed the Election Day Phone Bank sponsored by WBNS-10TV, providing information on polling locations and answers to voting-related questions to hundreds of callers; and
• Hosted meetings and public forums on such topics as balancing homeland security with civil liberties, downtown development, political reform, and world poverty.

 

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