Democracy Forum 5/19/23: Young Change Makers: Owning the Future

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, and Linda Washburn.

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

This month:
We’ll talk about how young people are engaging politically nationwide and here in Maine. What motivates them? What challenges do they face? What can the larger community do to support their efforts? Why is it important to the future of democracy?

Guest/s:
Cole Cochrane, Co-founder, Maine Youth Action
Mahnoor Hussain, Program Director, CIRCLE
Anna Siegel, founding member of Maine Youth Climate Justice and co founder of Maine Youth Action

To learn more about this topic:
The teen brain: Mysteries and misconceptions | Knowable, April 2023
24 Ways to Grow Voters Before 2024 | CIRCLE, April 2023
The Youth Vote in 2022 | CIRCLE, April 2023
LWVME Youth Voting Age Study Info Session, April, 2023
How the Youth Vote Is Being Suppressed – Long Story Short | The Daily Show – YouTube, March, 2023
Making our ‘civic deserts’ more fertile – Island Institute, April, 2023
GOP lawyer Cleta Mitchell decries ease of ‘campus voting’ in private RNC pitch – The Washington Post, April, 2023

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

Democracy Forum 4/21/23: Ballot Questions: Whose Initiatives Are They?

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, emerita, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, and Linda Washburn.

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

This month:
Ballot Questions: Whose Initiatives Are They?
We’ll talk about the citizen initiative process in Maine: the sheer number of them, the money behind them, their strengths and shortcomings, home-grown vs. “from away.”
How does the initiative process work, and how is it working for Maine?
Can ordinary citizens can still run a ballot question?

Guest/s:
Shenna Bellows, Maine Secretary of State
Todd Donovan, Professor of Political Science, Western Washington University

To learn more about this topic:
As Abortion Measures Loom, GOP Raises New Barriers to Ballot Initiatives | The Pew Charitable Trusts, February, 2023
Missouri House Passes Bill Making It Harder for Voters To Amend State Constitution – Democracy Docket, February, 2023
Policy Matters: Ballot initiatives – Press Herald, November 17,2022
League Study On Maine’s Citizens’ Initiatives And People’s Veto Referenda, Fall, 2020
Initiatives without Engagement: A Realistic Appraisal of Direct Democracy’s Secondary Effects, Joshua J. Dyck & Edward L. Lascher, Jr., Jr., 2019
Democracy Forum – Citizen Initiatives: The Devil’s in the Details, April 19, 2019
Initiative and Referendum Overview and Resources | NCSL
Citizen Initiatives & Peoples Veto | Maine Secretary of State
Citizens as Legislators: Direct Democracy in the United States, Todd Donovan and Shaun Bowler, 1998

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

Democracy Forum 3/17/23: If Small States Rule, Why Are They So Angry?

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Michael Fisher
Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Rick Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, emerita, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor
Linda Washburn

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

This month:
If Small States Rule, Why Are They So Angry?
Does this small-state bias in the federal government equate to overrepresentation of rural interests?
Does it translate to policies that help rural areas thrive? Are communities in small or rural states actually thriving?
Do people in those communities feel like they’re thriving? Or does “rural resentment” account for minority rule at the federal level?
Senators from small states hold outsize sway in government to the point where they can block measures that the majority of Americans want. How are they using that power?
What does it mean for Maine?

Guest/s:
Amy Fried, John Mitchell Nickerson Professor or Political Science, UMaine
Michael Podhorzer, Chairman of the Board of the Analyst Institute; Assistant to the President for Strategic Research at the AFL-CIO

To learn more about this topic:

Paul Ryan Says Even MAGA Diehards Believe Trump Can’t Win in 2024 – The New York Times, March, 2023
Most Rural States 2023 | World Population Review
The Resentment Fueling the Republican Party Is Not Coming From the Suburbs – The New York Times, January, 2023
Rural Americans aren’t included in inflation figures – and for them, the cost of living may be rising faster | The Conversation, January, 2023
Opinion | Can Anything Be Done to Assuage Rural Rage? | The New York Times, January 2023
Opinion | How to fix American democracy during a ‘Great Pulling Apart’ – The Washington Post, January, 2023
Opinion | This Is How Red States Silence Blue Cities. And Democracy |The New York Times<, January, 2023 A Policy Renaissance Is Needed for Rural America to Thrive – The New York Times, December, 2022
America Is Growing Apart, Possibly for Good – The Atlantic, June 2022
Place-Based Resentment in Contemporary U.S. Elections: The Individual Sources of America’s Urban-Rural Divide, Nicholas Jacobs, B. Kal Munis, September, 2022
At War with Government | Columbia University Press, Amy Fried and Douglas B. Harris, 2021
How Educational Differences Are Widening America’s Political Rift – The New York Times, September, 2021
The Electoral College and the Rural-Urban Divide – The Aspen Institute, February, 2021
James P. Melcher and Amy Fried, “Two Maines in a (Potentially) New Swing State”. Chapter 14 in David A. Schultz and Rafael Jacob (editors), Presidential Swing States, Second Edition, 2018.
Red Fighting Blue: How Geography and Electoral Rules Polarize American Politics | Cambridge University Press, David Hopkins, 2017
The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker| University of Chicago Press, Kathy Cramer, 2016
Strangers in Their Own Land | The New Press, Arlie Russell Hochschild, 2016

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

Democracy Forum 2/17/23: Small-state bias in the federal government: is this democracy?

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin,
Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

This month:
Compared to their population, rural states are over-represented in the federal government, from the U.S. Senate to the Electoral College, the Supreme Court, and possibly even the U.S. House.
How has the come about; how far can it go?
How does this affect Maine?
Where is this heading, and what can or should be done about it?

Guest/s:
Mark Brewer, Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Maine
Alexander Keyssar, Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School

To learn more about this topic:
U.S. Senate: Origins and Foundations | Senate.gov
The Senate: From White Supremacy to Governmental Gridlock – UVA Press
The Senate: Threat or Backbone of American Democracy? | Divided We Fall June, 2021
The Electoral College and the Rural-Urban Divide – The Aspen Institute, February, 2021
Two Senators per State: A Recipe for Minority Domination | Second Rate Democracy, 2020
The history of the Electoral College and our national conversation about race | Harvard Kennedy School, August, 2020
Alexander Keyssar — Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College? | Politics and Prose, November, 2020
The Stubborn Survival of the Electoral College – WSJ, August 2020
American democracy’s Senate problem, explained – Vox, December, 2019
Here’s How to Fix the Senate – The Atlantic, January, 2019
The Founder’ monumental constitutional mistake; 2 senators from each state | NationofChange, October, 2018
Misrepresentation in the House of Representatives | Brookings, February 2017
The electoral college badly distorts the vote. And it’s going to get worse | The Washington Post, November, 2016
As American as Apple Pie? The Rural Vote’s Disproportionate Slice of Power – The New York Times, November, 2016
Sizing Up the Senate: The Unequal Consequences of Equal Representation, Lee, Oppenheimer, 1999
When Adding New States Helped the Republicans – The Atlantic, September, 2019

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

Democracy Forum 1/20/23: Comprehensive Planning: Why Bother?

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin,
Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Rick Lyles, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

This month:
A number of towns in Hancock County are doing, have done, or are thinking of doing comprehensive planning. So, what is comprehensive planning, why do Maine towns do it?
Why should they do it and how often?
What comprises a comprehensive plan?
What difference does it make in a community, why should people care?

Guest/s:
Susan Lessard, Bucksport Town Manager
Noel Musson, Principal/Planner with the Musson Group
Evan Richert, Former director of the State Planning Office

To learn more about this topic:
Comprehensive Plans: Municipal Planning Assistance Program: Maine DACF
Comprehensive Planning: A Manual for Maine Communities
Land Use Planning | National Working Waterfront Network
Comprehensive Plan | Town of Orland, December, 2022
Priority Strategy: Increasing Physical Activity Through Community Design | CDC, December, 2022.
The Future of the Comprehensive Plan | Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy May, 2022
A New Era of Equity-Based Comprehensive Planning…Finally | GreenLaw, September, 2021

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

Democracy Forum 11/18/22: Election Reflections: What Just Happened Here?

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

This month: Election Reflections: What Just Happened Here?
-A conversation about the election.
-Less about how the parties and the candidates performed; more about how democracy performed.
-How did the election machinery hold up?
-How did our voters and our instituions hold up?
-Have our citizens embraced or rejected the legitimacy of the outcomes?
-What does it all mean in the context of a bigger conversation about the future of western democracy?

Guest/s:
Maya Eichorn, Liberal Studies Student York County Community College, and fellow with Maine Students Vote, and affiliate of the League of Women Voters of Maine
Elaine Kamarck, Founding Director at the Center for Effective Public Management and Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings
Steve Mistler, Chief Political Correspondent and State House Bureau Chief, Maine Public

To learn more about this topic:
Turnout among young voters was the second highest for a midterm in past 30 years | NPR, November 2022
LePage’s loss leaves Maine Republicans at a crossroads – Portland Press Herald, November 2022
Midterms pose fresh test for American democracy after two years under fire | Washington Post, November 2022
‘We’re watching you’: incidents of voter intimidation rise as midterm elections near | The Guardian, November 2022
Gen Z voter turnout will show just how influential influencers really are | Washington Post, November 2022
State courts are fielding sky-high numbers of lawsuits ahead of the midterms – including challenges to voting restrictions and to how elections are run | The Conversation, October 2022
The end of the debate? Republicans draw the curtain on political theater | US politics | The Guardian, September, 2022
Can the abortion issue save Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections? | Brookings, Elaine Kamarck, August 2022

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

Democracy Forum 10/21/22: What’s At Stake in Moore v. Harper? Gerrymandering and More

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine
The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Lisa Leaverton, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn
Panel moderator: John Brautigam, an attorney and consultant with over 25 years of experience in campaign finance and election law, public policy, advocacy, and legal representation. From 2004 to 2008 he served in the Maine legislature and was House Chairman of the Insurance and Financial Services Committee. Prior to his tenure in the legislature Mr. Brautigam served as Assistant Attorney General. He previously served as legal counsel successfully defending the constitutionality of the 1996 reforms to Maine campaign finance laws, including the Maine Clean Election Act. Brautigam is counsel for the League of Women Voters of Maine.

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

This month:
Many legal scholars say that the Supreme Court’s decision in Moore v Harper, involving the Independent State Legislature Theory, could be one of the most important election law cases for the future of federal elections.
If adopted by the Court, the most extreme versions of the theory could destabilize elections.
But the Court could adopt a more limited, less disruptive version. Or the Court could decide not to adopt any version.
We’ll introduce this issue and some of the potential implications of the case Moore v. Harper to be decided in 2023.

Guest/s:
Derek T. Muller, holds Ben V. Willie Professorship in Excellence at the University of Iowa College of Law
Eliza Sweren-Becker, counsel in the Voting Rights & Elections Program at the Brennan Center for Justice

To learn more about this topic:
There Is Absolutely Nothing to Support the ‘Independent State Legislature’ Theory | The Atlantic, October, 2022
Moore v. Harper, Explained | Brennan Center for Justice, August 2022
State Legislature Seeks Unchecked Power over Elections in Moore v. Harper | League of Women Voters, League of Women Voters blog, August 2022
Unpacking the Left’s Disinformation Campaign about Moore v. Harper | National Review, August, 2022
The Next Big Threat to American Democracy Is Headed to the Supreme Court | The New Republic, August 2022
Is Democracy Constitutional? | The Atlantic, July 2022
Richard Pildes’ on Election Law Blog, July 2022
Derek Muller on Moore v. Harper and Independent State Legislature Doctrine | The Lawfare Podcast: July, 2022

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

Democracy Forum 9/16/22: Checks and Balances: What are They? Are They Working?

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine
The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn

Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics

This month:
Checks and Balances: What are They? Are They Working?
How the three branches of government check each other: executive, judicial, legislative. \
Why did it matter to the Framers, and why does it matter to us?
Of what importance is mutual and self-regard among the branches: each branch protecting its own institution and backing up the other branches?
Is the public one of the checks — with political consequences creating a limit on extremism?
Does it seem to be working right now? Why or why not?

Guest/s:
Andrew Rudalevige, Chair of the Department of Government and Legal Studies, Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government, Bowdoin College
Kim Lane Scheppele, Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values

To learn more about this topic:
Post-ROE, the Supreme Court is on a collision course with Democracy | Vanity Fair August 25, 2022
Opinion | The Supreme Court Has Too Much Power and Liberals Are to Blame – POLITICO, July 27, 2022
Most in new poll say US government needs major reforms, complete overhaul | The Hill, July 13, 2022
The Supreme Court’s Role in the Degradation of U.S. Democracy | CLC, July 13, 2022
Opinion | How the Founders Intended to Check the Supreme Court’s Power – POLITICO, July 3, 2022
How Viktor Orbán Wins | Journal of Democracy, July 2022
Abuses of executive privilege reveal our system of checks and balances is on life support | The Hill October 24, 2021
Executive privilege is killing checks and balances | MichaelLeppert.com October 15, 2021
Checks and balances on war powers — Defense Priorities, April 2, 2021
By Executive Order | Princeton University Press, April 2021
Checks and Balances in a Trump-Era Supreme Court | Brennan Center for Justice, July 10, 2020
Congress Has Lost Its Power Over Trump | The Atlantic, February 4, 2020
The Unconstrained Presidency: Checks and Balances Eroded Long Before Trump | Council on Foreign Relations, August 14, 2018
Congress’s Power over Courts: Jurisdiction Stripping and the Rule of Klein | CSR, August 9, 2018

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.