League of Women Voters of Maine Education Fund: Engaging All Mainers in the Democratic Process

For nearly 70 years, the League of Women Voters of Maine Education Fund has been working hard to ensure all Maine citizens have the information they need to exercise their right to vote, and that there aren’t any barriers standing in their way. This election year is no exception.

The League of Women Voters was formed in 1920 by leaders of the Suffrage movement, prior to the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women in the U.S. the right to vote. Despite achieving their goal after a decades-long fight, the suffragists knew their work was far from over: they needed a broad base of non-partisan support to achieve true equality for women.

“From the beginning, it was grassroots, meaning it was just driven by regular people who were working within their communities,” explains Jen Lancaster, Director of Communications for the League of Women Voters of Maine, which was formed around the same time as the national organization. “They knew they didn't want to lure people in, mostly women, who are going to be driven by bipartisanship. They just wanted to recognize that we're stronger together.”

Photo courtesy League of Women Voters Maine Education Fund.

In 2022, Sewall began supporting the League of Women Voters of Maine Education Fund–the Education Fund was launched nationally in 1957 to focus on increasing voter participation. The initial grant allowed for focus groups to be conducted in Spring and Summer 2022 in 10 communities throughout Maine with historically low voter turnout, to identify existing civic engagement efforts and barriers to participation. Then in 2023, Sewall awarded the Education Fund a 24-month Equitable Civic Engagement grant to eliminate inequities in voter turnout at the local, state and national levels, and ensure all Mainers can meaningfully participate in the democratic process.

“Sewall’s deep commitment to community and equity makes supporting grassroots and civic engagement key to advancing our mission,” says Gabriela Alcalde, Sewall’s Executive Director. “Equitable participation in elections is an essential form of community voice in a democracy, so we are grateful to the work that the Education Fund makes possible in Maine.”

The latest grant is funding an election administration organizer, who’s working closely with municipal clerks to increase support for voter engagement and local government information. Through these meetings with clerks, it became clear that many Maine residents don’t have a basic understanding of the role of local government. 

Honoring Maine’s town clerks during Professional Municipal Clerks Week in May 2024. Photo courtesy League of Women Voters Maine Education Fund.

This finding resulted in the creation of a comprehensive, yet accessible, guide to all 400+ towns and cities throughout Maine–a daunting task given that each operate very differently, and some don’t even have a website. Sewall’s grant helped fund the research, writing and 2023 launch of the 100+ page publication, which covers subject areas like the environment, education and the economy, and includes a spreadsheet of facts like the date of the town charter.

“There's just this barrier when it comes to understanding how these local governments function, even though they make so many crucial decisions that have a far more immediate impact than any other governing body in our lives,” says Jen, noting examples like water and sanitation, trash and recycling, code and enforcement, fire and safety, education and public libraries. “We knew that people didn't have all the puzzle pieces to figure out how this all works.”

To ensure as many Maine residents as possible have access to the guide–and know how to use it–Sewall is also supporting the development of community workshops and a school-based curriculum. Groups like Rotary Clubs, church groups and libraries can request workshops, and a pilot program for teachers, which includes lesson plans, PowerPoints, worksheets, and more, is being rolled out at partner schools this fall.

For the November 2024 election, the Education Fund is again publishing a voter education guide. This guide, which are distributed to businesses, churches, cafes, libraries, and other locations throughout the state, offers the details of all state, federal and local elections in an easy-to-read format. More than 30,000 guides were printed and distributed in 2022, and this year, that number jumped to 50,000.  

There’s a digital companion to the hard copy, Vote411.org, where you can go to quickly check your voter registration status and see what’s on your ballot. While the website is a popular resource, Jen says the printed guide still has plenty of fans.

“Every season people ask us, ‘Hey, when are we going to get these print guides?’,” Jen shares. “They still want that hard copy.”

Registering voters 2024. Photo courtesy League of Women Voters Maine Education Fund.

The Education Fund is also mobilizing its Neighbor-to-Neighbor volunteers, to go door-to-door in low-income neighborhoods where voter participation tends to be lower. They’ll hand out a “how to vote” guide, which is available in 10 languages, and make sure residents understand what they need to do. The Education Fund is also working with 120 high schools throughout Maine to get students registered to vote–Maine actually allows youth to “pre register” at 16, so they’re ready to go at 18.

To help protect the integrity of this election, the Education Fund is encouraging everyone in Maine to be on the lookout for online content that appears to be spreading misinformation or disinformation, and report it. The report can be submitted anonymously on the League’s website.

“If someone encounters a post that says, for example, ‘Maine has a lot of fraudulent voters every election cycle,’ that's very false,” says Jen. “If someone were to see that image or meme, we would want to know about it.”

Then, on election night in November 2024, there will be more than 100 nonpartisan volunteers positioned at polling locations across the state–the goal is to cover all 16 counties. The volunteers double check that the polling station is set up correctly, help troubleshoot problems with voter registration or IDs, and make sure no one is intimidating voters or otherwise interfering with the voting process.

Regardless of who they’re voting for and what the outcome is, Maine citizens can be sure that the state has a fair election, thanks to the League of Women Voters of Maine Education Fund.