At the League of Women Voters of Mass., it's been 100-plus years of educating and empowering voters

Since its founding over 100 years ago, the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts has played a vital role in educating and empowering women voters to ensure their voices are heard in our democracy. The League stands at the forefront of complex policy issues, educating voters and promoting a culture of active citizenship. 

And in such a precarious time, as reproductive rights are being rolled back and women are dying while being denied care, the League does not back down in the face of challenges or disappointment. Instead, they rise up and tackle these issues head-on.

That’s why the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts is this week’s Joy Beat nominee. Executive Director Patricia Comfort joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to share the organization’s missions. What follows is a lightly edited transcript.

Arun Rath: Let’s start by talking about the organization’s founding — because it’s interesting to think back 100 years ago, and women getting the right to vote. The fight wasn’t over at that point.

Patricia Comfort: Right, exactly. As you said, when the League was founded, it was really the outgrowth of the women’s suffrage movement. We were founded just a few months — three months — before the ratification of the 19th Amendment in August of 1920.

But, as everyone knows, the ratification of the 19th Amendment basically gave white women the right to vote, and it would take another four-plus decades of struggle for women and men of color because of the discriminatory Jim Crow laws to exercise their right to vote.

It was the largest franchise in the history of the country; some 20 million women won the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment. But, again, it wasn’t until the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act in the mid-1960s that allowed Black and brown people in this country to exercise their right to vote.

Rath: That’s another case where, again, the legislation [doesn’t] end the struggle. Tell us — I mean, you’re going to have to paint in broad strokes — but tell us about how the fight for maintaining and expanding rights has evolved over that period of time.

Comfort: Yeah, I mean, the organization was founded because: one of the reasons was to be able to educate women who had never exercised their right to vote. To educate them on, basically, the mechanics of voting and how to go through a ballot and that kind of thing.

That’s really what we’re still doing today, you know, 104 years later. For example, the ballot this year in Massachusetts is two-sided, so one of the things we really take pains to tell people: Flip it over! Because folks don’t know sometimes that there’s more on the back. We have five ballot questions, and we do a lot of education around that as well.

Our mission is to grow voters — so that they are not just going to the ballot, but they’re informed before they get there. So I think education around what’s on the ballot and who’s running and why it’s important to vote all the way down the ballot.

Obviously, you know, we have a very crucial presidential election this year, but it’s also important to vote all the way down the ballot. Don’t leave the other races blank. So the educational piece around voting is still something that there’s still a lot of work to be done around that.

Rath: It’s good that you kind of bring us right up to the present, though, because — I mean, we are obviously in an intense moment right now in the context of everything that we’re talking about.

As I mentioned, obviously, Roe v. Wade was overturned, and we do know that women have died and are dying because of these changes. Talk about — I mean, obviously, you’re working hard every year, every single election — but tell us about the challenges right now.

Comfort: Yeah, I think the example of the overturning [of] Roe v. Wade is a great example. I mean, the League of Women Voters is nonpartisan in that we do not endorse candidates and we don’t endorse political parties, but we do have positions on many, many issues going back to the 1920s and 1930s.

The way that the League comes to a position is — in fact, we’re in the process right now — we do a study process, and that’s a two-year process by which a study committee takes up the issue and then brings it to our convention, which happens every two years.

In order for the League to take the position, the whole membership has to come to a consensus that that’s the position they want to take. Right now, we’re doing a reparations study to decide whether or not to take a position on reparations for Black Americans — well, in Massachusetts, because we’re just a Massachusetts league.

The League has had a position on reproductive freedom since the 1970s, and so I think in these times when everything is considered partisan, you have to look back at the history — especially about an organization like the League — to see that we have had positions on issues goes back many, many, many decades before everything became hyperpartisan.

If you look at our position on reproductive freedom, it was before Roe v. Wade was decided. So to sort of paint us with a brush of partisanship now, based on our position from all those many years ago, just isn’t correct. We will continue to fight for that position and hold that position and the other positions that we have on climate, racial justice and many, many others.

Rath: With the main thrust of your work — registration and education of voters — how do you feel about where things are in terms of the level of female voter participation and registration going into this election?

Comfort: Right. It feels really great. You know, obviously, we’ve been really, really busy the last six, seven, eight weeks registering voters and trying to meet people where they are.

We teamed up with the sexual health clinic at Mass General Hospital three times over the last two weeks, and our theme was “check your status.” So you could sort of check in with the sexual health clinic — and check in with us on your voter registration status. We had just tons and tons of people. MGH is a very busy place.

We were in the main building on Front Street, and we had loads of staff and patients and administrators coming through, and a lot of people had moved, or they said, “God, I still haven’t changed my last name because I just got married last year.” They sort of checked in with us, and we registered a lot of people. We also helped a lot of people just double-check that they were on the active voter rolls, so that was really exciting.

We were at all three high schools in Lynn, Massachusetts, over the last two weeks, and we were pre-registering 16- and 17-year-olds because, in Massachusetts, they’re able to pre-register to vote. And then we also registered a lot of 18-year-olds who were very excited to see us in the cafeterias on those days.

So, you know, we want everyone who’s eligible to be in the electorate, so that’s what we’ve been trying to do.

Rath: As you underscored, [the League] is not a partisan organization. It seems like about as close to pure civic duty as it could be, educating and registering people to vote. I just want to get a sense of what that’s like with voters — educating people, getting them to know about all of this must be rewarding.

Comfort: Yes. We were at Lynn Classical, and, you know, the students weren’t super prepared. But as they came over to the table, you could see that they were like, “I can sign up right now?” So that’s really exciting.

And then there’s one young woman who had just turned 18. She knew exactly — she came right over to the table, and she said, “I heard you guys were going to be here. I’m so excited because I just turned 18, and I want to register to vote.”

The enthusiasm, I think, from the young folks — especially young people who have just turned 18 — is really infectious and kind of made my day.

Rath: That’s gotta make your heart soar. Just hearing about it does that.

Comfort: Yeah, it’s wonderful.

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