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Students Inside Albany

Each year the New York State League of Women Voters sponsors Students Inside Albany, a four day conference which will be held on April 10-13, 2001 in Albany, NY. The League of Albany County will be sponsoring two students in grade 10th or 11th to attend.

The objectives of the program are:

• increase understanding of the framework used to develop public policy
• enhance understanding of the roles of various forces seeking to impact legislation and policy
• promote understanding of the state's legislative process
• help develop assessment and analytical skills through experiential learning

Deadline for the application is February 11, 2001

Click here for the 2011 Conference Application
Click here for the 2011 Conference Brochure
Click here for the 2011 Letter to Educators

Voter Services Update

This past election season we held six candidate events. Our debates/forums included the Surrogate Court candidates, NYS Senate, Albany City School Board Candidates, and two for the NYS Assembly.

A total of 700 voters attended thse forum and we distributed about 1,000 Voter Guides, part 2.

League and NYPIRG call for Redistricting Reform

The New York Public Interest Research Group and the League of Women Voters of NY came out on October 5 with a strong statement in favor of redistricting reform that would make the process non-partisan.   Reformers have long argued the the current method used by the state to draw lelgislative and congressional district boundary lines is undemocratic and in need of reform

It is well known tht the most important factor in maintaining New York State's political culture is Gerrymandering, the practice of allowing majorities in both houses to draw the district lines every ten years. In effect, this allows the legislators to choose the voters, rather than the voters choosing their legislators.

Therefore, an independent redistricting commission is needed to create fair legislative districts in New York State and to ensure that the state's districts adhere to the principle of "one person, one vote" and that the primary goal of mapmakers is to reflect the interests of the general public - not the political parties and the legislative incumbents.

The Case for Reform, a briefing paper examining New York State's redistricting.

For the October 5th Times Union article on the topic....

http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/A-line-drawn-on-lines-687792.php

The League of Women Voters of Albany County will hold a meeting on redistricting in January, 2011.

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