Greetings and Merry May to you,
I hope you are getting your personal spring cleaning underway by looking at things that have not served you well through indifference, lack of empathy, or unfulfillment because you deserve to be a part of an energy that embraces you, fights for you, your family’s democracy, your well-being, and your safety. As a member of the League of Women Voters, you are in the right place!!
Women and those who love and support women are vital to the well-being of our league’s mission, our state’s advocacy, and our nation’s excellence!
The legislature closed its session passing elections bills that countered democracy. Yet, we will not be deterred because we stand committed to a fair, transparent, and open voting process for all registered voters.
We will continue to educate across the state on the constitutional amendment vote in August on whether the merit system for the Supreme Court should be changed. Palm cards are now available educating the public on this issue. We have posted our position statement on the constitutional amendment on our website so that the public knows our stance. We will send a press release of the same. If you are interested in receiving cards to educate others, please reach out to our board members.
We stand united with the Kansas and other local leagues in posting our league position of voting NO on the constitutional amendment to change the judicial selection from a merit based process to an elected process during the primary election in August.
Also, please note there is a proposed constitutional amendment for the general election in November to vote on the Kansas Citizenship Voting Requirement. The board will be taking up a position on this amendment soon and will share with the membership.
Legislative focus
Below is a summary of bills to date as currently known by the LWVTSC below:
Election Bills.
- HB 2437, HB 2569 and HB 2587 passed the House and Senate and were sent to the Governor on March 30. The Governor vetoed all three. On April 9, both chambers overrode the veto of HB 2437. The other two bills were not acted on before sine-die and died.
- HB 2437 OVERRIDE. (84/39; 28/11) Checking multiple sources, including government voter registration agencies, to clean voter rolls; and added (HB 2438) online registration restrictions – voter applications need to be on a .gov website or approved by the SOS; and added (HB 2640) requiring checks with the SAVE system for non-citizens. Senate: (28/12) House (80/43)
- HB 2438, which was amended to HB 2437 was improved by delaying enactment until the SOS has rules and regulations in place (probably in 2027) and we are led to believe that KSVotes.org would meet the anticipated rules and regulations, but the bill still prohibits county election offices from accepting voter registration forms from non-approved sites, violating federal law.
- Also, states using the SAVE system for broad data checks for non-citizens, have been sued for removing citizens from voter rolls. The national SAVE system does not automatically update when immigrants are naturalized ( info from Advocacy LWVK)
HB 2437 – This bill proposes to expand the list of data sources that can be used to remove people from voter registration rolls. It would need careful monitoring to ensure people are not improperly removed and that electors data is not improperly shared with unauthorized or unknown users.
HB 2438 – This bill limits the ways people can register online to vote. This bill would target the dismantling of websites that have been vetted to seek registration of voters for years and have been more reliable than even the Secretary of State website, which has gone down and does not always provide effective data. Most importantly, this bill sets up a monopoly which forces the funneling of people interested in registering, and could promote a system shutdown, limiting the peoples’ access during critical election windows. amended to remove ksvotes ban, still problematic for issues with federal compliance re rejecting federal voter reg forms.
Please note these local bills are part of the SAVE Act being strategically pushed by the Administration, which has yet to pass the senate in full, and has significant restrictions for voters.
Annual Meeting 2026
Many thanks to our members and guests for attending our annual meeting. Congratulations to all of our newly elected members and thank you for your support.
We need you! Below are areas we can use your support. Please consider your time and let us know if you can help us help make this organization grow. All persons considered must be members of the league.
Young Adults Advocacy Initiative
We have received information from an organization that can possibly help us through reimbursed funding next year. We are hoping that an injection of funds to help kick off this initiative will be critical to those interested in restructuring our new initiative – Young adult legislative advocacy. If this is a passion for you, we need you. If you have skills or hobbies that include mentoring, teaching, debate, public speaking, research, legislative advocacy, social media and/ or tech marketing, this committee is for you! This role is very important in including our young adults in civic engagement while promoting the work of our organization.
Financial Mentee
A Financial mentee position is available for someone interested in shadowing the treasurer and learning about managing, overseeing and safeguarding the organization’s financial operations as part of a succession planning strategy.
Voter Services Team co- chairs
This is an awesome opportunity for you and a friend to work together to make an awesome workplace get the community engaged in voter experiences. We already have established members that work with naturalization services, school networking, and need more connections with community tabling events and coordination with our volunteer system, POINT. This is a great opportunity to get involved in community fun while helping to inform voters. It’s a win-win!!
Our lifeblood – you!
Our calls continue to reach out to you – our members. Many of you are successfully responding and we thank you! However, If you haven’t renewed yet, please consider doing so. If you are waiting to hear from us, have no fear, you are on our list and we will be calling you soon. You are important to our organization!! If you know anyone who would be a great fit for our organization, please forward them our contact information. In addition, we continue to send invitation letters to non-partisan organizations and individuals encouraging them to join us in defending and strengthening democracy, definitely a task where we continue to need all hands on deck.
We are up to 169 in our membership ! We are continuing to support our student members who are interested in renewing by paying ½ of their membership as scholarships. It is vital to our organization to keep our students engaged in democracy through our organization!
Welcome to our New members! Angela, Anne, Alice, D’Ette, Ellen , Renee W., Renee A., We are glad you have joined us and we look forward to working with you!
Thank you to our renewing members: Mary and Kimberely. We appreciate all you do! Let’s get busy!!
Please tune into Inspire on KTWU and see the Right to Vote program. Your league was invited to attend and discuss elements of the SAVE Act. Please see what we had to share. Many thanks to Secretary Cindy Lash and Vice President Paul Post for joining me on the taping.
Legislative Action
Here is a link to the Election Committee site. This is how you can help:
- Access this site weekly to determine progress
- Watch for our Legislative Action Alerts
- Sign up to be a testimonial writer
- Sign up to be an observer
- Sign up to be a member speaker
- If interested in signing up, please contact me at President@lwvtsc.org
- Watch or participate in committee meetings on www.kslegislature.org
League affiliate updates
The 2026 LWV National Convention will be held in Columbus, Ohio at the Hilton Columbus Downtown. It starts on Thursday, June 25, 2026 and ends Sunday June 28, 2026. Registration for the Convention is now open. Check the LWVUS website for details. The convention is open to all members. The LWVUS is also offering limited scholarships for convention attendance in person and virtually. See the attached link. https://events.lwv.org/event/Convention2026/scholarship
Consider joining our LWVUS Unite & Rise 8.5 effort which aims to build a movement of 8.5 million individuals to unite and rise against the anti- democratic actions of this administration. Go to LWV.org to sign up!
NOW AVAILABLE: Civic Action Toolkit During ICE Activity and Related Blog With immigration enforcement activity increasing in our communities, it can create fear, confusion, and barriers to participation in civic life. Leagues can now review our civic action toolkit on the League Management Site to learn how to show up safely, lawfully, and in solidarity during ICE activity.
o LWVUS has a new blog post describing what’s happening with ICE and how to respond, including Know Your Rights information.
Let’s get to the POINT!
Feel free to continue to connect with our voter services team! Things are gearing up and this is a great time to get on board and express your interest in participating. Join them on the POINT application and get in on the experience! They are outreaching to the community providing education on registration and voting. Below is the link to volunteer for our events.
💜💜Your board members are always available to answer questions and help you move the League’s mission forward. Feel free to reach out!
Remember as we work to protect democracy, Teamwork makes the dream work!
Best regards,
Dr. Glenda Overstreet Vaughn, President
Community Connections
It is important for us to share and exchange events held by our collaborators. We also extend an invite for our members to participate as interested. See partner events below.
- The Topeka ( KS) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated hosts its Third Annual Mother’s Day Brunch on Saturday, May 9, 2026 from 10:00 A.M.-1:00 P.M. at the Townsite Tower Ballroom, 535 S. Kansas Avenue, Topeka,, KS, Tickets $75. Www.topekalinksinc.org or call 785-845-1099. Wear your Crown!! Save the Date.
- Many thanks to our advocacy partners, Loud Light and ACLU for uniting in legislative testimony against the voter suppression bills. The LWVK and LWVTSC have been diligently submitting testimony as have other local leagues in actively advocating against election bills this session that propose to strip or reduce voting access and rights. Updates on how you can help are shared in Action Alerts.
Remember: If you have a community group interested in learning about the recent proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution, which eliminates the merit selection of Supreme Court Justices, please reach out to the League and we will connect you with a resource to come make presentations to your group(s).
Legislative Session Resource. I encourage you to contact members of the Shawnee County legislative delegation, by phone or email, regarding proposed or passed legislation. Included below is their Statehouse contact information.
- Sen. Brenda Dietrich Room #223-E 785.296.7648Brenda.Dietrich@senate.ks.gov
- Sen. Rick Kloos Room # 418-E 785.296.7645Rick.Kloos@senate.ks.gov
- Sen. Patrick Schmidt Room #135-E 785.296-7372 Patrick.Schmidt@senate.ks.gov
- Sen. Kenny Titus Room #124-E 785.296.7656Kenny.Titus@senate.ks.gov
- Rep. John Alcala Room #173-W 785.296-7371 John.Alcala@house.ks.gov
- Rep. Jesse Borjon Room #512-N 785.296.7374Jesse.borjon@house.ks.gov
- Rep. Ken Corbett Room #187-N 785.296-7679 ken.corbet@house.ks.gov
- Rep. Kirk Haskins Room #43-S 785.296.7673Kirk.Haskins@house.ks.gov
- Rep. Kyle McNorton Room #561-W 785.296.7460Kyle.McNorton@house.ks.gov
- Rep. Tobias Schlingensiepen 785.296.7669 Room #174-W Tobias.Schlingensiepen@house.ks.gov
- Rep. Alexis Simmons Room #43-S 785.296.7632Alexis.Simmons@house.ks.gov
- Rep. Virgil Weigel Room #451-S 785.296.7104virgil.weigel@house.ks.gov
Furthermore, you may access the Kansas Legislative website at http://kslegislature.gov to review bill status and content, house and senate calendars and committee schedules. Through this website you may listen to or via video streaming follow committee hearings and General Session proceedings.
An additional resource is the State Library. You may access their services in the following ways:
- Phone:800-432-3919 or 785-296-2149
- Legislative Hotline: 800-432-3924
- Email: infodesk@ks.gov
- Download the Ask a Librarian app to your mobile device.
