It's Monday, February 10.

The League is a nonpartisan organization, which means that we never endorse or oppose a political candidate or party. However, this does not prevent us from condemning presidential actions that threaten our democracy. Trump has issued executive orders that are terrorizing immigrant and LGBTQA+, especially trans, communities and working to dismantle civil rights work. Trump has fired members of CISA, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which works to protect the physical and cyber safety of electoral systems. And recently Trump illegally fired a chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission, a campaign watchdog agency. All of these actions will have a direct impact on our democracy and voters. 

Many of you have been contacting your Maine Senators and Representatives to issue your concerns. Maine people are standing up to these unconstitutional actions, and we urge you to keep up the pressure. Call your Maine congress person and tell them to fight the ongoing assault on our democracy: Susan Collins, Jared Golden, Angus King, and Chellie Pingree.

More bills are getting released everyday, and now there are over 500 to be considered by the Maine Legislature. The League is still waiting on our bills to be printed and assigned a LD (legislative document) number. We're also anticipating bad bills: legislation to enact strict voter ID laws, laws that threaten the Maine Clean Elections Act, and bills that would repeal the National Popular Vote, something we worked to pass just last year. We'll keep you informed of these bills when they come up. In the meantime, have you signed up for our lobby day on Tuesday, February 25 in Augusta? It'll be the perfect time to talk to your legislator about League issues but also the issues you care about. Sign up here.

Here are upcoming public hearings on priority bills:

Monday, February 10 // 10:00 AM // SLG Committee

• LD 53: Make Election Day a Holiday — This bill establishes November elections as a state holiday. The League will testify as neither for nor against (NFNA), because enacting a time-off-to-vote law is a better way to support voters in the workforce.

Monday, February 10 // 11:00 AM // VLA Committee

• LD 349: Repeal Same-day Voter Registration — This bill repeals same-day voter registration, which currently allows Mainers to register to vote or update their voter registration on election day. The League opposes this bill. Thousands of voters utilize this right, and taking it away would drastically impact voter participation.

Let's talk about two good things: Proportional Ranked Choice Voting and Pizza

As chaos swirls in Washington, a League study on proportional ranked choice voting (pRCV) might feel like distraction. But it turns out that proportional election methods may be among the best tools we have to address political polarization – at the national, state, and local levels. And we know that systemic change begins locally. We encourage you to register for one of the League's introductory webinars, which are scheduled for this week.

Are you ready to give pRCV a try? We want to elect councils and boards that accurately reflect the whole community – and we know that you didn’t serve three pepperoni pizzas at your Super Bowl party, leaving the vegetarian minority to go hungry. The Study Committee has set up a sample pRCV election, designed to identify three pizzas that can broadly satisfy the participating voters  Click here to add your vote, and then explore the round-by-round count to find out which pizzas are currently in the lead!

Our Proportional Ranked Choice Voting (pRCV) Study Guide provides more details about how a pRCV tabulation translates ranked choice votes into proportional representation here: www.lwvme.org/pRCV