In this issue of the League of Women Voters of Arlington Bulletin:
- April 2025 Calendar
- Co-President’s Message
- LWVA Welcomes New Members
- Mark Your Calandars: LWV Arlington’s Annual Legislators’ Brunch May 4
- Thanks to All Who Helped with Candidates’ Night
- League Co-Sponsors Hands Off! Rallies
- LWVA to Co-Sponsor June Event
- An Unprecedented, Breathtaking Assault on American Democracy: LWV Responds to Trump Administration’s First 60 Days
- Membership Dues Update
Election Information
Information on elections and voting (upcoming election dates, voter registration, early voting, vote by mail, tracking your ballot, offices and candidate lists, where to vote, and becoming an election worker) is available on the Elections & Voting page of the Arlington Town website.
Townwide Candidate Information
The League of Women Voters of Arlington and Envision Arlington co-sponsored Arlington Candidates’ Night on Wednesday, March 19 in the Town Hall Auditorium. There were statements and question-and-answer sessions with the candidates for town-wide offices: Select Board, School Committee, Board of Assessors, Housing Authority, and Town Moderator. A recording of the event, along with candidate video statements and debates produced by ACMi for the 2025 Town Election, are available on the Election Coverage page of the ACMi website.
Town Meeting Candidate Information
The Town Clerk provided an opportunity for Town Meeting candidates to submit a statement for publication to help voters make informed choices and to reduce the potential cost of running for Town Meeting. Neither the Town of Arlington nor the Town Clerk endorse candidates. The statements were not fact-checked and if a candidate on the ballot is not listed here, it simply means they did not submit a statement. You can view candidate statements for Town Meeting races on the Arlington Town website.
The following was posted on the League Leaders list of the LWV of Massachusetts by Lynn Cohen, LWV of Westford. It is reprinted with her permission.
This article in the New Republic, headlined Fighting Back: A Citizen’s Guide to Resistance, begins this way:
“Democracy is not a spectator sport.”
“That truism has been repeated by notables from Gen. Jim Mattis to Barack Obama to George Shultz, Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state. But it’s fitting that the person credited with first saying it was a private citizen whom nobody particularly remembers.”
“Lotte Scharfman (1928–1970) was a Jewish refugee from Nazi-occupied Austria who became president of the Massachusetts chapter of the League of Women Voters. Her cause was an obscure one: She wanted to reduce the size of Massachusetts’s bloated House of Representatives from 240 members to 160. The measure failed on its first vote in the House in 1970, for the obvious reason that no representative wanted to risk losing their own seat. But after several House members were voted out later that year for opposing the reform measure, it cleared the state legislature, and in 1974 it won overwhelming approval from Massachusetts voters.”
One thing the article gets wrong is that there are many of us who remember who Lotte Scharfman was & what she said & did.
And on Boston.com, an article headlined Election experts weigh in on what Trump’s new executive order means for Massachusetts voters, presents several people’s opinions on the president’s recent anti-voter executive order, as LWVUS accurately calls it.
“Whether or not the executive order will stick is currently unknown and will likely depend on what legal challenges are brought before it. Until then, [Ruth] Greenwood [the director of the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School] said, Massachusetts voters should continue to rely on the same sources as before to ensure that they know their rights.”
“ ‘I would rely on people like the League of Women Voters, the ACLU of Massachusetts… to be able to provide accurate information,” Greenwood said. “For now, the law is exactly as it was before the executive order, and people should just continue to trust in the sources that they’ve trusted until now.’ ”
We can agree with that.
In this issue of the League of Women Voters of Arlington Bulletin:
- March 2025 Calendar
- Co-President’s Message
- Come to Candidates’ Night!
- From the Sate League:
Light for Our Democracy – March 4
Day of Action in Solidarity with Immigrant Communities – March 5 - LWVMA’s DEI Peer Group is back up and running in 2025!
- State League Program Available for Viewing
Important Deadlines
Last day to register to vote – Wednesday, March 26 at 5 PM
Last day to apply to vote by mail – Monday, March 31 at 5 PM
Town Election Information
Information on elections and voting (upcoming election dates, voter registration, early voting, vote by mail, tracking your ballot, offices and candidate lists, where to vote, and becoming an election worker) is available on the Elections & Voting page of the Arlington Town website.
Candidates’ Night Event – Wednesday, March 19
The League of Women Voters of Arlington and Envision Arlington are co-sponsoring Arlington Candidates’ Night on Wednesday, March 19 at 8 PM in the Town Hall Auditorium. The event will be broadcast live on ACMi, shown on cable several times before the election, and available to stream online.
There will be question-and-answer sessions with the candidates for town-wide offices: Select Board, School Committee, Board of Assessors, Housing Authority, and Town Moderator. There will also be informal sessions with candidates for Town Meeting before the event, from 7:30 to 8 PM.
Residents may submit questions in advance by emailing envision@town.arlington.ma.us before Friday, February 28. Questions will not be taken during the event. Questions should apply to every candidate in the race and the race should be included in the question.
We need volunteers to help with the event. Please contact Laura Ahner (laura.ahner00@gmail.com) to sign up.
