LWV East Nassau had a very busy election season, hosting two primary candidate forums and three general election candidate forums. The three general election forums included one for Congressional District 2, and two for 3different State Senate Districts and 6 different State Assembly Districts. Fortunately, most of the candidates who agreed to attend did so. Unfortunately, there were a few who did not; and they did not even call to let us know that their plans had changed.
We distributed the LWVNYS Voters Guide I and Voters Guide II to all of our members and advertisers, as well as to candidate forum attendees, and to several of our local libraries.
Special thanks to all who worked to make the candidate forums a resounding success. AND, very special thanks to Norma Schaeffer, Voter Service Director, who has borne the major responsibility for these forums for the past several years. The moderators for this year’s forums were Paula Blum and Barbara Josepher. The timekeepers were Mary Price and Dania Smith.
Many of our long-time members recall the excellent paper Voters Guides, researched and written by Nassau County League members. These were purchased by many of the libraries and provided non-partisan information well in advance of the election. Sadly, the cost became prohibitive, and LWVNC is unable to provide these any longer. Last year, much of the information was available on the national League site Vote411.org. However, that site was not very easy to navigate.
This year, the LWVNYS provided information on its new site, votingnewyork.org. But, there was not as much information as we would have liked available on this site, and it came online later than we had hoped. We anticipate improvement by next year’s election.
Although several local newspapers provide information on the candidates before the election, only Newsday presents every candidate running throughout the county. Sadly, Newsday’s complete guide arrives on the weekend before the election, which is too late for those voting early by absentee ballot.
