President’s Update – April 2026

Dawn Smith, President

I’m writing this on one of those March days that’s somewhere between winter and spring – and this year it feels like winter has lasted forever. But April is less than a week away, and that means our spring elections will be coming up shortly. 

If you haven’t already voted absentee, I’d like to encourage you to go to our YouTube channel,  https://www.youtube.com/@leagueofwomenvotersgreater1967, and see if any of the candidates in your district chose to accept our offer to submit a video to share on our YouTube channel. This was our first attempt at inviting candidates to submit their own recorded ten-minute interviews. We invited over 50 local candidates, and 17 submitted videos. There were a lot of logistics involved in this process, and a huge thanks goes out to Lynn Meshke and the members of Voter Services who helped screen candidate videos. 

You can also find the live stream of the Green Bay Area Public School Candidates on the YouTube channel. All four candidates attended the forum, and we had 35 people attend in person and ask some good questions of the candidates.

Outside of all the work Voter Services has been doing, Lynn and I have been pulled into some work the State League has been doing with the Green Bay City Clerk regarding Spanish language voting materials and accessibility. While Green Bay isn’t legally required to provide voting materials in Spanish, the city does an excellent job of trying to make voting accessible to all eligible voters, and it’s been a privilege to see the work that’s being done in this area. 

I, like many of our members, am a poll worker. This year the city of Green Bay has (finally) invested in Badger Books, so after many years working as Chief Inspector at St. Paul’s United Methodist, I’ll be moving to St. Elizabeth Seton, which is a larger polling location and will be using Badger Books. I reached out to the clerk pre-COVID and asked about Badger Books, so I’m excited to get the opportunity to pilot this functionality for the city, although going to a brand-new location with new poll workers is a little scary.

To all my members who are poll workers – thank you for your service to our community, and be safe. Everyone else, remember to vote on April 7, and you all be safe too. Let’s take care of each other.