LWV the Copper Country Participates in Nationwide Day of Action for Organization’s 100th Birthday

HOUGHTON -- The League of Women Voters turns 100 years old on February 14, and to celebrate, local and state Leagues around the country are joining in a nationwide day of action called "Women Power the Vote."

"The League was founded by suffrage leaders 100 years ago to help American women exercise their new right to vote," said Barry Elizabeth Fink, President of the Copper Country League. "Women Power the Vote" is the slogan for the League's 100-year milestone, bringing together Leagues in over 750 communities across the country with one unified day of action.

Locally the League is inviting the community to stop in at the Portage Lake District Library for birthday cake, fun activities and to access a variety of resources about new voting regulations in Michigan, voter registration forms and absentee ballot applications and other topics. As part of the celebration LWVCC is delivering 100 cookies to the Houghton Country Clerk at the courthouse to thank her for the work she and clerks all over the area are doing to implement our elections. Another 100 cookies will be delivered to the Daily Mining Gazette, in recognition of the newspaper's many years of partnership with LWVCC in publishing the Voters Guide prior to the general election. The Copper Country League is also celebrating its 60th birthday this spring.

"For 100 years, Leagues have registered voters, informed their communities on the issues, advocated in their legislatures, and helped shape their communities and this country," said Chris Carson, president of the board of the League of Women Voters of the United States. "Our founders achieved the impossible by getting the 19th Amendment passed 100 years ago, so today we honor their fight by continuing to push our democracy forward so that every voter can play a critical role in shaping our country."

The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. Membership is open to men and women of all ages. With over 750 affiliates across the county, the League is one of the nation's most trusted organizations.

"It's too easy to imagine the enfranchisement of American women simply arrived. . . like a natural step in the gradual march of progress. That's not how it happened. Winning the vote required seventy-two years of ceaseless agitation by three generations of dedicated, fearless suffragists. . .they were condemned from the pulpit and in the press, spit upon; pelted with rotten eggs; jailed and mistreated. ..It took tens of thousands of volunteers. The women who launched the movement were dead by the time it was completed; the women who secured its final success weren't born when it began. . .Through the decades, "The Cause" changed the way women saw themselves and transformed society's view of women."

Excerpts from The Women's Hour, The Great Fight to Win the Vote, Elaine Weiss