Education fund.

VOTER EDUCATION AND OUTREACH

Planning is now underway for exciting opportunities in the 2006 election season. We are continuing to build our youth engagement activities.

Smackdown Your Vote! has issued a new 18-30 VIP (Voter Issues Paper). The VIP encourages that age group to use the VIP questions to engage their elected officials in a dialogue in advance of fall 2005 elections and national mid-term elections in 2006. SYV! is launching a national forum series for young adults and political leaders this fall. The forums will focus on political leaders' responses to the issues identified in the 18-30 VIP. Finally, SYV! has created the Smackdown Your Vote! Network, a national network focused on raising awareness among young adults about the importance of voting, and getting more candidates for political office to respond to the legitimate issues of young adults in a formal and credible way.

The League also continues our outreach to language minorities. For the 2005 elections, we are working with the Washington, DC, area Telemundo to produce get-out-the-vote PSAs in Spanish for Virginia's statewide elections.

ELECTION REFORM

The report from the LWVEF and McCormick Tribune Foundation sponsored forum "Next Steps in Election Reform" is now available in the Library at www.lwv.org. Copies have been sent to League presidents, Congress, the media, state election officials, members of the Carter-Baker Commission, numerous advocacy organizations and others. To request a copy (Pub#2073), call 888-287-7424 or e-mail [e-mail].

The third in the League's series of monographs, Helping America Vote: Statewide Voter Registration Databases, has been published. It is available in the Library at www.lwv.org. Copies have been mailed to League presidents, the media, state and local election officials, numerous advocacy organizations and others. To obtain a copy (Pub#2072), call 888-287-7424 or e-mail [e-mail].

Work is now beginning on the fourth monograph in this series. It will cover another important aspect of election administration, polling place operations. The League will be looking at innovative approaches to this subject.

CIVIL LIBERTIES--CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

The League's Local Voices forums on civil liberties and secure communities, held in ten locales across the country, were a resounding success. For a complete story see p. 4. Copies of the final report have been mailed to League presidents, Congress, federal executive branch officials, the media, advocacy organizations and others. This report is available in the Library at www.lwv.org.

At the June Council meeting, the League hosted a panel discussion on "Civil Liberties: Balancing Liberty and Security." LWVUS President Kay J. Maxwell opened the panel and introduced the moderator, Joseph Onek, director of the Liberty and Security Initiative, The Constitution Project. The discussants were Rick Blum, director of OpenTheGovernment.org; Bert Brandenburg, executive director of Justice at Stake Campaign; Kareem Shora, director of Legal Policy, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee; and Michele Waslin, director of Immigration Policy Research, National Council of La Raza. They each presented their concerns and suggested ways that Leagues can address issues specific to their communities as well as national concerns. After the discussion, the audience had an opportunity to direct questions to the panelists.

A DVD (Pub#2075) of this forum is available for $5.00. Call 888-287-7424 or e-mail [e-mail]. Also, see p. 10 for an interview with one of the panelists.

GLOBAL DEMOCRACY

The League returns to Africa! The U.S. State Department Bureau of Citizen Exchanges awarded the League a grant to organize a two-year exchange program bringing eight Kenyans each year to the United States. The program, Kenyans Working Together for Good Governance: Civil Society, Government and Members of Parliament, will focus on communities in Kenya's coastal region. Its goal is to promote good governance in Kenya by strengthening accountability and transparency in government institutions and by building trust among the players. This two-phase project will bring eight Kenyans to the U.S. to learn about our government, culture and participatory democracy, and take League member-professionals to Kenya to foster dialogue about the importance of accountability and transparency. Two Leagues will be chosen to participate for the two years. Each year, the selected local or state Leagues will host four Kenyans apiece; then two members from each host League will travel to Kenya. This program runs from November 2005 to August 2007.

Six Leagues are hosting 30 Russian Leaders this fall under a grant from the Open World Program Center for Leadership. The Leagues selected for this civic hosting program are: LWVs of Claremont Area, CA; Calvert County, MD; Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC; Duluth, MN; Portland, OR; and Lake Forest/Lake Bluff, IL.

In late May, National Board member Sarah Diefendorf, Deputy Executive Director/Director of Global Democracy Programs Zaida Arguedas, and San Diego League member Peggy Lauer led two advanced advocacy training workshops in Jamaica. The workshops on Empowering Citizens to Influence Public Policy were attended by 49 members of 15 civil society organizations. Praise from one participant: "Thanks to the consulting group from the League of Women Voters, the workshop was effectively carried out. Keep up the good work. It would be good to have you come back."

The League is partnering for a third year with The People Speak, a program sponsored by the United Nations Foundation. Twenty-four forums are organized this fall to bring thoughtful discussion and debate about foreign policy to hundreds of thousands of Americans and foreign citizens in their schools, churches, universities, clubs, homes and civic organizations. This year's discussion, "Building a Safer World: Can America and the UN Work Together?" focuses on one of the most important U.S. foreign policy issues: U.S. leadership and membership in the United Nations. From September 1 to November 30, each forum will address one of the four topic areas: poverty, hunger and health; war and conflict; weapons of mass destruction and terrorism; and the environment.

During the fall, the Open Society Institute-DC is funding nine additional Women Engaging Globally forums to engage influential U.S. women as advocates for U.S. foreign policy promoting human rights, economic development, peace and security, and sustainable development. The following Leagues were selected for participation: LWV of Geneva/St. Charles, IL, on Multilateralism; LWV of Brookfield, CT, on Trafficking; LWV of Pocatello, ID, on Trafficking; LWV of Miami-Dade County, FL, on Poverty, Globalization and Trade; LWV of Charleston Area, SC, on HIV/AIDS; LWV of Washing-ton State on Poverty, Globalization and Trade; and LWV of Fairfax, VA, on CEDAW.