Home - League of Women Voters of Broward County

Water 101: Answers to your questions about water

Dr. Gregory Mount, Assistant Chief Resilience Officer of Broward County's Resilient Environment Department, presented this engaging talk titled Broward Water 101 to the League on April 10.

Yes on 4 Restrictions on reproductive freedom affect everyone, regardless of who they are or what they believe about abortion.

The citizen-led ballot initiative, designated on the 2024 ballot as Amendment 4 and titled the “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion,” seeks to create a constitutional amendment that would protect Floridians’ freedom to access abortion, stating:

No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.

May 10: "Belle Boyd: The Rebel Spy"

"Belle Boyd: The Rebel Spy" is the first serious non-fiction account of her life in 34 years. Belle Boyd was from Martinsburg, Virginia (West Virginia) and considered the most notorious and deceptive female spy to operate in the lower Shenandoah Valley during America's Civil War. Boyd fought the war in an unconventional way by using the weapons of a woman's beauty and a woman's wiles.

During the war, Belle Boyd was imprisoned three times, banished to the South, and eventually banished from the United States, only to become an author and actress in England. CW Whitehair has used various sources, unpublished letters, diaries, and period newspaper articles to chronicle the life of the most courageous female spy serving the Southern cause during the war.

Join the conversation on Friday, May 10 at 11 a.m. via Zoom. Members and non-members alike are welcome.

A lesson from Spring: Plant a lot of seeds

Gardeners know it's about planting seeds. Not all of them will grow, so it's better to plant a lot.

That's the philosophy of the gun violence prevention committee: spread information everywhere and hope it grows. For example, in June 2022, we emailed Broward civic associations and HOAs offering them a presentation on safe storage and guns. While many responded, some did not. Last week (!), one of those HOAs reached out to ask if we were still available. He learned about us while going through some old emails...very old!

Another example comes from Broward College Campus Safety Days where we tabled last October, distributing many business cards. The head librarian at Central Campus just invited us to make a presentation at a resource event and, of course, we said yes.

As we keep planting seeds, we hope for a bountiful harvest: freedom from gun violence for all. -- By Barbara Markley, chair, Gun Violence Prevention Committee

Let's talk trash -- and what to do about it in Broward County

Here in Broward our county officials and 28 of our 31 cities have come to an agreement to develop a comprehensive solid waste plan to deal with our almost 4 million tons of waste created every year. We don't have many places to put that trash. The waste is polluting our air, water and bodies and is a significant contributor to climate change.

League members are following all the deliberations, and giving input to prioritize waste reduction and effective recycling over landfilling and incineration. We are working to educate the public about the issue.

Here's a video where Stephanie Pearson, chair of Environmental Issues Committee of the League of Women Voters of Broward County, gives a presentation as part of a virtual panel sponsored by the Chi Psi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Broward County 10 Year Affordable Housing Plan

Approved by Broward County Commission on March 7, 2024

Broward's affordable housing crisis

Broward has a dire shortage of affordable housing, and it's an issue getting attention from the League of Women Voters of Broward.

The Broward County Commission recently adopted its first master plan on what to do about affordable housing. The 10-year-plan lays out a series of steps the county and its individual 31 cities should take. You can see it here:

Broward County 10 Year Affordable Housing Plan

Approved by Broward County Commission on March 7, 2024

The League's committee working on this issue is led by Agustina Sklar. You can contact her at agustina.sklar@gmail.com

Members of this committee stay informed of local initiatives, attend meetings with community partners, advocate for League positions and educate residents about the problem.

Request your Vote By Mail now and tell everyone else to do it too

Vote-By-Mail request is going to be an on-going topic for the next year. Even if you have heard or read this already, please do so again! Please spread the word!

First, all vote-by-mail (VBM) requests made for the 2022 election are NO longer valid. Voters don’t seem to realize this yet, so it will be a shock when it is time for the presidential preference primary (March 19, 2024) when VBM ballot packets don’t show up in voters' mailboxes.

You and your friends, family, colleagues, exercise buddies, etc. should request your VBM ballots NOW! You can do this online at browardvotes.gov, our SOE's website.

Helpful hints when you complete the VBM request online:

You will need your current Florida driver license or Florida identification number or the last four digits of your social security number.
You will need to provide an email address.
On the screen that asks for your address, note it is asking for the house or building number for your residence and NOT the street number. For example, if your address is 17034 SW 209th Court, input “17034” and not “209.”
If you will be living outside of Broward County temporarily for a specific election, you can request to have the ballot for just that election be sent to your temporary address.
Don’t want to do it online? Just call the Broward SOE office at (954) 357-7055.

We give you FOUR good reasons.

EIGHT useful tips for writing your government representatives.

NINE steps to make it easier to call elected officials.

FOUR quick ways to make your emails to officials more effective.