About the League

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization encouraging the informed and active participation in government. It influences public policy through education and advocacy. We never support or oppose any political party or candidate.

The League of Women Voters has two separate and distinct roles.

• Voters Service/Citizen Education: We present unbiased, nonpartisan information about elections, the voting process, and issues.

• Action/Advocacy: Our actions and advocacy are also nonpartisan, but, after study, we use our positions to advocate for or against particular policies in the public interest.

To conduct our voter service and citizen education activities, we use funds from the Florence Ryan Education Fund, which is a 501(c)(3) corporation, a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to:

• Building citizen participation in the democratic process.
• Studying key community issues at all government levels in an unbiased manner.
• Enabling people to seek positive solutions to public policy issues through education and conflict management.

The League of Women Voters, a membership organization, conducts action and advocacy and is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) corporation.

The League of Women Voters promotes:

Universal voter registration and effective election laws
Fair, honest and open campaign practices
Protection of our natural resources and environmental quality
Responsible local, state and federal fiscal policies
Safe, affordable housing and child care
Women's issues
An effective criminal justice system
Fair and equitable taxes
Campaign finance reform, redistricting reform, voter-owned elections, & Instant Runoff Voting (IRV, also known as ranked choice voting)
A health care system that provides access to a basic level of quality care for all residents and controls health care costs. (The League supports the "single payer" approach.)
Abolition of the death penalty

The League of Women Voters supports equal rights for all under state and federal law and was active in opposing NC's Amendment One. The League supports legislation to equalize the legal rights, obligations, and benefits available to same- gender couples with those available to heterosexual couples. The League supports legislation to permit same- gender couples to marry under civil law.

These are just a few of our many issue positions! Click here for more information about our issue positions.

The League is also a member of a number of other wonderful coalitions, including but not limited to:
-North Carolinians for Redistricting Reform: http://www.ncredistrictingreform.com
-North Carolina Voters for Clean Elections: http://www.ncvce.org/
-North Carolina Conservation Network: http://www.ncconservationnetwork.org/
-North Carolina Women United: http://www.ncwu.org/
-North Carolina Women Matter: http://ncwomenmatter.org/
-Together NC: http://togethernc.org/
-NC Open Government Coalition: http://www.elon.edu/e-web/academics/communications/ncopengov/
-NC Coalition for Lobbying & Government Reform: http://www.nclobbyreform.org/
-NC Coalition for a Moratorium (on the death penalty): http://www.ncmoratorium.org/

Here in the Western North Carolina region, there is a local league in Henderson County [http://www.lwvhcnc.org/] and a member-at-large unit in Madison County. For contact information and for general information on statewide activities, go to the LWV North Carolina website: http://www.rtpnet.org/lwvnc. For information on the national organization, go to: http://www.lwv.org.

Read a short history of the League of Women Voters.