Our Priorities & Partners

2024

Priorities - Overview

The LWVMN board of directors has set these priorities for the 2024 MN Legislative Session based on prior legislative session results, input from community partners, their relevance to LWV’s mission, their political feasibility and urgency, and staff capacity. Our overall strategy is to:

  • Lead with regards to local Redistricting reform, in line with LWVUS, and the availability of a full-time volunteer lobbyist committed to this issue. 

  • Ally with partners who are leading on legislation in all other priority areas.

  • Engage our members through involvement in our priorities, and assisting in facilitation of their individual interests that align with our LWVMN positions. 

  • Continue to use a lens of racial justice in all our legislative work, and to especially acknowledge the intersectionality of racial justice with other issues.

2024 Legislative Priorities

  1. Redistricting Reform - prioritize congressional and legislative, as well as local, redistricting reform to establish redistricting processes at the state and local level which are driven by citizens through citizen commissions; include prioritized principles that place minority representation and communities of interest above geographic and political considerations; and establish transparency through public input and review. Local redistricting reform will be specific to larger cities and counties, and will be similar in form and approach to changes to be taken at the state level. 

  2. Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) - promote the adoption of a ballot issue in 2024 or 2026 to add the ERA into the Minnesota State Constitution that is consistent with the positions of LWV.
    Proposed ballot question:
    "Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to say that all persons shall be guaranteed equal rights under the laws of the state, and that the state shall not discriminate against any person on account of race, color, national origin, ancestry, disability, or sex, including pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, reproductive freedom, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation?"

  3. Climate Change - continue to support the Minnesota Environmental Partnership in working  toward solutions to climate change with a focus on zero waste solutions, protecting clean water and being a watchdog for environmental regulators with our volunteer-led Climate Change Task Force.

 

Democracy

Climate Change

Racial Justice

 
 

Approved by the League of Women Voters Minnesota Board of Directors on November 27, 2023.

Other 2024 Statewide Priorities

LWVMN will also engage in education and support of the following issues, as time, resources and member engagement allow, ensuring that they are consistent with the positions of LWV and LWVMN.

  • Ranked Choice Voting - continue to support Ranked Choice Voting as an option for local governments, and become further educated about its feasibility for statewide elections.

    • Statement on LWVMN Position on Ranked Choice Voting in Minnesota:

      The League of Women Voters of Minnesota (LWVMN) believes in representative government, and supports electoral systems that elect policy-making bodies–-legislatures, councils, commissions, and boards—that proportionally reflect the people they represent. We encourage electoral methods that provide the broadest voter representation possible and are expressive of voter choices. This includes support for the option to use Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), especially within local governments and municipalities, where election officials are best able to effectively administer, and voters are most able to be educated and engaged in, the use of an alternative voting system. LWVMN is proud to have had local League support and involvement in the use of RCV in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington and St. Louis Park.

      The use of RCV for state and federal elections, especially within larger states, is still being explored, given the challenges of implementation for election officials and of ensuring adequate voter education and engagement. Alaska and Maine, which use RCV beyond local elections, have registered voters of 590,000 in 30 counties and 1 million in 16 counties respectively, whereas Minnesota has 3.5 million registered voters in 87 counties. Our size alone would make RCV much more difficult to implement within our diverse counties, and to achieve voter confidence, which is so important to successful elections.

      LWVMN believes that more experience is needed with RCV locally and nationally before we endorse use of RCV for all state and federal elections, along with support from the Minnesota Secretary of State's office. We also believe more time is needed to effectively align and implement the many new voting rights and election reform policies within our local communities that are now being voted on within the MN Legislature. As a member-based organization, we need to secure input and consensus from our 34 local Leagues that RCV is right for state and federal elections. LWVMN would support at this time, however, changing state law to allow municipalities to use RCV in all local elections. We also support the development of a Task Force to help with the ongoing dialog around RCV in Minnesota, and would be honored to serve on it.

      We remain excited by and supportive of the conversation around RCV, and of learning more about how our voters are best served by alternative electoral methods here in Minnesota.

  • Money in Politics - work with We Choose Us MN and Clean Elections MN to ensure that campaign finance regulation enhances political equality for all citizens, ensures transparency, protects representative democracy from distortion by big money, and combats corruption and undue influence in government.

  • End of Life Options - support laws ensuring end of life options.

2024 Partners & Coalitions

LWVMN is proud to partner with many organizations and coalitions that share our pro-voter mission and pro-democracy values. For the 2024 legislative session, these include: 

Lobby Corps & Observer Corps

LWVMN also trains a team of volunteers to work on policy issues during the legislative session. Volunteer lobbyists, known as Lobby Corps members, often work on our legislative priorities, as well as other issues related to League positions. We also have volunteers, known as Observer Corps members, who watch and summarize legislative committee hearings. Issues that Lobby Corps members have worked on recently include natural resources policy and civics education. Learn more.

Local Advocacy

Many of our Local Leagues engage in education and advocacy on a much wider array of issues, tailored to the needs and interests of their local communities. Learn more about our Local Leagues.