Emailing - League of Women Voters Jacksonville First Coast

The Voter

November 2025

President’s Message

As we prepare for the upcoming holiday season, I know many of our members are feeling the weight of what is taking place in our nation because you know better than many what is at stake. I appreciate that in the face of so many challenges, that YOU are still in the fight for our democracy.

During the most recent No Kings rally at the Duval County Courthouse I was excited to join a group of League members educating attendees about the impending mid-decade redistricting in Florida. Many were not aware that a special House committee had been named or the impact on our state's 2026 midterm elections should the gerrymandering take place. We provided information on Florida's constitution and the Voting Rights Act and asked that they send a message to their Florida House and Senate Representative. Our first question was "are you aware of the possible mid-decade redistricting in Florida?" to which most answered no. And the second question was "who are your Florida representatives?" to which only a handful knew the answer! We invested a good portion of time engaging attendees about how to find their elected representatives and provided the name, district and contact information.

Between July 2020 and July 2024, it is estimated that Florida received 24.7% of positive intra-state migration in the United States. A good portion of these new neighbors are from the Mid Atlantic region to include New York and New Jersey as well as from Illinois and California.

These are all states whose voting and elections guidelines may differ from Florida, especially as we are a closed primary state and we have NPA's and not an Independent political party. What does this mean for us? It means that we must invest time necessary to educate Floridians about who their representatives are, how to contact them and what will be taking place before, during and after the 2026 Legislative Session. And we will need YOU to help us do this work.

Thank you for all that you do to ensure that democracy does not die on our watch!

“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” John F. Kennedy

Lanelle Phillmon

President, LWVJFC

News & Events

One Person, One Vote Committee Virtual Meeting

Are you interested in learning more about the Electoral College? National Popular Vote Interstate Compact?

Please join the One Person, One Vote Committee meeting on November 12th at 7:00PM. Register here to receive the zoom link - https://lwvjaxfc.org/content.aspx?page_id=4091&club_id=782872&item_id=2744859 or by logging into your LWVJFC account and going to the calendar. We will be discussing a plan for outreach to our local Florida house and senate representatives and review the recently updated One Person, One Vote presentation.

If you have any questions - please reach out to Rhona DiCamillo at vp.lwvjaxfc@gmail.com.

SAY NO TO MID-DECADE REDISTRICTING!

We appreciate our members who were able to join us for the "Say No to Mid-Decade Redistricting" Day of Action October 4th. In addition to the cards we collected at the Clay and Duval events, we engaged 250 Floridians at the No Kings Rally in Jacksonville on October 18th. We also collected cards at the October 25th membership meeting. We have one more event in early November before we personally deliver the cards to the Northeast Florida legislative delegation members.

For those who were not able to attend the in person events, we are asking that you send a message to your Florida House and Senate Representative via their website or mail them a letter or card to let them know that you oppose the mid-decade redistricting. This effort to further gerrymander our congressional maps is politically motivated and violates the Florida Constitution as well as the Voting Rights Act.

Find your elected representative: https://www.flhouse.gov/FindYourRepresentative

On your House Representative's page select "contact member" and on the Senator's page select "Email this Senator" so your communication confirms that you are their constituent. Each message, call, or letter/card makes a difference by sending a message that Floridians voted for fair districts in 2010, and mid-decade redistricting goes against the will of the people. It undermines voter trust, destabilizes trust in elections, and distracts from the real issues Floridians are facing like property insurance, housing affordability, and health care. Voters should choose their elected officials, not the other way around. Please protect our State Constitution and the voice of Florida voters by rejecting mid-decade redistricting.

This will be an ongoing campaign to educate our members and the public as we push back against this attempt to gerrymander our state.

Voter Registration News

The voter registration committee doesn’t just register voters, we go out in the community to educate voters, promote resources, collaborate with community partners, just to name a few. All members have to take the training and pass the quiz(not difficult). During the month of October we tabled at Pride Fest, No Kings, Lush Cosmetics and UNF. Next month we will be at Caroline Village Apartments. We get to meet and interact with so many different people. It is very rewarding.

In Florida there are 18.1 million eligible voters and 13.5 million registered voters, therefore there are 4.6 million potential voters to reach. It’s hard to break down the numbers for Northeast Florida but there is work to be done. Please consider joining the voter registration committee.

“The vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in a democracy.”-John Lewis

Recent Meeting of the Board

It's not often we have the opportunity to gather our board members in one location but we were very fortunate for our recently termed out board members and current board members to enjoy lunch at Maggiano's Little Italy. We are fortunate to have such talented, experienced leaders who lead and support our work across four counties.

We recently experienced another unforeseen change to our board membership with the resignation of Susan Goldring. Susan has been recovering from an injury and needs to focus on her recovery. We will miss Susan on the board but are thankful that she is healing and should make a full recovery. We are also excited to announce our newest board member is Erika Kristo, a Nassau County resident who has been active with our Voter Registration Committee. She is our first board member from Nassau County in quite some time and we look forward to increasing our membership in the county and finding ways to engage voters.

Forbidden Florida Reads

Izzy Miletic is a junior Economics and Literature student at Florida State University. She is a board member of the League of Women Voters of Tallahassee, where she began publishing Forbidden Florida Reads. Forbidden Florida Reads is Izzy’s original monthly column that highlights a book banned in at least one Florida school district. Izzy is passionate about books and educational policy making. She hopes to attend law school and earn her Masters in Library and Information Science.

Read Izzy’s November column on “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess, the No. 1 Banned Book in the U.S. in ’24 –’25.

Membership Update

New Members - Welcome aboard!

Deborah Edgar

Norma Miller

Debra Mraz

Jordan Wallace

Barbara Zdravecky

Interested in being part of the League? JOIN TODAY!

Donors

Donations are always appreciated!

We wish to acknowledge and thank those who made donations this month:

Gloria Negroa

Our website lwvjaxfc.org offers an easy way to make donations to LWVJFC, even if you prefer to pay by check. Click on the red "Donate" button at the top of the Homepage.

Stay Connected

Local

Stay up-to-date on all local upcoming events on the LWV of Jacksonville / First Coast:

• Website

• Facebook

• LinkedIn

Regional
The Regional Facebook Group, LWV Florida North Region Leagues, includes Alachua, Bay, Jacksonville/First Coast, Okaloosa & Walton, Pensacola Bay Area, and Tallahassee.

State
For statewide news and action items, visit the LWV of Florida.

National

The League of Women Voters of the United States

Contact Us!

Phone: 904-355-8683

Email: LWVJAXFC@gmail.com

Postal Address:
League of Women Voters of Jacksonville First Coast
PO Box 350210
Jacksonville, FL 32235-9998

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization encouraging informed and active participation in government. We influence public policy through education and advocacy.

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