Watchdog- December 2024

Author- Berkley Barlow

I’m thrilled to be bringing another Watchdog of 2024 to you. Make sure to pay attention to our updates on upcoming League events and new information for this year on our calendar. If you aren’t already following us on Instagram or Facebook make sure to click the links at the top or bottom of the website to stay updated!

LEARN ABOUT THE LEAGUE

It has been a while since we have explained the purpose and mission of the League of Women Voters. Below is some information that provides a good review. We do not always do a good job of communicating with new members, so this is also beneficial for that purpose. Take a minute to review this.

Mission Statement

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization that encourages informed and active participation in government works to increase understanding of major public policy issues and influences public policy through education and advocacy.

Basic Policy

The League of Women Voters may take any action on government activities and policies in the public’s best interest based on position statements from national, state, and local leagues. We do not support or oppose any candidate or political party. Unless authorized, the President is the only spokesperson for each level. All levels of the League are well-respected and considered full of integrity.

Consists of Three Tiers

National Level – Encompasses all Leagues in All States – Master Organization – Develops Nationwide Position Statements on National Issues – Lobbies at the National Legislature – Represents All Leagues in the Nation – www.lwv.org – National Voter/Impact on Issues– Convention at a National Level

State Level – Encompasses all Leagues in the State – Lead Organization for the State – Develops Statewide Position Statements on State Issues -Lobbies at the State Legislature – Represents all Leagues in the State – www.lwvut.org – Utah Voter’s Guide – Convention at a State Level

Local Level – Encompasses all Members Usually in a County – Develops County/Local Position Statements on County/Local Issues – Members Lobby at the State Legislature - lwvweber.org – Watchdog/Voter’s Guide – Annual Meeting at a Local Level

Local Officers

President:  Terri McCulloch

President Elect:  Arlene Anderson

Vice-President:  Tirzah Fields and Tammi Ryan

Vice-President:  Anne Freimuth

Vice-President:  Karen Thurber

Secretary:  Siera Green and Berkley Barlow

Treasurer:  Prasanna Reddy

Communications:  Arlene Anderson, Berkley Barlow, Tammi Ryan

Advisory Board Members: Denise Green, Marcia Harris, Vicky Heithaus,
Marie Kawaguchi, Donna Kimball, Carole Lapine, Marilyn O'Dell, Rebecca Robley, Marcia Thomas, and Barbara Wachocki

LWV LEGISLATIVE BILL TRACKER LINK

We have an excellent resource available to stay on top of where bills that we are watching or testifying for. Go to the link below and it will tell you what bill it is, what it is about, and where it is right now. The Legislative Action Corps reports on the different area they are interested in and reports daily. Take a look at the status

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zPqibqm3235Hf3WkxuMBoL6-3GO7LS7uw6nuCkODl9k/edit#gid=0

A message from our President

As Thanksgiving approaches, I sincerely want to thank every one of you. I would ask and you would deliver. The impact the Weber County League had on our community was definitely felt! We were out there everywhere we could. We have gained an outstanding number of new members who saw our efforts and want to support and help.

Our challenge now is to protect democracy in all aspects of government. Transparency checks and balances, communication, etc. to name a few. Please join us on this journey as well. Along the way, we also had fun!!

I wish every one of you a peaceful and happy holiday season. Enjoy your family and friends and be safe in all you do! Know you are appreciated!
- Terri McCulloch

IN MEMORY OF A LEAGUE ICON

BEVERLY DALLEY

We said goodbye to a person who not only affected the League of Women Voters amazingly but impacted all of Utah and made an imprint on the U.S.

Bev Dalley was 101.5 years old and a lifetime member (over 50 years) of the League of Women Voters. The WSU archive library has 52 boxes of information about her, reflecting what she has done in her lifetime.

She started the Utah Women’s Political Caucus fighting for the Equal Rights Amendment, was one of the founders of the Equal Rights Amendment Coalition for Utah and of Weber County Equal Rights Movement, and chaired the Equal Rights Amendment Ratification Coalition. Many people felt the work Bev did on equal rights for all.

Bev was instrumental in the implementation of the Title IX initiative and helped create a Textbook Survey Committee to make sure all requirements were reflected in the textbooks used in school. She was employed as a consultant in Utah to educate school personnel on how Title IX would affect education. As a charter member of the National Organization of Women, she continued her quest for equality.

She also helped start the Northern Utah Women’s Conference and was a founder of the Rape Crisis Task force. This resulted in the creation of the Women’s Crisis Center, which is now called the YCC. Bev was also a charter member of the Utah Coalition for Aid to Battered Women and on the Board of the ACLU.

Beverly studied biology and zoology at the University of Utah, earning a Bachelor of Science degree. She worked on the study of the transmission of hereditary diseases, especially Muscular Dystrophy, and she created a chart on the genetic expression of diseases, which is still used today.

Beverly was born on a farm in Pleasant Grove and lived in Utah most of her life. She had a beautiful singing voice, painted and drew lovely pictures, and played the piano. She married Dr. Wallace Dalley and had five children. Her husband’s passing did not slow her down.

Beverly Hayes Dalley brought the League of Women Voters to Utah and was the founder of the first group in the state. She has impacted our organization in so many ways and we are very fortunate to have called her one of us. Rest in peace, Bev – you definitely deserve it. You will be missed!!

ELECTORAL COLLEGE PROS AND CONS

The Electoral College was started in 1788 with Article II of the Constitution. It was created as a compromise between Congress selecting the President and the people casting votes. Having delegates who represented the people cast the votes was the suggestion. Delegates were supposed to represent the wishes of the citizens they represent. Unfortunately, this is not always the case in today’s elections. There have been five cases in which a candidate won the presidency but did not garner the most votes in the popular vote.

-John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson – 1824

-Rutherford B. Haves over Samuell Tilden -1876

-Benjamin Harrison over Grover Cleveland – 1888

-George W. Bush over Al Gore – 2000

-Donald Trump over Hilary Clinton - 2016

Pros of the Electoral College

-It ensures that all areas and people get a say in who the president is. If we just used the popular vote, the metropolitan areas with high populations would have a larger share and candidates would spend most of their campaign ensuring the needs of that group were being addressed.

- It protects the voice of the minority over the overwhelming power of the majority.The Electoral College also helped prevent uneducated people from voting without understanding the issues.

- It alleviates the need for a re-count or run-off election as the vote is easy to count with just delegates and Congress elects the President if no majority is achieved.

Cons of the Electoral College

-The use of the Electoral College gives too much power to swing states and candidates focus a lot of time and energy on these states.

-The Electoral College is rooted in slavery and racism. It helped to protect the citizens of the Southern states from losing votes because of the high number of slaves there.

-Democracy should represent the will of all people which the Electoral College does not.

We no longer live in a society where people should be repressed and represented by someone who is speaking for them. Delegates are not required to vote in any specific manner and do not have to follow the voice of the people. Campaigning should be done throughout the country and not just be focused on the swing states. We also no longer allow slavery, so no state needs to be protected due to non-voting slavery. Every individual has the right to voice their opinion and vote as they see fit. The current use of the Electoral College does not promote that. It is felt by many that we need to make sure every voice is heard, and no one loses their right to pick the leader of our country. Perhaps a good look at the status and an evaluation of what system represents the will of all citizens.

ONE PERSON ONE VOTE

While the Electoral College might have been appropriate in past times, it is time for the people of the United States to advocate for every vote to count. The current process threatens democracy by allowing a few politically motivated people to make decisions. THE PUBLIC IS NOT STUPID AND DOES NOT NEED OTHERS MAKING DECISIONS FOR US!

The League of Women Voters has joined the One Person One Vote Campaign. This program gives the right to pick representation back to the people. In 2022, Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform Act (ERCA) which allowed states to report electoral votes for their state based on the public vote. Instead of delegates deciding who our state would cast a vote for in a Presidential Election, the public votes would choose who each delegate votes for. If Utah’s popular vote picks Joe Smith for President, our three delegates will vote for that person. The number of delegates would stay the same as the size of each of the population from each state (Utah might be getting another delegate slot), which is currently represented by that number. It gives people the right to pick by popular vote and keeps the delegate count to weigh the effect of each state.

As of April 15, 2024, the National Popular Vote bill has been enacted into law in 18 jurisdictions possessing 209 electoral votes, including

6 small jurisdictions (District of Columbia, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine,

Rhode Island, Vermont),

9 medium-sized states (Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland,

Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon,

Washington), and

3 big states (California, Illinois, New York).

We must have 270 electoral votes before this law can be put into effect. We are currently short 61 votes. The National, State, and Local Leagues are supporting Utah to join in.

UTAH GROWTH PATH AND BIRTH RATES

Tirzah Fields

Summary: Birth rates in Utah are decreasing and are, like the US at large, currently below replacement level. While the exact causes are not known, we can expect that significant challenges may lie ahead. It is up to the voters of Utah to advocate for the people and policies they believe will best meet those challenges.

Birth rates in Utah, mirroring trends in the United States and around the globe, have long been on the decline. A report released in June 2024 by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute found that Utah’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) declined from 1.919 in 2021 to 1.853 in 2022. The TFR theorized to be necessary for a population (absent immigration) to replace itself instead of decline, is 2.1. For comparison, the total U.S. TFR declined from 1.664 in 2021 to 1.656 in 2022.

Utah had a bit of a head start, historically having higher birth rates in the past compared to the rest of the states. Its TFR is currently 4th highest in the U.S.A (just behind South Dakota, Nebraska, and Alaska) and, as of 2022, it had the youngest median population in the states at 32.1, compared to a median of 39 nationally. Head start aside, the numbers show that Utah is reliably aging along with the rest of the country. A September 2023 study by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute estimated that without continued migration into Utah, the population is likely to shrink.

What factors are behind these falling birthrates? Emily Harris, Senior Demographer at Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, cites some potential key factors are: increasing demands of jobs, education, and family life (particularly for women), economic insecurity, and increasing costs of living, especially housing and child care. Other sources speculate changes may be related to shifting priorities and desires among those of childbearing age. Ultimately, there does not seem to be any confident consensus defining the reasons behind these declining birth rates.

So why should Utahns be concerned? One need not think far to conclude that consistently lowered birth rates may result in an increasingly small pool of taxpayers available to support and care for an increasingly large share of retired adults. This is not to mention fewer workers to fill jobs, fewer customers to create revenue for local businesses, fewer people to start businesses in the first place, and a potential reduction in GDP per capita. While there is also the potential for positive outcomes such as reduced strain on housing and natural resources and reduced man-made contributions towards climate change, it may not be reasonable to expect that improved air quality will automatically cancel out a collapse in our ability to pay out social security.

Many courses of action have been proposed. Some of these include: increasing immigration rates, investing in shoring up our caregiving systems, supporting working families, increasing the availability of affordable housing, addressing water shortage, pollution, and climate change concerns, and embracing technological changes and associated training programs that may help make up the difference in the work that needs to be done and the number of workers who are available to do it.

Actions taken around the world such as providing more affordable childcare and financial incentives to families (or attempting to block family planning access if you are in Russia or Poland) have proven to be nearly universally ineffective at moving the birth rate needle up towards replacement levels. However, some argue that helping working families survive is necessary to keep birth rates from plunging even faster and is also an advantageous public investment to help young people. We still must avoid falling into poverty and enter the workforce as prepared as possible to fill that gap.

As voters, we have the power to elect leaders and to influence them to take these concerns seriously. Whether you are of the persuasion that we need to raise the birth rate, increase immigration, or embrace strategic shrinkage, it will be important to understand what policies are likely to support that end and to vote accordingly. Enabling representatives to fail to take any action in the face of an aging Utah is an increasingly risky proposition.

Staying Informed Without Getting Burnt out: Diversifying Your News Sources

by Berkley Barlow

The digital age has made it easy to access information, but it has also created an environment where echo chambers and misinformation thrive. In a 24/7 news cycle, it’s easy to feel like you need to stay constantly updated, but this can lead to burnout and stress. Diversifying your sources is a powerful way to combat internal bias, uncover the truth, and make sense of the world without feeling overwhelmed. Here's a few tips on how to approach it effectively:

Utilize Multiple Sources
Relying on a single source of news can limit the way you understand complex issues. Try seeking out opposing ideas to your own to make sure you’re using critical thinking. By using multiple sources, you give yourself the opportunity to see different viewpoints and reduce the risk of falling into biased reporting.
Quality over Quantity
Flooding yourself with news from every outlet you can find is counterproductive and exhausting. Instead, focus on a handful of reputable sources known for fact-checking and balanced reporting. Examples include:
NPR
PolitiFact
FactCheck.org
Schedule your news consumption
One of the best ways to avoid feeling overwhelmed or burnt out is to set specific times for your news. Instead of refreshing your feed and getting live updates throughout the day, set aside 15–30 minutes in the morning or evening to engage fully. Setting these boundaries makes what you’re reading more intentional and less likely to spiral into “doom scrolling”
Balance local and national news
National news typically makes the headlines but local news is often where your voice matters most. Pairing a Utah news outlet like The Salt Lake Tribune with a national publication such as The Wall Street Journal can help counterbalance your content and keep you involved,
Unplug
Plan tech-free zones and spend time engaging in activities like reading, exercising, or enjoying hobbies that allow you to recharge. Anothehelpful practice is engaging in practices like meditation or journaling to process the information you’ve consumed and refocus your energy. By stepping back, you give yourself the mental space to process information more thoughtfully and return to news consumption with a clearer perspective.