by Hannah Taylor ·
Friday, October 25, 2024
With the 2024 presidential election just around the corner, the League of Women Voters of Harvard (LWV) is bringing people together and encouraging everyone to cast a vote. On Sunday, the league celebrated its 75th anniversary with a Get Out the Vote rally held on the Common.
The event drew a small crowd of supporters, including league members, Girl Scout volunteers, and town and state officials. Out in the sunshine with festive music playing in the background, attendees ate birthday cake, made friendship bracelets, and mingled to discuss important issues and come together as a community. The league also set up tables with information about joining the LWV itself, ballot question packets, and voter registration cards. (As a note, voter registration ends on Oct. 26.)
Stephanie Opalka, one of the co-presidents of the LWV, began the event with enthusiasm, introducing special guests and reporting that 61 people had already voted early in Harvard as of Sunday afternoon. She then welcomed to the front of the crowd state Sen. Jamie Eldridge and Jake Mastrandrea, the outreach director for U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan.
“I just want to thank the Harvard League of Women Voters for having this event to lift up the need for all of us to be voting in the election,” Eldridge said. “In all my conversations with constituents over the past few weeks, obviously people are getting very, very anxious, and it’s so important for people to get out there, remind people to vote.” Eldridge noted that voting is important at all levels of government and stressed that voters should participate not just in state and federal elections, but in local ones as well, because a lack of voting in local elections often discourages people from running for local office.
Janice Goodell speaks with Jake Mastrandrea, outreach director for U.S Congresswoman Lori Trahan. Mastrandrea later presented the League of Women Voters Harvard with a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition in honor of the chapter’s 75th anniversary. (Photos by Jen Manell)
Eldridge then thanked the LWV for the work they do supporting voting rights and other key issues, and he presented the Harvard chapter with an official citation recognizing the past 75 years of dedicated service. “I so appreciate all the work that the League of Women Voters does on election reform,” he said, explaining how the league contributed to the passing of election reform legislation during the pandemic that made early voting, absentee voting, and mail-in ballot voting more accessible and protected. “I’ve been honored to attend so many Harvard chapter events on health care, on climate change, on protecting immigrants, so I really appreciate the league’s work on all issues, but I would say particularly election issues, given how the league came to be formed,” Eldridge concluded.
Mastrandrea, speaking on behalf of Trahan, also presented the Harvard LWV with a certificate of congressional recognition for the league’s 75th anniversary. “Through decades of leadership, education, and advocacy, you have engaged local voters and encouraged active participation in the political process,” Mastrandrea said. “Your dedicated efforts will continue to leave a lasting impact on our community.”
Following the speeches, the Press spoke with several attendees about what voting and democracy means to them and what they believe is the most important issue going into this election.
Colleen McFadden, the other co-president of the LWV, said a vote equates to one’s voice in the election. “It is our voice. Each person has one voice, and they need to use it,” she said, “Choosing not to vote is wasting that, in my personal opinion, and you don’t have a right to speak after that.”
Opalka added a reminder that there are many ways to vote in Massachusetts (early in person at Town Hall, on Election Day, or by mail). “Given the fact that it’s become easier to vote in Massachusetts, go for it!” she said.
“This is core to our [LWV] platform, from a national perspective, to get out the vote,” McFadden said, “It is our single most important civil right.”
Town Clerk Rose Miranda said Harvard is a particularly politically active town, commending the voter turnout for the last presidential election. “Coming to a town that in 2020 was number one in the state––95% of the residents voted––is wonderful,” Miranda said. “There is so much work that goes into any election … and to see people turn out is just very, very satisfying.”
A similar sentiment was shared among the rest of the attendees. “Some people will say ‘I’ll sit out,’ but we cannot afford that,” said Ahmet Corapcioglu, “[Voting] is the most important, most crucial right there is.”
“Everything is so polarized right now,” noted Carolyn Grant. “People need to come together … people need to be civil to each other, and that’s really missing in all of today’s rhetoric.” Grant also said that, as a mother of three daughters in their 20s, women’s rights is the most important issue for her in this election.
Finally, still too young to vote but just as enthusiastic about political action, members of the Harvard Girl Scouts spoke up to encourage others to use their right to vote in this election. “I can’t vote now because I’m only 15,” said Violet Thomas, “so I would like to motivate other people who can vote because I really want to, and I cannot wait.”
Thomas, a Girl Scout and a ninth-grader at Bromfield, was helping to make voting friendship bracelets with her friends and classmates, Jackie Veauchemin and Fritz Kosakow-Yu.
“It is important to speak your opinion, and obviously every vote counts,” Veauchemin said. “If you want someone to represent you or your opinions and beliefs, it’s best to vote for that person who you’re affiliated with, because that person will speak for what you believe in.”
“It gets your opinion across, and we wouldn’t have a democracy without voting,” Kosakow-Yu added.
Prescott Hartshorne (left) enjoys the cake Nancy Hartshorne slices and Katy Weeks (right) hands out at the League of Women Voters Harvard Vote Rally on the Harvard town common Sunday, Oct. 20.