This group has been present on West Texas A&M University’s campus in recent weeks and makes it their duty to provide accurate and carefully researched information to communities that seek to make knowledgeable voting choices.
The League of Women Voters was founded in 1920 and made great strides within that year, helping in the fight for women’s suffrage. According to Rose Lee Powell, president of LWV’s Amarillo branch, the objective of the organization has shifted with the needs of the nation at large.
“The League of Women Voters started out in order to help gain women’s right to vote. When that was achieved, we focused on educating the women with their newfound right, and teaching them to vote intelligently,” Powell said. “In the past few years, LWV has placed much of its efforts in the act of registering potential voters, especially younger women.”
The LWV’s presence on campus has helped to fulfill the purpose of the organization by exposing young voters to facts that can assist them in the voting process. The LWV remains a nonpartisan organization, which displays it more as a factual resource than a group working for a single party’s agenda. According to Claudia Stravato, member of LWV and Political Science instructor, the organization takes great pains to ensure a nonpartisan and equally representative atmosphere among its members  that have various personal and political values.
“League of Women Voters utilizes a consensus rather than a voting method in order to come to agreement within the organization, so that the organization does not ignore the wishes and beliefs of those outside the majority,” Stravato said.
These factors contribute to LWV’s credibility as a political organization, which is necessary to a community such as WT, where many potential voters remain unregistered and without proper knowledge of political events and races taking place.
“The presence of the LWV on our campus makes the student body more aware, and keeps voting on their mind,” Katie Miller, freshman Psychology major said.