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League task force outlines voter-engagement tactics and statewide civics events for teachers and students
Summary
League members and guests discussed practical voter-engagement tactics for college students, resources such as Voter Girl and Made By Us, and announced a March Civic Showcase (virtual), a summer institute and an August strategic-action workshop for educators.
Members of the League of Women Voters of Colorado’s civics education task force used the meeting to review nonpartisan voter-outreach tactics and to announce a slate of civics-focused events aimed at teachers and students.
Becky Musselman of Colorado Mountain College described in detail how the college stages voter-registration and voter-information work for students: registration efforts concentrated in the fall, October programming focused on ballot education (including walk-throughs of the blue book and Ballotpedia), and targeted voter-action support such as laptop clinics and transportation to drop boxes for rural campuses. "We have voter drives and partnering with people to come and register our students," Musselman said.
Task force members discussed practical hurdles young voters face, including ballot readability and signature-curing procedures. One member said Colorado ranks poorly for ballot readability and recommended classroom exercises and hands-on demonstrations of curing envelopes; members noted students respond positively to ballot-tracking notifications and to informal, social events such as Musselman’s "root beer float" registration sessions.
The group shared nonpartisan curriculum and outreach resources: the Voter Girl program (licensed for Colorado leagues), the Made By Us civic-history materials, All In’s voter-information templates, rightquestion.org’s training on persuasion conversations, and the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute’s "Civics for Life" app. Musselman said CMC will make flyers and social-media posts listing polling locations and drop boxes for campus communities.
Alice, the co-director of Civics for Colorado, announced a three-part civic series: a virtual Civic Showcase in March to connect teachers and organizations, a summer institute with four regional sites for teacher professional development, and a strategic-action workshop in August to help teachers and community members translate learning into classroom units and local projects. Alice also noted a March 11 civics trivia fundraiser in Denver to support a high-school team’s national competition travel.
Organizers said most teacher events will be free; the summer institute organizers are fundraising to offer small stipends. The Civic Showcase will initially recruit participating organizations and then open registration, and the summer institute will run hybrid programming so keynotes can be joined virtually across sites.
Task force members offered to share flyers and contacts to amplify outreach and encouraged League chapters to connect with local schools, Girl Scout troops and BOCES offices to host regional activity. No formal votes or policy actions occurred during the meeting; presenters agreed to circulate links and follow up with interested League chapters.
