League of Women Voters local chapter disbands

By JEFF MORRIS

The local chapter of the League of Women Voters has announced it will cease operations at the end of the month.

The League of Women Voters of Northeast Westchester announced on June 12 that its board had voted to disband, effective the end of business June 30. 

“This decision was not made lightly,” said President Lisa Pizzurro. “For several years, LWVNEW has been punching above its weight. We’ve provided extensive local voter services, such as candidate forums and voter registration drives, but it has been difficult to get it all done.”

Pizzurro said several members of the board decided to move on at the end of their terms. 

“No one is resigning or quitting,” she said. “But several of us decided not to serve again when our terms expire at the end of June.” 

“I cannot adequately express the sadness many of us are feeling,” continued Pizzurro. “This group has been around in one form or another since 1966 and this marks the end of an era. Our members were notified at the end of April. Now that our spring voter service activities have concluded, we are notifying the community. If this comes as a surprise, that’s a credit to our organization and its volunteers.”

Pizzurro said that in the wake of the vote to disband, the group has continued to fulfill its remaining voter service commitments, including two local school board candidate forums and student voter registration at two area high schools. The group also sponsored a student participant in the League of Women Voters of New York State’s Students Inside Albany conference and welcomed new citizens at this month’s naturalization ceremony in White Plains.

According to Pizzurro, although the league will cease to exist July 1, current members have been instructed that they will be able to join another area league or become members-at-large of the New York State League. 

“It remains to be seen if the communities currently served by LWVNEW will be covered by other League entities,” Pizzurro said. “We cover a large part of the county and it is a tall order to expect other leagues to fill all the voter service gaps left in our wake. This is part of what makes our decision so difficult.”

The group began as the League of Women Voters of Bedford. Over the decades, it grew to encompass Bedford, Lewisboro, North Salem, Mount Kisco and Pound Ridge, with some additional voter service in the town of Somers in recent years.

The Recorder obtained reactions from several local officials. Assemblymember Chris Burdick, whose 93rd Assembly District includes the towns of Bedford, Lewisboro, Mount Kisco, North Salem and Pound Ridge, said he and others in his office are LWVNEW members and were notified in April. 

“The fundamental problem is that so many people who might want to take part in this are already involved in an active way in partisan government,” he said.

Burdick explained that while anyone can be a LWV member, only those without any partisan involvement can become officers.

Asked about this, Pizzurro confirmed that is part of it. “Our nonpartisan policy does put constraints on board members” for good reasons, of course, she said. “But it precludes a whole swath of people, including some of our own members, from being considered for board service, as well as for other activities. I do think that people feel compelled to do partisan volunteer work right now.”

However, Pizzurro added, “That said, we did have people willing to serve on the board and we are grateful to those who volunteered. We just did not have what was necessary to continue.”

Erin Trostle, the Pound Ridge town clerk, said, “The League of Women Voters of Northeast Westchester has been a trusted nonpartisan resource for voters in our community for many years. I’m surprised and saddened to hear about the dissolution of the local chapter. I hope it will be possible for others to step in to continue the important work of promoting civic education and voter engagement.”

“It is disheartening LWVNEW is unable to continue, however I hope this unfortunate announcement may mobilize some new folks to step up to lead this group for the good of our democracy,” Bedford Town Supervisor Ellen Calves said. “For free and fair elections and an educated citizenship, we cannot just rely on social media and political parties. We need critical thinkers to continue to do the work of nonpartisan voter registration, unbiased candidate forums, and general voter education for all. These are essential for a strong democracy, and I deeply appreciate all the volunteers who have been dedicated to this mission for many years.”

Pizzurro said that, as of right now, the nearby local leagues of New Castle and Northwest Westchester have expressed a willingness to fill some coverage gaps. 

“This will depend in part upon having enough volunteers to do the additional work and that may depend upon how many of our members offer to help,” she added, noting that these other leagues already have their own territories to cover. 

“Again, this is part of what made disbanding so difficult,” Pizzurro said. “We have been stretched thin for a while but, every year, we managed to get almost all of our voter service work done; now, there is a pretty high likelihood of a significant drop in League voter services in our area.”

Most recently, the league held a school board candidate forum with the Bedford Central School District. On its website, it has many archived candidate forums, including those from October 2024 for the 40th and 37th state Senate districts, though those were held by the League chapters in New Castle and Scarsdale, respectively.

The group’s social media accounts will soon become inactive, but its website, LWVNEW.org, should remain active for the foreseeable future, pointing visitors toward available voter services.

“I’m proud of our group,” Pizzurro siad. “We accomplished a lot and we kept our focus very local; it was always important to us that we concentrate on informing and educating the voters in the towns we cover and I think we were pretty successful at that.”