Women Voters

Members of the Harford County League of Women Voters participated in last week's Women's Suffrage March in Overlea. One hundred years ago this month, suffragettes marched from New York City to Washington, D.C., to petition the government for equal voting rights for women. They stopped in Overlea before continuing their journey. Turnout for the commemorative march was excellent. Pictured are Peg Hill and Elaine Borum representing the Harford County League of Women Voters.

Marcella E. Grice, an artist and calligrapher, died April 13 from complications of heart disease at Sinai Hospital. She was 87. The daughter of an insurance executive and a homemaker, the former Marcella Editha Harman was born in Baltimore and raised in Charles Village. Mrs. Grice, who was known as Editha, graduated in 1942 from Seton High School. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1946 from what is now Notre Dame of Maryland University. In the 1980s, she earned a master's degree in audio-visual communication from Towson University.

I have to totally agree with Susan Reimer 's assertion that Democrats must be living in a lovely dream waiting for the November elections ("Women will remember in November," March 12). True, some Republican presidential hopefuls have come down with foot in mouth disease, and there seems to be no shortage of eyebrow raising sound bites coming from the endless parade of televised debates. However, it's not the gaffes or the "I shouldn't have said that" moments that are making Democrats salivate for the coming elections but the realization that once again, the women's vote will lock onto a single issue and make it a major election point.

Kite festival The Friends of Broadneck Park will host their second annual kite festival and community picnic from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 21, on the A Field at Broadneck Park on College Parkway in Annapolis. The event includes kite-flying specialists from the group Wings Over Washington. Families are encouraged to bring a picnic lunch and kites. Information: 240-481-8468 or friendsofbroadneckpark.com. Budget session A meeting on the Anne Arundel County budget hosted by the League of Women Voters will be held at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 21, at BayWoods of Annapolis, 7101 Bay Front Drive.

Baltimore City candidates will discuss questions from the public during debates presented by the League of Women Voters. Western High School at Falls Road and Cold Spring Lane will serve as host for the City Council president and mayoral debates Wednesday and Aug. 27, respectively. The debates will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Other council debates will be held from Thursday to Sept. 4. Information: 410-377-7738.

A group of Anne Arundel County women is forming a League of Women Voters chapter, a year after the last one disbanded because of a lack of leadership. The impetus for the new group comes from eight residents of the new BayWoods of Annapolis retirement community. Many of them moved there from other states where they were active in the league at the local level. "It's a case of a few folks saying, `Gee, why don't we?' and so we did," said Anne Nelson, a former Cornell University faculty member who is vice president of the new Anne Arundel league.

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan organization that works to promote political reponsibility through the informed and active participation of citizens in their governemnt. The League does not support or oppose any political party or candidate.The candidates' answers appear as submitted in reponse to a nonpartisan questionnaire. If answers exceeded the specified word limitation, the additional words were cut where practical, or at the end of the candidate's statement. All candidates were asked the same questions as other candidates running for the same office.

Rebecca Rigger, a League of Women Voters activist who monitored the Baltimore County Planning Board, died of a heart attack March 25 at her Monkton home. She was 85. Born Rebecca Rogers in Big Island, Va., she was raised at an apple orchard in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She earned a bachelor's degree from what is now James Madison University, where she was editor of the college newspaper. As a young woman, she moved to eastern Baltimore County and taught at Middle River Junior High School.

The stormwater regulation fee is a difficult pill to swallow, but the medicine is needed to make up for decades of problems and to ensure the future of the Chesapeake Bay. We all own the problem, and we will all pay for the solution. It is a multi-million dollar problem. Stormwater has ravaged our streams and rushed sediment into the bay. The water is dirty and cloudy. Stormwater runoff is washing fertilizer and animal feces into the water. The algal blooms, fertilized by runoff, keep sunlight from the underwater grasses and, as the algae die and decompose, they soak up the available oxygen.

Members of the Harford County League of Women Voters participated in last week's Women's Suffrage March in Overlea. One hundred years ago this month, suffragettes marched from New York City to Washington, D.C., to petition the government for equal voting rights for women. They stopped in Overlea before continuing their journey. Turnout for the commemorative march was excellent. Pictured are Peg Hill and Elaine Borum representing the Harford County League of Women Voters.

This Feb. 14, will mark the 93rd anniversary of the founding of the League of Women Voters, an organization that was built on the efforts to secure for women the right to vote and continues its work by providing information to all voters to ensure that the right is exercised effectively. In Maryland and many other states, the League of Women Voters is addressing a serious threat to the right to vote: gerrymandering. Last year's redistricting process created congressional districts that twist from one county to another, dividing communities and combining little portions of each with parts of counties many miles away, with very different interests.

Thanks to Susan Reimer ("Women voters fend off the Neanderthals," Nov. 8) for reminding me that I am in the Neanderthal-Barbarian Party. Her recent rant shows how it is more important for her to feel safe in the doctor's exam room than to "kick start this economy. " All the other issues, in her mind, pale in comparison to making sure any woman can get an abortion. I agree with abortion rights, but not at the expense of our economy, our military strength, our standing in the world and ensuring the U.S. will be here for another 236 years.

Those in Howard County who want to channel the power of the ballot box to challenge local government decisions are going to have to work a bit harder to do it in elections to come, thanks to the vote Tuesday on one of five county charter changes. Whether this was the change voters wanted to make when they endorsed the change in overwhelming numbers seems to be a matter of debate. By a margin of 73.2 percent to 26.8 percent, voters agreed to change the rules on how many signatures petitioners have to gather for a referendum to challenge local legislation, doing away with a 5,000-signature cap. Instead, petitioners will need a number of valid signatures equal to 5 percent of the vote in the previous gubernatorial election, which this year would have raised the number from 5,000 to 5,390.

Congratulations, ladies. You kept the barbarians from the gate. On Tuesday, Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri, who famously said that a woman's reproductive system shuts down during "legitimate rape" and prevents conception, lost by 15 points to incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat who was considered an easy target by the tea party. She won women voters ages 18 to 44 overwhelmingly. And Richard Mourdock, who said that if a woman does become pregnant during rape, it is something that God intended, lost the Indiana Senate race to Joe Donnelly.

Several dozen people turned out Tuesday evening in Towson to share the final stop on the 2012 general election. "Election 2012: Returns After Dark," was held at the Towson Library, and featured a Johns Hopkins professor providing instant insight into day's election results. "It's just fun to follow,” said Owings Mills resident Dan Wentland. “It has an impact on us for the next four years.” Wentland, a Towson University alumnus, said he found the event on the county library system website and was enjoying the discourse between the attendees, all of whom he believes have a vested interest in the election.