President’s Letter: May 2026

Dear League Members and Supporters,

I write to you from a work trip in Montgomery, Alabama, a city with a deep history in voting rights. It is here where Martin Luther King, Jr. eventually led thousands of nonviolent demonstrators in a 5-day, 54-mile march from Selma, Alabama to protest the systemic disenfranchisement of Black voters. As you know, the first march ended when law enforcement violently attacked the peaceful protesters, what is known as “Bloody Sunday,” and the second march stopped early due to a court injunction that prohibited the march. The Selma-to-Montgomery marchers demanded the right to vote and participate fully in our democracy. Collectively, these three marches were the catalyst for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a landmark federal law passed to end racial discrimination in voting. Former Supreme Court Justice Ginsberg once called it “one of the most consequential, efficacious, and amply justified exercises of federal legislative power in our Nation’s history.” 

The heaviness of this history and this moment as I sit here in Montgomery is not lost on me. To put it bluntly, these last few weeks have been devastating for voting rights. 

First, the Florida Legislature passed and Governor DeSantis signed into law the Florida SAVE Act, which puts additional burdens on voters and will remove current voters from voter rolls if they can’t afford specific documentation. 

Then, the Florida Legislature hurriedly passed partisan congressional maps, despite our state Constitution’s Fair Districts Amendments and overwhelming public opposition to the partisan gerrymander power grab. People from all over Florida went to Tallahassee to voice opposition against partisan mid-decade redistricting, including many of you. There are already three lawsuits filed challenging Florida’s new congressional maps, including one brought by the League of Women Voters of Florida and partner organizations, represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ), and the Democracy Defenders Fund,. 

And finally, in a major setback for our democracy, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Louisiana v. Callais, effectively gutting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.  

Efforts to infringe on our voting rights are not new, and these developments mean our local League work is as important as ever. Despite everything, I remain hopeful. 

Our Voter Services team has, as usual, been firing on all cylinders, engaging voters at several community events and gearing up for another round of candidate forums. Our Social Justice team has been so busy that we have now divided it into three teams: Community-Centered Development, Immigration Justice, and Unite & Rise: Defending Democracy. Our Education, Reproductive Rights, and National Popular Vote teams continue to make distinctive contributions to our efforts on behalf of these important issues.  

At our Annual Meeting and Luncheon on April 18, we celebrated our magnificent array of accomplishments of the past year, honored our amazing volunteers, elected our new leaders, and approved our ’26-’27 priorities and budget. A highlight was the keynote address from Dianna Wynn, President of the League of Women Voters of the U.S. Dianna is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to advocating for voting rights, and her words of encouragement and hope inspired us all. And while it was unexpected at this time last month, I was reelected President of LWVSPA, and I am honored to serve another year.

Thank you for your continued work and support of our local League as we do everything we can locally to defend democracy. As the great civil rights leaders of our nation have reminded us again and again: We shall overcome. 

In League, 

Jackie