Sun Sentinel Broward Edition

Civic group intends to modernize

New Broward League of Women Voters leader aims to use social media

- By Anthony Man Staff writer

Jocelyn Carter-Miller something new to do.

But she felt compelled to act because of what she found when she went to vote in last summer’s primary election: a dearth of voters. Now, she’s taking the helm of the League of Women Voters of Broward County.

“I’m African-American, and my grandparen­ts are from the South. And my grandparen­ts actually paid poll taxes and took literacy tests. And being an African-American, people died so that I could vote,” she said. “I take voting very seriously.”

When she saw the abysmal participat­ion in the August 2014 primary, she said it “heightened my sense of we really need to do better. People need to be engaged. People

wasn’t

looking

for need to understand the issues. People need to be informed.”

The11.5 percent turnout in her Tamarac precinct was actually a hair better than the countywide 10.8 percent in Broward. Those numbers are way too low for Carter-Miller, who votes in “every election, no matter how big or small.”

She started attending League of Women Voters meetings earlier this year and decided it offered great potential to help increase participat­ion by voters and was a perfect fit with her profession­al background.

“I saw that it was probably more relevant today than ever before, especially because of the League’s goal to make sure that voters are engaged, that they are informed, that they actively participat­e in government,” she said.

The former executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Boca Raton-based Office Depot said she hopes to broaden the League’s reach, especially to demographi­c groups that she said often don’t participat­e in elections: young and minority voters.

Social media is vital to ensure that the organizati­on is relevant in the 21st century, she said. And that jibes with her plan to bring more young people into the organizati­on as members. “We really want to bring that youthful spirit, so that we have people who understand social media, so that social media becomes the way we do things.

“There’s a group of voters that are referred to as silent voters: Young voters, minority voters, women, particular­ly women and mothers under middle age. Those groups are underrepre­sented when you look at the electorate and who gets out to vote,” she said. “We’re looking at social media as a way of getting informatio­n out to these voters, because we know that they are more digitally inclined than traditiona­l media.”

In an era when Facebook, Twitter, websites and cable TV provide an endless amount of informatio­n, Carter-Miller said there’s still a vital need for the League of Women Voters, which is in its 95th year.

Harriet Mathis, a board member from Fort Lauderdale, said Carter-Miller is “a blessing” for the organizati­on. “She’s youngish. I’m 80-something, and she is 50-something,” Mathis said.

Mathis said Carter-Miller’s background will help the organizati­on move forward.

“It has a history of really excellent research and study, and good, sound recommenda­tions for good government,” she said. “But their methodolog­y is in the past. It doesn’t do us much good anymore to go out and talk to libraries before election time and to speak about the [constituti­onal] amendments when there are six people in front of you. The world has changed. And the way of communicat­ion has changed.”

Some Republican leaders have criticized the League, arguing that it has become a liberal advocacy group.

“We call them the League of Women Democrats,” former Palm Beach County Republican Chairman Sid Dinerstein said in May. Carter-Miller said that isn’t true. “That’s actually a mispercept­ion of the League,” she said. “The League is a nonpartisa­n organizati­on, not in support of any parties or any particular candidates.”

 ??  ?? Carter-Miller
Carter-Miller

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States