League of Women Voters Wisconsin Rapids Area – September ‘25

Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapid Support for you this September 8th, 2025, probably brought

to you by Crocodceptic, you have your host James here today, and we're joined by some

great friends of ours.

We have the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Rabbits area with us.

We have Mary Dom and Mary would like to introduce yourself so the audience can put a voice

to the name.

Hi, and thanks James for having us on today.

My name is Mary Dom.

I've been with our local league for about 30 years serving in many different capacities.

What I do now is I'm a voter service co-chair.

So we're involved in informing voters about voter registration, how to vote, candidate

positions, and all of this is in keeping with our mission which is to sustain our democratic

society by empowering voters.

So that's me.

And Mary Arnold.

Mary Dom got me involved, we were complaining one day about something and she said you should

join the League of Women Voters and supply did.

And yeah, I work with Mary in the voter services committee and I really enjoy doing that, going

out and trying to set up ways that we can contact people to get them to know what the

process of registration is to working with people to get them registered.

Appreciate you guys sharing both of those and in particular Mary Arnold, that background

of that a little bit.

I think that adds to the what we'll get to a little bit later, people that want to get

involved in that and it really ties into that very well.

And it's a nice story, it's great to hear.

I appreciate you sharing that.

They're always good to see you too.

Thank you again for coming back and hanging out and putting up with my silly questions and

all of that.

You touched on this already, Ms. Dom, but if we could get to the mission, just for those

that may not be aware of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Rap, of Central Wisconsin.

Sure.

Well, actually, the League of Women Voters in general started in 1920 as a result of

the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

And a group of suffragists decided that it would be good to have an organization that

helped the new voters learn about how to exercise their right to vote.

Locally, our League started in 1969.

So we've been in the Wisconsin Rapids area for quite a while, 50 plus years.

And doing some really important work throughout that time?

Well, yes.

Thank you.

I think we do.

So, and part of that, and thank you for that, that's a mission statement.

I appreciate that.

Part of that work that I'm talking about, we're going to touch on today, because there's

some important notes and different dates that we want people to be aware of that might

not be.

One of the things that I have noted many times when talking about these subjects is the

act of, okay, there's so much information and it could be a lot for people sometimes.

And things change.

So that can be a lot for people.

But I do think this is a two-way street, everybody.

The League of Women voters work their tails off to make sure that all this information is

available to people out there and us as a community.

I think what we can do is donate whenever we can, whether that's time of ours or it's

dollars and cents to what you guys do, as well as also seeking out the information.

It's kind of a bridge.

You got to kind of meet people halfway with this stuff.

You can't just sit there on the couch and expect the information to fall in your lap.

Sometimes you have to hunt for these things, work these things through.

And thankfully there is an organization like yourselves that put all this together, whether

it's in an interview like this or at the website, www.org, www.org, we'll mention that

again before we wrap up today.

But I just wanted to make sure that it's noted that information is not just, hey, bring

it to me.

Sometimes you have to seek this stuff out.

You have to meet people halfway.

I think that's very important with this, in this modern times where there's so much information.

When we do try to work with, in terms of getting that information out, the busy times for

us is when there are elections, obviously.

And just while in that regard, the things to think about are the election seasons.

And there is the first one, there's always an election in April.

Every single April, there's an election.

And that is the one that is pretty important because it's all local.

You're voting for your older person who's going to fix the potholes or you're voting

for your school board, people who are, you know, going to manage the school board, the school

for you, the school board, anyway.

And those are the people you can knock on their door and say, hey, why isn't this done?

And especially, so whether you live in a village, a town, a city, or, you know, we all, those

are all just very local.

That's all you're voting for.

And we live in Wood County, so we're voting for the Wood County board members.

We all have a board member, nice to know who that person is and go vote for.

The only things that aren't actually local in Wood County are the Supreme Court.

There are seven Supreme Court justices in the state of Wisconsin and we do vote for them.

And that's every, well, there are seven of them and they have ten year terms.

So seven out of ten years, you're going to be voting for a Supreme Court justice.

And the other one is the public, oh, the superintendent of public instruction.

And she, and she, it's a she right now.

And she is a statewide office and that's the only, so, Supreme Court and that office.

And so there's no election, well, no, excuse me, there is an election in this spring and

we will be voting for a judge this spring.

This, the superintendent of public instruction is not up for a vote until 2029.

I think she was just elected.

That's what I'm saying.

Yeah, 2029.

And this, these are the nonpartisan elections.

The spring elections, they're not party affiliated.

So they don't have an organ, usually don't have an organization or a political party behind

them.

The fall elections will be, they are partisan.

Yeah, I think one of the things that, when I think a nonpartisan, if there's, there's

only one person, two people for each office running.

So I've said three people want to run for that office, including the incumbent, then

you will have a primary and that's usually in February.

And that's when it's really noticing that it's nonpartisan because it's not democratic

and Republican party primary, so it's just a primary and everybody's on that primary

ballot.

So that's a little different.

Yes, yeah, very good note there, really all great notes from both of you.

And one thing that I'm reminded of whenever you guys join us and everything and I really

do appreciate the time.

I love when there's somebody who can explain something complex and make it so even I can

understand.

I mean, you're very good at this, both of you.

I think that with this topic, that that's what we run into more times than not is, it's

not so much that people don't want to know.

It's just that they can be confused or there might be these kind of gray areas here saying

something like we always have elections in April or something along these lines really

helps people remember this stuff and hopefully stay engaged with them.

These April elections can get pretty contentious and you think they think there are partisan.

Well, there's going to be a mayoral in rapids and necusa this year.

So the local people in those communities, I think, will be, should be engaged in learning

about the candidates.

So great.

And you really only need to know, it sounds like, you know, I'm talking about all these

different things.

You only need to know if you're living a town.

And if you, you know, so for me, I live in a town, so I need to know about my town board

and I need to know about who's my county board representative and who I'm going to vote

for for the States Supreme Court this year.

I mean, I'm not having a lot of things.

I don't have to know about who the mayor is and who the older person is.

But if you live in Wisconsin rapids, you can look just look up what's on your ballot.

And there's a web.

It's my vote.

WI.gov.

Yeah.

Nailed it.

That will tell you who's on your ballot, who you need to vote for.

It's a wonderful website.

I encourage you to bookmark it if you haven't done so already.

It's also a great way to make sure that you're registered to vote or find out if you are

or finding out where your voting booth is, especially if you're in a new town or something

along those lines.

When it comes to these details and the notes that you guys have shared with us already,

are there others that you think people should know about?

Be aware of any other dates or any other information that you want to make sure we touch

on?

In particular.

So the April election is always the first Tuesday and April.

When if there's primaries, you got to kind of look that up and see if they're going on.

The fall election, those are the big partisan elections.

And so in order to get on the ballot there, you're joining a political party.

And the Democrats will have their primaries and the Republicans will have their primaries.

And that election now, this is a tricky thing.

This is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

Well, the primary is August 11, I believe.

Yeah, I am August when people are on vacation.

Vacation.

But anyway, so there will never be, you know, if the first Tuesday in November is November

1st, there will be no election on that day because the day before was still October.

So it's going to, the first election will not be any earlier than November 2nd or later

than November 8th, I guess.

It can seem, I imagine to some a little confusing at times, but I think once you get it, it

sticks.

It's a little bit like that.

And you just need to look it up too.

It's just the election.

And again, I don't know why they did that.

I'm not sure either.

But I also, I think that while I think that to your point of looking it up, this is part

of what democracy is about and keeping democracy alive and healthy is sometimes we have to work

for it.

You know, I think many people out there have heard plenty of stories of people in third-world

countries that walk thousands and thousands of miles just to cast a vote.

You know, we are so fortunate in this country with so many of those things.

I think that it's important for us to put in some work sometimes for this.

It doesn't hurt yet.

And it makes you feel a little bit better, I think, sometimes hunting these information

down.

And if you vote or even take part in, you know, voting, you realize that it's a very

safe process.

There is, you know, the idea that it's rigged or whatever is not true.

And you see that when you're voting all the time.

You know, just on what's happening in the fall elections, it will not a presidential election

this year.

And no senators from Wisconsin will be running either.

It's good to know.

But there will be, locally, the sheriff is a partisan position and he's on in the fall.

And then our clerk of courts and our corner, and our treasurer, I know, I know, I know.

They're called the malignate.

They're called the Democratic corner or Republican corner.

Yeah.

Yeah.

District attorney, registered deeds and treasurer are in the presidential year.

So, but you will all vote for an assembly person for your state.

They run every two years.

So whoever your assembly person is, you will vote for them.

And you will vote for a senator.

We have two senators, senate districts in our area.

And one is during the presidential election year and one is in this time around.

But that's mostly northern.

I mean, most of the people right around Wisconsin rapids are in senate district 24.

Just a little bit of us like myself is in senate district 29.

A little outside.

Yeah.

The map gets very complicated.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Again, why that website, myvotewi.com, a dot org says such an important one, and certainly

your own website.

Yeah.

Well, you don't have to remember that.

You just have to look at myvotemyvote.com.

Right.

Yeah.

And you know who you're voting for.

Yeah.

I also appreciate the, and when you're talking about simplifying this a bit for people,

the idea that well, there's these other elections going on, but they don't really, you know,

affect you, you know, looking at the ones that just affect you.

I grew up in a very political family and we're from Chicago.

I can't help still paying attention to Chicago.

It doesn't affect me.

It doesn't affect me one bit.

I don't need to look it up.

But if it's interesting to you, that's fine.

But don't necessarily overwhelm yourself with some of this stuff, I think, that's where

a lot of people can be kind of dismayed sometimes from this.

And I think it's very important to bring up what we're talking about this, that we see

more people voting for American idols sometimes than we do in some of these elections.

And we need you involved.

We want every single person that can hear this involved and out there and informed and

voting.

Right.

To that point, are there some other dates or information that you wanted to make sure

we touch on before we let you go?

Because I know that there's a couple things I wanted to bring up with both of you and

in particular.

Not dates.

Not dates.

Okay.

Because it does see that most of our big, 2026, that's when we're looking at for a lot

of these.

Right.

I hope you've got a little time.

I'll warn you both right now.

You're going to have to come back before that.

Thank you.

We will be bringing you back.

You're good to do that.

If you have any concerns too about your registration to vote, registering to vote, the person

you go to is your town clerk, your village, while the village has trustees and then your

city clerk.

Yes.

They're the people that you call them and they love to help you.

I'm serious.

I mean, I like to go to the polls.

I'm one of these people that like to go into the poll and cast my ballot.

But every once in a while, election day was not in my favor, so I had to get an absentee

ballot.

I call my clerk.

She was happy.

She was great to help.

She was wonderful.

Right.

They have the ultimate.

They have the information for it.

Right.

They know that.

And they really do love answering those questions.

They really do love.

I mean, none of this is guarded.

None of this is held by the Knights Templar or anything like that.

All this information is available to every one of us citizens and we want you to know

this stuff.

That's probably a good idea to know who your town clerk is, you know, who is that person?

Well, and it's something, you know, and I, just standing on the words that I speak a lot,

I think it's important for, if you're going to run for office, you know these things.

I think it should almost be mandatory that you shouldn't be able to run for office if

you don't know the three branches of government or some of these things like that.

I mean, you're right.

In particular, I think, and as far as, you know, being informed, it's one of the, one

of the things that we can encourage people to do when we're in these kind of gray areas,

when we're in between elections and stuff is remaining involved while it's not a political

season, if you will, or something like that, that pal, this stuff is always there for you

and it's always good to be informed even between elections.

Right.

You have to pay attention to the news and make sure your news source is reliable.

Let your double checking the information that you're getting, and of course, if you have

something that you're not happy about, you should contact your, your Congressperson, either

on the state level or at the federal level.

So that's one way of staying involved in between elections to stay informed and then to

speak up.

And they're your representative, they're supposed to represent you, so let them know what

your views are.

And I actually think they like hearing from you.

I personally don't like writing letters.

And I think that that's probably the slowest way to get your information to the congressman.

The best way is email or calling them on the phone, believe it or not, if you, you know,

get your thoughts and order, jot some notes, call them on the phone and you won't get the

congressman.

You'll get one of their albars and you can just tell them what you think about a certain

issue and you hang up and you feel, wow, I did that.

It's important and it's a great reminder and appreciate you both wanting to talk about

this because we need to remember, be reminded of once in a while, I think we the people and

that we're in charge, not them, we're in charge.

And I'm not just saying this on the cuff or anything, I'm fortunate enough whether it

is Mayor, you know, Mayor Zacharyntown or it is a congressman congressman kind over

the years or Senator Testin or a representative crew.

Once a month, these individuals come by, they talk to us and everything and whether it's

on air or off air, I'll include Sheriff Becker in this, especially, you know, with him being

elected and everything, on air, off air, each one of these individuals are the same and

they tell me all the time, hey, did you, you know, can we get my information out there?

Can people reach me?

They want to hear from you, they want to do their job right.

And the only way for them to do their job right is if you speak up and talk to them, I

will also remind our audience as well to act like adults, treating each other with class

and respect go so much farther and you're going to be heard.

I don't think, think about yourself when you're talking to somebody, do you register what

they're saying if you're talking like this or if they're just barking really loud?

They also certain and not as much register, you want to be heard, talk like an adult, treat

each other with respect.

I think we need to get back to that and everything and as well as being heard and getting this

information out there, which you two are so good at, thank you so much, appreciate it.

Are there anything else you wanted to touch on before I let you go?

I think I've asked that three times now.

Just be, have a plan to vote, you can't do it too early, my vote.wi.gov is an excellent

resource or go to your municipal clerk, they will help you.

So make sure you're registered to vote and get ready for these spring elections.

And as I was warning you before, we're going to have to back before those spring elections,

okay?

I'd love to have you both back.

Kind of remind people about some of these other things and maybe touch on some other

details while we're at it.

Appreciate you both, thank you for everything you're doing in the community and hanging out

with us today.

Well thank you so much for having me, I appreciate it.

And again remember you can find out more by going to lwv.org, lwv.org, that is

though a League of Women Voters website that you can find out more.

Is there other ways to find out other information?

Well, it's lwv.org.org for the local, that's the local.

Okay.

And that was again one more time I was talking over here, I'm sorry.

Although, yeah, we've been, our president gave us, we have, we have gone through a change

with our local website and we have two separate, yeah, yeah, probably the best one is actually

lwv.org at, or no, it dot, wordpress.com, you have that in there.

Sure.

No way.

www.org, we'll get you to our local website, it will get you there, but there's another

one, just Google L.

If you do go, I will say this, I threw it into my Google machine and it popped right

off.

www.org, you can also do lwv.org, and then you get the state dot, or get the state

level.

And then you get back to us through them.

And of course, if you have any trouble with any of that, reach out to us here at the station,

we'll make sure to put you in contact with the ladies up.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

And thank you both for the time.

I will talk again real soon.

Okay.

Thank you.

All of you for joining us for another edition of WFHR's Rapids Report.