Pasadena League of Women Voters Spends Voting Rights Weekend Defending Democracy

League of Women Voters of the Pasadena Area members will spend four hours on Saturday, Aug. 8 at Barnes Park in Monterey Park, at the southern end of the thirteen-community territory the Pasadena-headquartered organization covers — a territory that also takes in Altadena, Alhambra, Arcadia, Sierra Madre and South Pasadena.

First-time voters in particular are urged to come, and attendees can review what is on the November ballot and learn how to get involved in their communities.

“Know your rights, register to vote, lend your voice to the defense of democracy,” the League said.

Saturday falls in the week the Voting Rights Act turned 61. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed it on August 6, 1965, outlawing literacy tests and authorizing federal examiners to register voters in jurisdictions covered by a formula written into the statute.

The League will work from the park’s shelters from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., alongside the East Los Angeles-Montebello Business and Professional Women and the Alhambra Latino Association, the League announced July 24.

There will be food, soda, music, games and prizes, and the first 250 people to arrive will be fed, the League said. The purpose is registration.

The Barnes Park stop is one of more than 350 events scheduled across all fifty states and the District of Columbia, the National League said July 27. The organization calls the day a milestone in Unite and Rise 8.5, a campaign it launched in 2025 with a stated goal of engaging 8.5 million voters by November. Five anchor events are planned, in Phoenix, Berkeley, Atlanta, Detroit and Philadelphia; Berkeley is the only one in California.

“Democracy doesn’t defend itself, people do,” Celina Stewart, the national League’s chief executive officer, said in announcing the day.

For a Pasadena or Altadena resident who cannot make the drive south, the operative fact is a date. The deadline to register online or by mail for the November 3 election is October 19. After that, Californians can still register and vote in person at a county vote center. Los Angeles County vote centers begin opening October 24, and on Election Day they run from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Pasadena’s general municipal election falls the same day. Monterey Park will fill two City Council seats, a city clerk and a city treasurer.

Barnes Park sits at 350 South McPherrin Avenue. Laura Noell, an at-large member of the Pasadena Area League’s board, is the contact for the event, at lauranoell@lwv-pa.org. The League’s office is at 65 South Grand Avenue, Suite 209, in Pasadena, and its telephone line is (626) 798-0965.

Sixty-one years after Johnson signed the act at a borrowed Supreme Court desk in a room near the Senate chamber, the work of it comes down to a folding table under a picnic shelter and whoever walks up.

NEED TO KNOW

Unite and Rise for Voting Rights is set for Saturday, August 8, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Barnes Park, 350 South McPherrin Avenue, Monterey Park, California 91754, hosted by the League of Women Voters of the Pasadena Area with the East Los Angeles-Montebello Business and Professional Women and the Alhambra Latino Association. The event is held in the park’s shelters, and food and soda are free to the first 250 people to arrive, the League said. For more, call the League of Women Voters of the Pasadena Area at (626) 798-0965, email lauranoell@lwv-pa.org, or visit lwv-pa.org.