BETHLEHEM \u2013 The America 250 Christmas Town Planning Committee has announced that Connecticut Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas will be the featured speaker in May in their series \u201cHow Does America\u2019s Democracy Work?\u201d This is the sixth program in the seven-part series hosted by the Bethlehem Library. All programs are educational and non-partisan, open to the public, and free.<\/p>\n
On Monday, May 18 at 7 p.m., Secretary of State Thomas will speak on the Voting Process and Voting Rights. She will also cover election security, election threats, and current issues in election administration.<\/p>\n
Stephanie Thomas was sworn in as Secretary of State in 2023. With a distinguished 30-year career advising nonprofits, running her own business, and serving as the 143rd District\u2019s State Representative, she brings a unique blend of business expertise and a passion for civics to public service<\/p>\n
Since taking office Secretary Thomas has led the implementation of significant election reforms, including the roll-out early voting and a new centralized voter registration system. She also secured a historic investment of $25 million to replace the state\u2019s aging tabulators.<\/p>\n
She believes that a healthy representative democracy relies on active participation in civic life by all. To promote robust civic engagement, she has traveled the state to meet Connecticut communities in their own spaces, as well as putting the power of civics into the hand of the public by providing plain-language civics resources at Civics101.ct.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n Secretary Thomas holds a B.A. from New York University and an M.S. in Nonprofit Management from New School University. She is Connecticut\u2019s 75th Secretary of State and the first Black person to be elected to the position.<\/p>\n The program takes place in Memorial Hall, 1 Main Street South, from 7 \u2014 8:30 p.m. Registration is required. To register and for more information, call the Bethlehem Public Library at 203-266-7510, Ext. 7, or register online at www.bethlehemlibraryct.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM \u2013 The America 250 Christmas Town Planning Committee has announced that Connecticut Secretary of State Stephanie Thomas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,16739,13281],"class_list":["post-185218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-community_events","tag-community_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}