Annual Lobby Week, hosted by the League of Women Voters of Washington Lobby Team for League members, will be Jan. 26-29, 2026.

That week, during the day, members in local Leagues throughout Washington will have the opportunity to meet with their legislators via Zoom to urge legislative support for League positions.

Evenings will feature presentations by Lobby Team members—also via Zoom—that will detail key issues the state Legislature is expected to address this session.

At present, it is not clear what bills will be considered for the session, which begins Jan. 12.

But the draft agenda for Lobby Week assumes the lack of financial resources will permeate all discussions. Also, likely key will be the effects of federal changes to Medicaid, the continued lack of affordable housing and climate change.

Legislation related to these and other issues such as democracy, immigrants, criminal justice and more also will be discussed, along with talking points for all issues that League members can use when meeting with their lawmakers. 

Susan Martin chaired the LWVWA study “Welcoming Immigrants to Washington State,” which led to the LWVWA adopting a new position in June 2025. The League plans to seek adoption by national concurrence on the position in Columbus, Ohio, this summer.

Martin, a professor emerita of international migration at Georgetown University, is also the author of A Nation of Immigrants, published by Cambridge University Press. 

The piece below was originally published in the Journal of the San Juan Islands on Nov. 27, 2025.

New Barriers to Naturalization
Susan Martin, Professor Emerita of International Migration, Georgetown University

Naturalization of immigrants in the U.S. is as old as the republic itself and reflects some of the country’s positive and negative history. The Declaration of Independence accused the British Crown of “obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners.” It is the seventh articulated abuse (out of twenty-eight), reflecting the seriousness of the charge. With ratification of the U.S. Constitution, responsibility for naturalization was given to the Congress, rather than the states (which had responsibility previously) or the Executive and Judicial branches of government (Article I, Section 8). As such, Congress has the power to establish a “uniform rule of naturalization”. In 1790, Congress passed its first naturalization law, granting citizenship to “any Alien being a free white person”, who shall have resided in the country for two years. The law was amended several times in the next few years. For example, one bill required applicants to wait 14 years before naturalization. A law adopted in 1802 lifted some of the more restrictive provisions, establishing a five-year waiting period, which continues to this day.

After the Civil War, Congress adopted several additional laws that affected naturalization. The 14^th amendment was key in recognizing citizenship for all of those born in the United States. The Naturalization Act of 1870 followed by granting naturalization rights “to aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent.” At the same time, the legislature denied citizenship to most Asians. This continued until 1952. In the early 20^th century, the Naturalization Act of 1906 required immigrants to learn English to become citizens. It also established the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, which was to develop uniform processes for naturalization. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) plays that role now.

Congress still has the principal responsibility for establishing a uniform rule of naturalization. The current administration, however, has attempted to use its executive powers to make it more difficult for eligible immigrants to naturalize. On Inaugural Day, President Trump issued an executive order that would end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and those with temporary work permits. This would require hundreds of thousands of persons born in the United States to naturalize, if they had a track to permanent residence, remain in the country with diminished rights, or move to a country they never knew. All federal courts that have ruled on this issue as of today have determined that the President does not have the authority to make such a glaring change in the 14^th amendment, which extended citizenship to all born in the U.S.

The administration is also trying to restrict people from naturalizing through other actions. USCIS has changed the civics and history tests administered to applicants for naturalization to make them significantly more difficult. Applicants must answer double the number of questions asked previously and respond correctly to 12 out of 20 questions drawn from 128 possibilities. These are not multiple-choice questions. The tests are conducted orally in a setting where most applicants are already nervous. I have a PhD in American Studies and found myself questioning my civics and historical knowledge since many of the questions have multiple correct answers, some of which are not on the list of answers given to applicants to study. Even before the new tests were introduced, the percent of denials of naturalization had plummeted, with a 23.7 percent increase in denials when compared with the last six months of the Biden administration.

The current administration has also made it more difficult for those granted naturalization to register to vote. New guidance prevents nonpartisan, non-governmental organizations, such as the League of Women Voters (LWV), from offering voter registration services at naturalization ceremonies organized by USCIS. Members of the LWV of Washington reported that voter registration applications have been removed from the package of information provided to new citizens.

The U.S. has had a spotty record on naturalization, often based on racial discrimination. During the past century, however, there has been great improvement. If the Trump administration policies prevail, however, the U.S. will fall far behind in welcoming newcomers. That will be a tragedy not only for immigrants but also for our democracy. 

The partnership the League of Women Voters of the United States formed in 2024 with Girl Scouts of the USA reminds us of the accomplishments of the Scouts’ founder.

Juliette Gordon Low inspired girls to become active and engaged citizens. She died in 1927, seven years after the League—which shares a number of her values—was founded and women won the vote in the United States.

The League’s national partnership with the Girl Scouts focuses on a “Promote the Vote” service project and several related collaborations by local Washington state Leagues.

Seattle King League member Susan Waller, a lifelong scout, said the effort takes a variety of forms and involves several troops.

“We’re working here with girls from fourth through seventh grade,” said Waller.

When “Suffs,” the award-winning musical about women and the vote, toured Seattle earlier this fall, Waller said scouts tabled at four of the 19 shows.

Waller said fellow League member Ann Beller of the Magnolia unit met longtime Girl Scouts volunteer Tami MIcheletti and recruited her to the League. Micheletti, in turn, suggested the tabling activity. 

Meanwhile, a conversation with one Seattle-area troop led to the creation of a timeline showing the when different people got the vote.

“We took girls through the milestones,” said Waller. “First, when you got to vote if you were a white male property owner, and then, later, how you got the vote if you weren’t a property owner, and then how black men were enfranchised after the Civil War.

It was 1920 before women won the right to vote.

Waller said members of a troop she’s working with in Seattle’s Phinney Ridge area enjoy performing. “So, we’re doing a play focused on local government.” The girls will portray city officials and will be given a short script and then be encouraged to act out the rest of the story.

Waller, who had a successful career in fundraising, said five decades of scouting helped make her the woman she is. “Whenever I interviewed for a job, I always found myself referencing my Girl Scout credentials.”

Meanwhile, in early November, Clark League members Mary Schick and Char O’Day engaged with more than 1,800 Girl Scouts, their parents and troop leaders at the Girl Scout STEM Day in Salem, Ore.,

LWVCC partnered for the event with the League of Women Voters of Oregon and Girl Scouts from Oregon and Southwest Washington, ages five to 15 years.

“We had a constant line of two to seven people waiting to spin the League of Women Voters of Clark County’s wheel and answer questions related to their state politics and civics,” said Schick.

Schick and O’Day used the wheel to educate Girl Scouts and their families with questions such as, “How old do you need to be to register to vote?”

Clark County and Oregon leagues provided troop leaders with information about their partnership with Girl Scouts, emphasizing the “Promote the Vote” campaign and other activities such as candidate forums.

Troop leaders welcomed the opportunity for support from local leagues, and League members walked away hopeful for a future led by Girl Scouts.  

Meanwhile, to the north, on Constitution Day in September, Skagit County League President Jane Vilders guided members of Mount Vernon’s Girl Scout Troop 43929 in exploring a timeline of suffrage in the United States.

“They were amazed about the spaces of time between when different groups won the right to vote and the unfairness of it all,” Vilders said.

Vilders’ presentation was part of the Skagit League’s effort to help the scouts earn their democracy badges. 

Previously, the scouts traveled to Olympia to tour the governor’s office. On another occasion, they met Mayor Peter Donovan at Mount Vernon City Hall. “They had great conversations with him,” Vilders said.

In late October, Vilders took eight scouts to the Skagit County Elections Office, where Elections Manager Gabrielle Clay spent about an hour with the girls discussing voting and registration.  The scouts also saw where ballots are processed.

The same day the scouts spent 45 minutes with Superior Court Judge Laura M. Riquelme, who talked about the court system, what her job involves, her education and the types of cases she hears.

The way Vilders sees it, those activities are all part of cultivating the next generation of civic leaders.

By Dee Anne Finken, Communications Portfolio Director, LWV of Washington

Money spent lobbying public officials in Washington rose more over the last decade than in any other state that tracks such spending, according to a National Public Radio report. By 2024, that figure reached $90 million. 

Standing apart from the roughly 1,000 paid lobbyists in Olympia is the all-volunteer yet influential League of Women Voters of Washington Lobby Team. It consists of 13 citizen lobbyists, called Issue Chairs, and many more Advocates, who conduct research, track bills, issue action alerts, work with coalitions, write model legislation and advocate with lawmakers.    

Unlike their paid counterparts, who tend to focus on special interests, these nonpartisan citizen lobbyists address a broad range of issues that come before the Legislature. And they do so with impressive subject-matter expertise.

Among the areas the team is involved in are early learning, education, health care and behavioral health, the housing crisis, immigrants, a more equitable tax structure and a more effective and thoughtful criminal justice system.

Lobby Team members also work to protect old-growth forests, improve the state’s response to forest fires, divert waste, create more efficient transportation systems, and address the climate crisis.

But perhaps the advocacy for which the League is best known relates to elections. It strives for ballot security, fairness, access to information, and reduction of financial influence.

The team speaks for approximately 2,800 League members in 20 local chapters—known in League nomenclature as local Leagues—across the state.

But its broad portfolio of interests and subject-matter expertise cements its reputation as a power working to improve the lives of all who call the Evergreen state home. “The League has an unwavering dedication to legislative advocacy on behalf of all Washingtonians,” Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, recently noted.  

Liias said he feels reassured when he sees a bill has League support.  “It means the bill would undoubtedly do something good.”

Lt. Gov. Denny Heck also holds the team in high regard. 

“Powered by volunteers and fueled by an amazing array of subject matter experts, the League effectively advocates before our state Legislature,” he said earlier this year.

“In so many ways, the League represents the very best in us and the best of what a high-functioning democracy is. And they have been doing so for decades and decades!”

As the Jan. 12, 2026, start of the legislative session nears, learn more about team in the accompanying story, “A Closer Look,” and “Meet Our Advocacy Team” on the state website.

The author of this piece serves on the Lobby Team as Issue Chair for Local News & Democracy.

By Dee Anne Finken, Communications Portfolio Director, LWV of Washington

Members of the LWVWA Advocacy Team bring incredible experience:  Child clinical psychologist, local government manager, Boeing engineer, state early-childhood education director, nonprofit chief executive, ordained Buddhist chaplain, journalist, commercial-property manager, criminal defense attorney, martial arts expert, education coordinator, tenured college faculty member and airport manager. 

During the legislative session, the team’s Issue Chairs regularly testify before Senate and House committees, offering insight to lawmakers on complex concerns, tracking bills and conducting research.

A number of them also are involved—often year-round—in coalition work, making connections and building bridges with those with whom they share similar perspectives and approaches to problem-solving.   

Among those are Karen Tvedt, of Olympia, who joined the team after serving as executive director of the state’s Early Learning Council, and Ann Murphy, who served as state League president from 2015-19.

“I like coalition building because you can influence priorities from behind the scenes. Legislators too often get different messages from different organizations that come in to testify and it can be confusing,” Tvedt said. 

For Tvedt, who also coordinated the federal Child Care Policy and Research Consortium and earned a master’s degree in public administration and a Ph.D. in social work and research, that means helping the League “get on the same page” with Head Start and ECEAP, the state’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program. 

“I spent my career working in early learning and I care about these issues,” said Tvedt, who also is an ordained Buddhist chaplain. 

For Murphy, who was education coordinator for the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System for 25 years, being in a coalition with members like the Environmental Priorities Coalition means the opportunity to gain more knowledge about issues that then can be passed on to local League members. She noted that the League is a member of at least nine coalitions.

Involving Members and Others to Take Action
Like all Issue Chairs, Murphy also invests time and energy preparing the weekly newsletter that is published during the legislative session.
“That’s to get information out to our League membership and to rally the troops so they can take action,” she said.

“The Legislative Action Newsletter” is emailed every Sunday afternoon during the legislative session to all 2,800 League members and another 4,000 non-members who’ve subscribed. The publication summarizes activity lawmakers took the previous week and previews the coming week, including times and dates of hearings. 

Readers are offered recommendations by Issue Chairs and are encouraged to sign in on the state Legislature’s website and take a “pro” or “con” position on upcoming votes. Members also may offer testimony, although they are not to identify themselves as official representatives of the League.

The recommendations are based on established League positions, which are arrived at by the grassroots process of reaching consensus by members. That agreement comes only after extensive study by League members, often taking two years. Most recently, the League completed studies and reached consensus on positions on eldercare and immigrants in Washington.

Cynthia Stewart, chair of the Lobby Team, explained the process is key to the League’s credibility. “Because the positions we take are all based on our studies—and because we are so rigidly nonpartisan.”

The League has taken positions since its founding in 1920 and positions adopted by the state League can be found in a lengthy document titled Program in Action. Positions adopted by the League of the Women Voters of the United States are detailed in Impact on Issues.

Stewart speaks proudly of both the experience the Lobby Team members bring and their dedication to their work.  “We have people who are professionals in their fields and they are motivated, truly motivated.”

Stewart herself has 30 years of experience in local government management, specializing in budget, management, personnel, revenue and public works. One position in King County government was at Boeing Field, work for which the Washington State Department of Transportation named her airport manager of the year.

Education, Understanding Are Foundational
Heather Kelly was the team’s first Criminal Justice Issue Chair. A graduate of the University of California Hastings College of Law, she worked for more than a dozen years in three Bay-area law firms before opening her own practice in Seattle.

As an Issue Chair, Kelly started testifying in the Legislature on police and corrections reform.“All of the incarcerated people I was working with were also survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault or child abuse. I was really trying to educate legislators about that so they wouldn’t just have a defense-oriented perspective.”

In time, Kelly realized the value of working to elevate to leadership roles the very people for whom she was advocating. 

And so, as Kelly steps down this year as Criminal Justice Issue Chair, Karen Peacey takes her place.  

Peacey happened into League advocacy work only by chance. She was volunteering with another nonprofit organization when she encountered a League Lobby Team member who was meeting one-on-one with people who had served time in prison.

“It was one of those game-changer meetings,” Peacey said. Her previous prison sentence means she “brings a different perspective to this work,” she explained.

Last session, as an Advocate, for instance, Peacey worked on a bill calling for increased access to civics education for people in the state prison and hospital systems. 

Peacey explained the interest in more educational opportunities. “They want to learn from the mistakes they’ve made.”

Nonpartisanship is the Standard
The League’s adherence to nonpartisanship strengthens its credibility, Stewart said, but it also can be a drawback. “We don’t contribute to anyone’s campaign and so we don’t have some of the influence that paid lobbyists have.”

It also means Issue Chairs aren’t contributing to lawmakers’ re-election campaigns, wining and dining them—or getting overly familiar.

But Alison McCaffree, who holds engineering degree from Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said it was a former lawmaker who knew her well enough to encourage her to join the Lobby Team.

She is Issue Chair for Redistricting and oversees the team’s Make Democracy Work effort.

Her grandmother, Mary Ellen McCaffree, had served as president of the Seattle King County League and as its legislative liaison before entering politics and winning a seat in the state House of Representatives.

A pioneer in redistricting, the elder McCaffree specialized in tax policy and tax reform, and worked to lower the voting age to 18 and on legislation for environmental conservation during her four terms.

It was about a month before she died that the elder McCaffree, then 96, beckoned her granddaughter to her side. The purpose was a pep talk and to strategize, emphasizing nonpartisan advocacy.  

“It was during the last conversation I had with her,” the younger McCaffree said.

“She turned to me and said, ‘We have a lot of work left to do.’”

The author of this piece serves on the Lobby Team as Issue Chair for Local News & Democracy.

The League’s Local News & Democracy position establishes that the understanding of media literacy and news education are key to developing healthy, engaged communities.

The following tip is provided by the state League’s Media Literacy and News Education Project.

Use SIFT to help you determine if online information is trustworthy

Civic health increasingly is being impacted by the torrent of information that bombards us daily -- and by way of all types of media.

The SIFT method, developed by digital literacy expert Mike Caulfield, helps a person determine the trustworthiness of online content or, in other words, if something they read, hear or see is true, false, misleading or something else.

S, the first letter of SIFT, is for Stop. It reminds a person to stop before taking action on information from an unfamiliar source. Before reading, sharing, engaging with or using the information, verify if it is reliable.

I is for Investigate, as in Investigate the source: This doesn’t mean hours of research. Rather, look for what others have said about the information source. Start with a basic online search.  Look for reliable sources rather than commercial appeals.  And remember:  AI is not fool-proof by any means.

F is for Find better (or other) coverage: If your investigation turns up a long list of additional sources, move on to Find better coverage about a topic. To find websites that might feature more reliable results, type “fact check” in front of your term in the search bar.  Or check out these fact-checking websites.

T is for Trace claims, quotes and media to the original context: To ensure the information in front of you is being used as intended, Trace claims, quotes and media to its original context. An excellent source is Snopes. For information about an image that has been stripped of its context, use Google image search.

Consider exploring these fact-checking sites:   

• The Poynter Institute: Fact-Checking
• Associated Press: AP Fact Check
• FastCheck.org

By Heather Jobe, Klickitat County Auditor, and Brandie Sullivan, Elections Administrator 

With election integrity and voter confidence about vote-by-mail systems under intense national scrutiny, county auditors and elections administrators across Washington have been urging voters—particularly those in rural areas—to mark and return their ballots early. 

That’s been the scenario, for one, this election season in 1,900-square-mile Klickitat County, which shares a border with Oregon in south central Washington.  

Home to slightly more than 24,000 people—and some 16,434 registered voters-- Klickitat County boasts three wild, scenic rivers—the Klickitat, White Salmon and Columbia. Its western section is heavily forested and boasts orchards and fruit-packing enterprises while the rolling prairies of its central and eastern regions feature wineries and extensive vegetable farming. 

Officials in the county seat of Goldendale, a 4 ½-hour drive from Spokane and two hours from Portland, say the time it takes for a ballot deposited in a U.S Postal Service box in Goldendale to make its way back to the Elections Office from a distant sorting center for processing and to be counted can be delayed considerably these days. 

Among the reasons are various changes in postal service practices, including shifting postmarking processes and reductions in the frequency of mail being trucked to sorting centers.  

“The date on a machine-applied postmark may reflect the date on which the mail piece was first accepted by the Postal Service, but that is not definitively the case,” according to a USPS statement in a recent Federal Register notice. 

Both are important factors because mailed ballots must be post marked by Election Day, Nov. 4 this season, and received in the Elections Office by Nov. 24, the day before certification. 

As an example, Goldendale used to have two truck pickups every day from Portland where mail might be sent for sorting. Now there is only one. 

Consequently, a ballot dropped in a mailbox in Goldendale after 4 p.m. on one day, now won’t necessarily arrive in Portland for sorting until after 4 p.m. the next day, and then it might not get postmarked until even the following day. 

And other mail posted in Goldendale might be transported even further to Spokane or Seattle, taking even longer.  It all depends on the postal code. 

To address these challenges, we’ve been doing proactive messaging to urge voters to get their ballots in early.  This season, doing so by mail meant posting them at least seven days before Election Day. 

To ensure a ballot receives a timely postmark, a voter may hand it directly to a postal clerk inside the local post office and request a hand-applied postmark at the counter.  Without that request, the ballot is not required to be postmarked until it reaches the processing plant. The allows for the possibility the ballot could be postmarked or received too late. 

A voter also may return a ballot in person at the Auditor’s Office or deposit it in one of the official permanently installed ballot drop boxes located throughout the state (yes, you can drop your ballot in ANY official drop box).  

By the way, drop boxes are opened 18 days prior to an election and remain open until 8 o’clock on election night 

When in doubt, always use a drop box.  A complete list of drop box locations is included in your voters’ pamphlet or at www.votewa.gov. 

Remember, every vote counts, but only if it is received and postmarked on time! 

—With Dee Anne Finken, Communications Portfolio Director, LWV of Washington

Cynthia Stewart

By Cynthia Stewart, 1st Vice President and Advocacy Chair, LWV of Washington

We all want our voting systems to be safe and secure.  

After all, voting is one of our most fundamental rights as Americans and safe elections are vital to our democracy.

Every eligible voter’s ballot should count, particularly when democracy is challenged.  There should be no deterrent to prevent eligible citizens from voting.

Our elections are very safe in Washington state.  But a campaign is now underway for an initiative which proponents say will protect voting rights. The claims are far from the truth.

Initiative Measure IL26-126 won’t protect our voting systems.  In fact, if passed, the measure—commonly known as I-126—would disenfranchise a significant number of persons who are legally eligible to vote.

It would require all voters in Washington to have an enhanced drivers’ license or provide, in person, documentary proof of U.S. citizenship. Voters who fail to do so would be removed from voting rolls.  

Besides being burdensome to eligible voters, the measure would be tremendously costly for counties to administer.

You may have encountered proponents of I-125 asking you to sign a petition to qualify it for the November 2026 ballot. They may have told you that signing the petition will keep noncitizens from voting.   

The reality is, despite the assertions of initiative proponents, noncitizens are not voting.  Numerous studies -- all scientifically solid -- prove them wrong. Case in point is the finding by the Brennan Center for Justice of only 30 cases of suspected noncitizens voting out of 23.5 million votes in 2016. That’s an incidence rate of 0.0001%. 

The real threat to election security is mis- and dis-information. Like the mis- and dis-information promulgated by proponents of I-126.

Supporters have until Jan. 2, 2026, to turn in the signatures of about 309,000 voters to qualify the initiative.

Protect your vote.  Decline to sign the petition that would put the measure on the ballot.  Join the League of Women Voters of Washington and a number of other pro-democracy groups in opposing the initiative.  For more information about the Decline to Sign effort, click here.  

Flying flags, waving placards and chanting slogans are all part of the work to stand up to ongoing assaults on our democracy.  

And two weeks ago, during their Oct. 18 No Kings rally in Coupeville, members of the League of Women Voters of Whidbey Island added another element to their effort to support one another.  
 
Members of the Whidbey League also gathered 10 boxes of food and raised more than $800 in donations to benefit three island food banks.  

“Rallying, marching and speaking out against the abuses and threats to our democracy are important," said Whidbey League Co-President Judy Hucka. "But we can also show our love of our country by taking care of our own community. Collecting food for those who desperately need it is a direct and tangible thing we can do." 

League members carried buckets bearing QR codes to enable fellow marchers to donate directly to the food banks. 

Susan F. Martin, LWVWA Liaison to Redistricting Reform Task Force Portfolio Director

With growing concerns about the well-being of immigrants in the United States, the League of Women Voters of Washington is looking to secure national adoption of a new policy position affirming all residents—regardless of their immigration status or citizenship—should be treated with dignity and respect. 

National adoption of the position would extend the ability of League members throughout the country at all levels—local, state and national—to advocate for legislation and programming to improve the lives of immigrants. Those improvements include providing access to essential state-funded services, the opportunity to avail themselves of legal representation in court and immigration proceedings, and the opportunity to live and work in safety. 

On Saturday, state directors appointed Susan F. Martin to the state board to help facilitate national adoption of the position. Martin, a Georgetown University professor emerita, led the state League’s 18-month study titled “Welcoming Immigrants in Washington State,” which resulted in the state League’s adoption of the position at its convention in June in Vancouver, Washington.  

Study team members, consisting of League members from through the state, used both quantitative and qualitative analysis; completed an extensive literature review; surveyed local Leagues, state legislation and case law related to immigration; and interviewed 25 subject-matter experts.   

The national League adopted a policy on immigration in 2008 that supports admission policies that are in the national interest as well as protection of immigrants’ rights, regardless of their status. 

The provisions of the new Washington state policy pick up where the national position left off, Martin said.  It does so with its attention to laws, policies and programs that concern immigrants once they reside in the United States. 

Martin previously served as the executive director of the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, which advised the president and Congress on U.S. immigration and refugee policy.  She also has authored or edited more than a dozen books and numerous articles and book chapters based on extensive field research as well as her experiences working in government.  

Martin serves as a co-president of the LWV San Juans.  

In her new role on the state board Martin will also serve as the liaison to the state League’s redistricting task force. That task force seeks reform that by 2031 would result in an updated redistricting commission, ongoing staff and technical support, process transparency, clearly defined rank criteria, an inclusive process for public input and language accessibility.  

The LWVWA last secured national concurrence of a position in 2024, when the LWVUS adopted its position on Local News & Democracy.