The LWVWA Voter Services Committee met in November 2021, right after the election. A round robin of attendees revealed an amazing amount of League work in communities across the state. Here, from four local Leagues, is a sampling of the great work Leagues undertook, with a special focus on how they used the state League Be a Voter toolkit. As a League member, you can be proud of all we in the League do to defend democracy by serving voters. 

The next Voter Services Committee meeting will be Wed., Jan. 12 at 6:30 p.m. by Zoom. If you would like to pop in as a guest, please let me know and I’ll send you the Zoom link. In the meantime, Happy Holidays to you and yours. 

League of Women Voters of Clallam County 

The LWV of Clallam County partnered with the North Olympic Library System to provide technical assistance and advertising for League forums. We held five primary forums and four general election forums via Zoom, recorded them, and made them available on our website. 

Distribution of voter education materials included: 

• Be a Voter checklists: 1,400 copies were distributed to families at back-to-school events in Sequim and Port Angeles. 

• Your Vote tabloid: 1,400 copies were distributed throughout our community, including schools, libraries, the auditor’s office, bookstores, and more. 

• Be a Voter bookmarks: 1,500 were given to schools, libraries, community colleges, local bookstores, and more.   

• Be a Voter social media: began posting to Facebook and Instagram on Oct. 9. 

• Whimsical social media: began posting to Facebook and Instagram on Oct. 12.  

League of Women Voters of Clark County 

The LWV of Clark County printed about 100 Be a Voter flyers and distributed them to individuals at voter registration and education events and posted them in coffee shops and senior housing facilities. The Spanish-language flyers, although less distributed, were well-received and appreciated, as were the Be a Voter bookmarks.  

Our League posted 18 Be a Voter social media posts using tools from the state League’s toolkit. Individual members also created posts. Our Communications and Voter Services Committees valued the idea of a statewide LWVWA message. They appreciated the consistent and positive statewide messages, ease of use, and readily available artwork and text to preschedule posts. 

Facebook friends of the League liked that sharing these posts was simple. The LWV of Clark County proudly replaced its Facebook cover photo with the Be a Voter logo.  

We noticed no real difference in the number of views to Be a Voter posts compared to non-Be a Voter posts. The Communications team appreciated being able to preschedule graphics using publishing tools on Facebook and followed the posting dates recommended in the Be a Voter toolkit. It was helpful to have content already created.  

A campaign like this helps to keep the message consistent across the state. Members and another local League shared these posts. In the six weeks leading up to the election, Be a Voter posts were mixed with other posts. The number of reaches was consistent with the League's normal Facebook responses.   

League of Women Voters of Pullman 

For the 2021 general election, the LWV of Pullman held candidate forums for three races in Pullman: Hospital Board (Position 2 unopposed), School Board (Position 2 unopposed), and one of the council seats (the other two seats were unopposed). At the last minute, one of the council candidates canceled. The candidate who was on Zoom was allowed to briefly introduce himself.  

We participated in the Voting Hub at Washington State University. 

We received 300 Your Vote tabloids, which were quickly distributed. They went to members, libraries, churches, a senior center and assisted living, city hall, coffee shops, and laundromats. We also posted Be a Voter social media content.  

League of Women Voters of Thurston County 

The LWV of Thurston County social media campaign using Be a Voter posts was highly successful. We increased our Facebook followers to 711. We experienced engagement numbers related to the following kinds of messages (engagement means liking, saving, clicking on a link, and sharing links): 

• How a person votes is strictly private: 263 

• Ballots come with prepaid postal envelopes: 193 

• Signatures must pass multiple checks: 189 

We distributed Be a Voter bookmarks and the Your Vote tabloid to civics education teachers in eight high schools. Additional distribution efforts included:  

• The Be a Voter Spanish-language flyer to a local Spanish-language church. 

• English-language materials to houses of worship to reach people of color, the Nisqually Tribal Center, local libraries, and retirement communities. 

We held tabling events at the local farmers market and two branch libraries.