By Mary Coltrane, Former Voter Services Portfolio Director, LWVWA Board 

The state League council was such a great time to reconnect with other League members after two years of pandemic! Those of us who spend much of our League time in Voter Services enjoyed the chance to connect and share Voter Services ideas. And all at the council had the chance to hear about some of our great Voter Services work.  

• Julie Anne Kempf, Seattle-King County League, shared VOTE411 information, pointing out that there are many counties in Washington state that don’t have a budget for voter guides; these are counties where the League fills the gap. She also reviewed the timeline so everyone can know when to tell friends and family to check VOTE411 on or about July 8 to see whether their candidates have participated in VOTE411.Julie Anne asks that we all contact campaigns if our candidates haven’t answered—and ask them to do so! 

• Susan Fiksdal of Thurston County shared the great Voter Services tools you will find on the Voter Services page (see the LWVWA website For Members section, Voter Services page). She described the research-based thinking behind the Be a Voter campaign—Be a Voter invokes a sense of identity as a voter and this is a powerful message. 

• Cam Kerst described how Bellingham-Whatcom County organizes the important business of getting League members out to tabling events. This is a key way we reach voters. The Bellingham-Whatcom League uses a team approach and divides the work up so that no one is doing it all. 

• Karen Crowley of Snohomish County walked attendees through the high points of a recent Voter Services workshop on candidate events, with a special focus on empty chair debates. Forums and debates are more important than ever in these hyperpartisan times, and candidates deciding not to show is a problem in terms of promoting an informed electorate. Not everyone in the League focuses on Voter Services, but understanding this and other Voter Services programs helps us all in promoting an informed electorate and getting out the vote. 

We in the League love to share ideas and hear what other Leagues are doing. There was time for this at the Voter Services caucus. Susan Fiksdal led attendees in a discussion centering on three areas: 

• Contact Democrats and Republicans and ask for issues of interest to them.  
  
• Check with the Washington Journalism Education Association to get questions from high schoolers. 
  
• Check VOTE411 questions; do they vary from candidate event questions?  
  
• Work with organizations that work with schools to get access to schools. 
  
• Divide up and systemize communication with the candidates.  
  
• Outreach for questions: Include community, journalists, party leadership, social media. 
  
• Make a plan to adopt a candidate events policy. Include writing an op-ed telling the public what it is. Submit it to your local newspaper. 
  
• Partner with your library to put on Zoom forums.  
  
• Educate voters about positions/job duties that are on the ballot. 
  
• Work with speech/debate classes, high schools, and community colleges to engage youth. 

2. Reach out to diverse communities: What have you done in the past that works? What are your plans for this year? How are you working with speakers of other languages? Here are some ways local Leagues are working to achieve our DEI goals: 

• Use QR codes—they’re  a magnet! Put posters on your car with a link to the voter registration site. 
  
• Reach out  to tribes, the NAACP, churches, LGBTQ groups, and food banks. Attend their events. Leave the Your Vote publication at churches and other locations.
  
• Translations are great but can be expensive. Need to consider materials to translate; use certified translations, then reach out to the community to distribute.  
  
• Pass out translated flyers at food banks. 

• Boys & Girls Clubs 
  
• Big Brothers/Big Sisters. 
  
• United Student Leaders groups in high schools are active. 
  
• Hold a youth forum.
• Partner with organizations and have students register people to voter.
• Advertise on buses and ferries.
• Offer youth scholarships to join the League. 

Take a look at the Voter Services page on the League website. You will find information and tools that you can use to help spread the word about voting!