Winners of the LWVJC 2025 Essay Contest are, from left, Claire Porter (first place), Livia Lee (second place) and Calliope Mosher (third place). Porter and Lee are from Port Townsend High School and Mosher is from Chimicum High School.

In 1919, a year before women won the right to vote, League of Women Voters founder Carrie Chapman Catt announced three goals for the newly formed organization. One was to “make democracy so safe for the nation and so safe for the world that every citizen feels secure.”  

Borrowing from that idea, the League of Jefferson County on May 1 kicked off its fourth annual essay contest for high schoolers with this prompt:  

How as voters can we ensure that democracy is safe and citizens feel secure? 

The students’ responses will be published in June. If they are anything like last year’s, they will be heartbreaking, refreshing, moving and thought-provoking — so much so that the judges will have a hard time narrowing down the winners, said Karen Steinmaus, the local League’s essay contest lead. 

“Our high schoolers are definitely engaged, writing on immigration, LGBT rights, and federal funding cuts that impact school lunch programs,” Steinmaus added. 

Ninety-six high school-age students participated in 2025, thanks to outreach by League members to civics, history and science teachers in Jefferson County schools, and to home-schooled students.   

Prize money came from the Jefferson League’s Civic Education Grant fund. Steinmaus said the League last year was able increase prize payouts to $500 for the first-place finisher, $300 for second and $150 for third.