In an interview with a nine-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, two LWVWA leaders offer a comprehensive look at perhaps why fewer Americans vote than people who live in other Western democracies — and at specific challenges facing voters in Washington state.
In “Who Keeps Their Voice in 2026?” longtime Pacific Northwest journalist Jeff Renner talks with LWVWA President Karen Crowley and Democracy and Redistricting Reform Issues Chair Alison McCaffree,who shine a light on both old and new barriers to voting.
The 27-minute interview is one of the latest productions of Challenge 2.0. The multi-media series is produced by Paths to Understanding, a non-profit organization that, among other issues, is dedicated to fostering civic engagement.
Despite the 19th Amendment having extended voting rights to women more than 100 years ago and other legislative advances, restrictions and manipulation of voting districts continue to stymie voters.
What’s more, the challenges keep coming, this year in the guise of the SAVE Act (a bill that requires people to provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections), recent Supreme Court decisions and initiative efforts in Washington.
For a quick peak, check out, at the 6:00-7:00 minute mark,how opposition to voting rights “has never stopped”; at the 7:25-9:40 mark,how “any threat to voting rights is a serious threat” and the false fear that people who should not be voting are voting; and, from 21:00-23:00 “the only way we’ll change that is, in fact, for you to participate.”
