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

As longtime League member Jeanne Crevier sees it, tabling — staffing a table at a public event to encourage passersby to register and vote — is the League’s most fundamental act of voter outreach.

With a few weeks before the midterms, local League members are out in droves, tabling at farmers’ markets, neighborhood nights-out, Pride events, fairs and festivals, food banks, high schools and other venues.

In Snohomish County, where she’s never received so many invitations for the League to table, President Brenda Mann Harrison sees a straight-forward reason for the increase in requests: “People realize the importance of having everyone participate in the democratic process.”

Not long ago, in Ellensburg, Kittitas County members partnered with a local group serving people with disabilities to register voters and remind them of the Nov. 3 ballot deadline. As summer neared its close, members of the newly formed Grays Harbor local tabled at the annual Loggers’ Play Day in Hoquiam. Tacoma-Pierce County League members held postcard signing and tabling events on Sept. 15, Constitution Day.

League members in Seattle turned out at Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shops for tabling events, while Snohomish League members were tabling at area parades. 

In previous years, the League was involved in “Floats for Votes” events on the Vancouver campus of Washington State University. There, students listened to candidates, read League brochures about civics and sipped on root beer floats provided by student government. In an interesting twist, this year’s tabling took place as a “Goats for Votes” event, which featured real-life goats that students enjoyed petting.

As one Voter Services committee chair quipped, “Tabling is what we do.”  

League members at some events distribute pocket-sized copies of the U.S. Constitution. Others promote the League’s “The State We’re In: Washington” civics textbooks while elsewhere members distribute colorful “They Represent You!” brochures featuring contact information for respective local, county and state elected officials.

More than a handful of locals have displays featuring civics trivia questions or “chance” wheels that passersby spin to win token prizes. 

In Clark County, League member and retired mechanical engineer Dennis Megrditchian has fashioned a table-top voting machine where youngers are encouraged to vote for their favorite ice cream flavor or pet and watch the count jump on a battery-powered tally machine.  

“It’s a great little tool,” said state League first vice president Nancy Halvorson, of Clark County.

Crevier, who calls tabling the League’s fundamental voter outreach effort, said locals are tackling the task with an organized, systems-management method.

“They are breaking down the task into specifics,” Crevier said. “Whatcom County organizes it by venue. If a food bank contacts them, then that's the group that’s responsible for covering food banks gets the assignment.” 

The Clark County League has developed a similar arrangement — with different groups handling different assignments — high schools, colleges and universities, Girl Scout troops and festivals.

Some Leagues organize their tabling geographically. A recent report to the state board from new state director Elaine Harger noted Seattle has moved tabling out of the local-wide calendar into geographic units. 

‘’The common thread is ownership,” wrote Harger. When a team owns a “venue,” the ask for volunteers stops being a “can somebody cover Saturday” and becomes “this one is ours.”

Crevier acknowledged that, in a vote-friendly state like Washington, few people need actual help to register, except maybe young voters. “Rather, the work is to remind people to vote and to point them to ballot boxes.”

So, while “tabling” is a standard League activity, Crevier suggested using different words to attract volunteers. 

Asking League members to volunteer “to help get out the vote” and “to help with tabling” describe the same Saturday afternoon activity, she said. “But the invitations attract very differently, particularly with new members who want to feel like they’re making a difference.”

The League will return to Olympia in February for an in-person Lobby Day, the first since 2020. Above, former state Rep. Mike Pellicciotti, now state treasurer, addresses the League at an earlier Lobby Day event.  On the main page, Pam Crone, left, and Nancy Sapiro, League contract lobbyists, offer training to members in Olympia.

League members from throughout Washington will have an opportunity to lobby their senators and representatives in Olympia, when the LWVWA holds an in-person Lobby Day on Tuesday, Feb. 9. 

After six years of virtual Lobby Days via the Zoom platform, members of the state League Lobby Team elected to resume the practice of inviting all League membership to the Capitol campus for a daylong event of programming and small group meetings with lawmakers. 

Both meeting options – in-person and online – feature pros and cons, said Ann Murphy, who co-chairs the Lobby Team with state League Advocacy Chair Martin Gibbins. Gibbins also serves as the state League vice president. “But definitely, the in-person event on the Capitol campus builds greater camaraderie among our membership.”

Plus, Murphy added, “It is really exciting to all be there in person.”

The last in-person LWVWA Lobby Day was in 2020, just days before the statewide Covid 19 shutdown was ordered. More than 200 League members registered for the event, although 138 turned out.

Agrant from the national League of Women of Voters will help offset some costs of hosting the event, making the in-person option possible, Murphy said.

The Lobby Team is also restructuring the preparation and training it will offer League members in advance of the legislation session, which begins on Jan. 11.

“This year, it’s about developing a program. That’s the main impetus,” Murphy said, noting much of the content of this year’s trainings will be similar to years past. 

“But we’re looking to build a more cohesive program. And with all of the new members we have, that’ll be helpful as it will allow our people to step through the process from the start and see a whole roadmap ahead of them.”

In place of what had been a half-day Action Workshop event, typically on a Saturday in November or December, will be a four-night series called “Learning the Issues,” conducted on one evening in November and three in early December. 

On Monday, Nov. 30, Lobby Team members will provide instruction on League legislative priority issues titled “Protecting a Democracy under Siege,” namely protecting the budget and revenue, voting rights and local news. Wednesday, Dec. 2, environmental issues will be the focus, while on Monday, Dec. 7, social and economic policies will be front and center. Finally, Wednesday, Dec. 9, will feature an overview of the Lobby Day.

All “Learning the Issue” sessions will be livestreamed on Zoom from 6:30-8 pm.

Members can also attend a virtual training on Wednesday, Dec. 16, from 6:30-8 pm on setting up meetings with lawmakers. That event was previously referred to as “Getting Your Ducks in A Row.” 

On Saturday, Jan. 9, Democracy Advocacy Issue Chair Alison McCaffree and colleagues will offer the popular Speak Up School training on how to effectively discuss topics with elected officials. It will be held from 2-4 pm via Zoom.

The first edition of the state’s Legislative Action Newsletter, profiling the bills the League is following and recommending member action, will publish Sunday, Jan. 10. Additional editions that will update developments and request further League member action will be published every Sunday through session’s end.

Prefiling of bills begins Dec. 7.

Murphy encourages members and local League leadership to start talking now about travel to Olympia for the Feb. 9 event. She said members who live a distance from Olympia may want to start discussing ride- and room-sharing.

The 105-day session concludes April 26. More details will be coming.

Clallam County League members, from left, David Brehm, Jeene Hobbs, Barbara Vanderwerf and Ann Soule, remind drivers along Old Olympic Highway in Sequim near the Dungeness River about wise water use. Photo courtesy of the Clallam County League. 

By Kären Wieckert, Water Issue Chair, LWV of Washington

Reliable, clean water is fundamental to our communities as well as agriculture, fisheries, the economy, and natural ecosystems. Decisions about its future must consider the health and resilience of entire watersheds. Which is why both the League of Women Voters of Clallam County and of Washington welcome Washington’s Water Future↗️, an initiative brought forward earlier this year by Gov. Ferguson and the Department of Ecology.   

The initiative addresses a critical issue: How should Washington prepare for increasing pressures on its water resources from climate change, population growth, drought, flooding, changing snowpack and competing demands? 

Spurred on by the Clallam League’s extensive work on this issue over the past decade, the state League provided written comments to Ecology Director Casey Sixkiller. The League offered support for the agency’s emphasis on collaboration and its recognition that the future requires input from tribal, state and local governments; agricultural interests, water utilities, businesses, environmental organizations, and communities. 

The LWVWA noted that its endorsement for action is informed by science, long-term watershed needs, environmental impacts, costs and benefits, and meaningful public involvement.  

We also recognize the need to protect water quality and aquatic ecosystems, to provide reliable water supplies while protecting water for fish and wildlife, and to recognize Tribal treaty rights and sovereignty. Likewise, the League values the prioritization of conservation and efficiency, the incorporation of climate change considerations into long-term planning, and support for locally developed solutions within strong statewide environmental protections.  

League of Clallam County, which has studied and conducted water management in the Dungeness watershed, also submitted comments to Ecology, highlighting how conditions there illustrate the challenges and potential solutions with broader statewide relevance.  

The League of Clallam County and the Dungeness 
Over the past decade, considerable efforts by state, local and Tribal governments, irrigators and other interests have worked to develop the Dungeness Instream Flow Rule↗️ and a basin‑wide management framework.  

Nonetheless, the Clallam League has identified warning signs: extremely low river flows, declining snowpack and glacial mass, reduced summer flows and aquifer recharge, declining groundwater levels, potentially over-allocated water rights, and uncertainty about whether existing mitigation programs are achieving their intended results.  

Clearly, the tools for managing water have not kept pace with management tasks.  

The League calls for updated groundwater characterization, expanded monitoring, better water-demand projections, additional snowpack research, and development of a comprehensive integrated forecasting model.  

We also recommend that conservation, reclaimed water, improved irrigation efficiency, off-channel storage and managed aquifer recharge be parts of a more resilient water strategy.  

We support both a statewide policy and watershed-level knowledge. The state can provide funding, standards, scientific resources and environmental protections. Local watershed experience can reveal where existing rules, models and programs are succeeding — and where changing conditions have overtaken the assumptions on which they were built. 

While the state League Lobby Team and members from Clallam County will closely track water programs and funding for those programs during the 2027 legislative session, we encourage local Leagues to follow the Clallam League's focus and closely monitor water issues in their local watersheds.  

Volunteers are needed to help inform this work and are encouraged to email Water Issue Chair Kären Wieckert to help. 

Campaign spending by unlimited SuperPAC and dark money sources has exploded from more than $57 million to $4.5 billion since the Supreme Courts Citizens United decision in 2010. 

That trend, reported by OpenSecrets2025, has more than 80% of voters concerned about money in politics, especially campaign costs, donor influence and the impact of special interests, according to Pew research.  

The New York Times recently reported this year’s midterms alone have attracted at least $1 billion from anonymous donors. 

But a new legal strategy, the Transparent Election Initiative↗️ offers a workaround that doesn’t require a new Supreme Court or a constitutional amendment to address this assault on our elections. The League wants members to consider this approach because it supports our principle of representative government in which political authority originates with the people, not money or corporations. 

The plan would reset corporate powers in each state. Hawaii passed legislation calling for the reset, and Montana voters will address it next month.  

The Washington state League has a position calling for reducing big money's influence in politics through public financing, strengthening financial disclosure and enforcement, and increasing transparency. Addressing this issue would positively affect all legislation that the League is pursuing. 

Learn more about the initiative by viewing recordings of the League’s presentation Stop Big Money in Politics↗️. The video features Sawyer McCrabb, executive director of Washington’s Fix Democracy First, and Aliya Bhatia, director of coalitions and partnerships for American Promise, a national organization working for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. 

We also encourage you to write your state legislators and local news outlets to say how outraged you are that our elections are for sale and to tell them about the Transparent Election Initiative. 

Additionally, some Washington local Leagues are forming a system of support for liked-minded advocates. The Stop Money in Politics Coalition↗️ has posted segments from two of the League’s live public forums from last month, with the locals rolling out similar presentations for fellow members and the public.

Contact MAK Mitchell, LWVWA Issue Chair for Money in Politics, and LWV Whidbey Island members Kiki La Porta and Anne Tearse.

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

League members attending the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association convention this month discussed timely topics with journalists, including the League’s legislative advocacy for local news, ways media literacy training serves journalism, and how a League partnership with a local news outlet means increased coverage. 

Approximately 150 editors and publishers attended the event held in Everett.  During one break-out session, more than two dozen journalists learned how the League of the San Juans’ Observer Corps helps expand reporting for the Journal of the San Juans. 

“It’s truly a win-win relationship,” Journal editor Heather Spaulding told attendees.  

Barbara Sharp, who leads the Observer Corps with fellow League member Susan Martin, told convention goers that League volunteers in the San Juans provide brief reports and always focus on straight-forward content. “It’s all neutral information in keeping with the League’s policy of being non-partisan,” Sharp said. 

Sharp also stressed that Observer Corps members are not journalists, but producers of reports about the “nuts and bolts” of what happens at local government meetings.  “Still, the project helps us bring news to the voters,” Sharp said, adding, “An informed voter is a good voter.”   

Two journalists at other outlets asked if the League might offer the program elsewhere in the state. Sharp said a number of other local Leagues host Observer Corps, but they share their reports only with their members. 

Sharp distributed sample reports by the San Juan League and shared a writing style guide her volunteers follow. She noted the chapter has observers at meetings of seven local government entities. 

She said the Journal publishes the League’s reports online and in print while five other area news outlets publish reports online. 

Additionally, members of the Media Literacy and News Education Project team presented an hourlong workshop about the League’s media literacy work and why it should matter to news outlets.  

“Is media literacy education the job of local news?” asked workshop presenters Brenda Mann Harrison and Lisa Stettler as they opened their session. They continued by asking those present to consider how “media literacy provides a foundation for valuing journalism.”  

The journalists were clearly eager to explore the premise, Harrison said.  

“You could tell how engaged they were by how loud the room was with their conversation whenever we asked them to discuss a question with someone,” Harrison said.  

“We also collected their handwritten input about the most important things their community members should know about media and news literacy,” Harrison said.  

Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, was keynote speaker at the convention luncheon. Liias, who sponsored SB 5400 last session to help rebuild local news in Washington, confirmed he will introduce a revised bill for the upcoming session. It will closely resemble his previous bill, raising upwards of $28 million for local outlets from a nominal surcharge on social media and big tech giants.  

The senator described the press as a vital institution, saying the country, now, more than ever, needs both real investigative journalism and opportunities where the public can witness meaningful civil discussions about issues. 

He saluted the League and other civic and good government groups that offer opportunities for people to convene and share ideas. 

Editor’s note: LWVWA Board Secretary Angela Gyurko, who serves on the state League Nominating Committee and chairs the 2027 Convention Committee, recently visited with Director Sasha Bentley. They discussed how Bentley finds balance in her life as she works full time, serves on the State Board with the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion portfolio, and raises her 6-year-old daughter, Ember.  

By Angela Gyurko, Secretary, LWV of Washington

There’s a perception in the League that all board members are retired and have come from large Leagues, having worked their way through committees and local League leadership positions before joining the Board. But Sasha Bentley shows that there are other paths to League leadership. Because I also came in from a non-traditional League background, I wanted to have a conversation with Sasha about her path to Board service. Bentley is a member of the Klickitat-Skamania Unit-At-Large and joined the State Board in June 2025.  She is director of Strategy and Operations for Washington Gorge Action Programs, a basic-needs nonprofit expanding into civic and community engagement. 

(This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.) 

Angela: As a member-at-large, and then a member of a unit-at-large, were you nervous about applying to the LWVWA Board? I know I personally was, because I knew I didn't have the leadership background of the people who lead the larger leagues. 

Sasha: Yes, I was very nervous. Because I wasn't "traditionally" ready for leadership. I was grateful the League has an option for community members who are ready to provide voter services to the community but aren't ready to commit to creating a full League. We were a group of women knowing we had to do more in our communities after 2016, and I knew the League, from my high school civic organizing days, had resources already available. We knew we didn't need to reinvent the wheel. We started as members-at-large, collectively taking on voter registration, information outreach efforts, and holding county and local candidate forums. 

Angela: What was your motivation for applying and what was your thought process going into your application? 

Sasha: I had recently obtained a lot of equity and systems-change knowledge and experience that I wanted to share and see it change an organization from the board level. I had previously been in contact with state League leaders since 2016 and they had floated the idea of me being a board member. I knew the League was doing more in the DEI space. But it took someone asking me to really take the leap.  

Angela: As someone who works full-time, can you talk about how you've made the work-League-life balance work?   

Sasha: I've always had some sort of volunteer project on top of my regular work, so it was easy to shift to League work at this time. I've been able to expand my time working with the League because my nonprofit grants have gone down, which means I've reduced my working hours. I work 30 hours a week which keeps me from burnout and allows me to do real work with the League! I'm very privileged in my position as well, being able to work from home, take a zoom call, and flex my time. The ability to Zoom into meetings from a campground also helps with the work-life balance. 

Angela: What advice do you have for Millennials and Gen Z regarding leadership in the League? 

Sasha: My advice is to say yes to leadership and not be afraid to push back or ask for more support. In my initial meeting with the nominating committee members, I think I said I could commit 10 hours a month to League work, which was bare minimum.  

I convinced them the quality of work I could produce in that time would be worth it. I also convinced them that board duty wouldn’t be too much added to my life, and I appreciated that they expressed concern about my well-being. 

And why say yes to leadership? It's great experience professionally but personally, too.  

There are a lot of great people out there waiting to work together, listen to other perspectives, and share their knowledge.  ... Don't wait until you feel like you have enough experience to be a leader. You probably won't feel ready, and that's okay. The League needs your perspective now, not just after you've spent 10 years working your way up.

Karen Verrill worked closely with Jill Severn for nearly 20 years to create the highly acclaimed “The State We’re In: Washington” LWVWA textbook. After Severn’s death, Verrill cares for Severn’s cat, Homie. 

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

The League sadly acknowledges the passing of longtime friend and supporter Jill Severn, whose many achievements included helping to transform the civics textbook The State We’re In: Washington↗️ into a treasure for thousands of Washington youngsters and their parents. 

Along with graphic artist Leslie Hoge and project manager Karen Verrill, Severn was one of three women who turned a simple, mimeographed report about state government into an acclaimed bound publication. It was Severn who insisted the textbook feature the people who called the Pacific Northwest home long before white, Asian, Latino and African American settlers arrived.  

“The most important thing you have to do is include the tribes,” Severn told colleague and longtime League member Verrill, of Thurston County. It was 2008, and Verrill had just sat down with Severn to discuss ways to make the publication, then in its fifth printing, more meaningful. 

In time, “TSWI” featured thoughtful stories and insights about the Nisqually, Suquamish, Skokomish, Kalispel, Skagit, Snohomish, Makah, Swinomish, Squaxin, Tulalip, Yakama, Puyallup, Lummi and other tribes. The new details were woven into the tapestry of the narrative.   

Severn was always thinking of others and helping them improve their lives, Verrill said.  

“Jill took being involved in improving the lives of others a priority.”  

Verrill said Severn “was also very interested in helping see that things were fair.” She said Severn was an unofficial foster parent to 15 youngsters during her lifetime.  

Also notable was her work birthing Quixote Village↗️, a tiny-house village in West Olympia for adults experiencing homelessness.   

Quixote Village’s first inhabitants were people who had been told they could no longer camp around Capitol Lake in Olympia. With help from local churches, the campers organized into a working group. “I remember Jill saying she was so impressed with how the people used democracy to run their meetings,” Verrill said. 

Severn then proceeded to secure $3 million in grants, bringing a dream to reality.  

Severn served as a staffer for Lt. Gov. Denny Heck, when he was a state senator.  “Jill lifted up everyone around her, whether it was establishing a village for the unhoused or igniting civic consciousness in our youth through her spectacular book “The State We’re In: Washington,’” Heck said. 

“Great friend. Effective and unrelenting activist. And a writer’s writer,” he added.  

“TSWI,” now in its eighth edition, is published by the nonprofit League of Women Voters of Washington Education Fund↗️. Featuring colorful images, pleasant reading and informative graphics, it is used in classrooms throughout the state and is endorsed by the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and other organizations.  

In 2019, with guidance from elementary school educators, Severn wrote the League’s first civics textbook for grades 3-5.  

Severn had been a columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Seattle Weekly, an editorial writer for The Olympian and a speechwriter for Govs. Booth Gardner and Gary Locke.She also researched and wrote for 15 state agencies. She would say, “If I don’t know something, I know who to call to find out.” 

Severn also contributed to the JOLT, the nonprofit Journal of Olympia, Lacey & Tumwater, providing guidance to its officers and writing a popular gardening column.  

Early last month, Thurston County League friends hosted a community-wide retirement party for her. A letter from the LWV board of directors was read, thanking Severn for her tireless efforts to help others. It also noted that Severn had cooked dinner for the village’s 30 residents every Wednesday for the past seven years. 

Thurston League friend Karen Tvedt said she was struck by the extent of love shown Severn at the party. 

A memorial for Severn, who died on Sept. 21, will be at 1 pm, Saturday, Oct. 24, at First Christian Church in Olympia. 

By Elaine Harger, Voter Services Portfolio Director, LWV of Washington

Greetings from Spokane, where autumn has finally arrived. An introduction of myself as a new LWVWA board member, now responsible for statewide Voter Services, is in order. 

I’ve been chair of Voter Services in Spokane for the past three years and have been a member of LWVSA since fall 2020 when I moved from Seattle. Shortly after arriving, I retired after more than 40 years as a library staff person and librarian in Utah, New York, New Jersey and Washington.  

As a LWVWA board member, I will help coordinate Voter Services support to local Leagues across the state and bring Voter Services activities, concerns and needs to the attention of the board.   

As a beneficiary of the monthly Voter Services Affinity Group meetings, I hope to continue sharing voter outreach activities along with Susan Fiksdal and Mary Schick, who immediately filled that job after Robbie Stoltz resigned.   

Chairs Fiksdal and Schick quickly made plans for the September and October affinity group meetings. As I write this, I am looking forward to the October meeting, which will feature representatives from the Office of the Secretary of State updating us and answering a long list of questions regarding the upcoming election. 

I’ve also been thinking about contributions I might make to the work of Voter Services in the LWVWA. Like all League members, when tabling I’ve encountered a good number of potential voters who express indifference, cynicism, ridicule and even hostility when they are asked about registering or voting in general.   

I think it might be interesting to explore this phenomenon in some kind of organized way to figure out how best to respond when this happens.   

Democracy in the U.S. is in trouble. Deeply.   

Yet I can’t help but think that representative democracy is essential, especially as the climate crisis generates even more stress on all systems that our society depends on and that need the coordination that government can provide.  If an inquiry along these lines develops, I will certainly let newsletter readers know.

I can be reached at eharger@lwvwa.org. 

By Karen Crowley, President, LWV of Washington

Where do you find reliable information about candidates? The voters’ guide from your county Auditor publishes basic information candidates provide about their background, experience and focus. And, closer to the General Election,

VoteWA.gov↗️ and Vote411.org↗️ can be helpful sources.   

But it is particularly valuable to hear directly from the candidates themselves.  

Candidates who take questions in a forum display their willingness to engage publicly, a sign they also may willingly meet and engage with constituents if they win. The way they conduct themselves during these events also may say much about how they will serve if they win.  

Every election cycle, the League of Women Voters takes on the same quiet, unglamorous task of booking a room or scheduling an online session and inviting every candidate on the ballot to participate. The forum moderator asks each participant the same questions, which are chosen to prompt thoughtful responses about important issues in a community or region.  

And every election cycle, some candidates decline to participate. The reason is almost always some version of the same complaint — the League is "partisan," the forum is "rigged," or showing up would be pointless or unfair.  

Whatever the explanation, the suggestion the sponsor is partisan isn’t reflected in the way the League operates.  

The League’s commitment to supporting and defending democracy is vigorous and unyielding, as it has been since its founding in 1920.  Passage of the 19th amendment extended the vote to women, and suffragist leaders established the League “as a mighty political experiment” to help women navigate their new roles as voters.  

Since then, at the local, state and national levels, the League has never endorsed or opposed candidates or political parties.    

We do, however, support issues — on the environment, reproductive rights, voting rights, education, health care, criminal justice and redistricting, to name but a few. We advocate for those policy positions only after extensive study and consensus of our membership.  

The questions we pose — and the manner in which we ask them — are professional and polite. Yes, they can be probing and tough. After all, responding to difficult questions about how to solve difficult problems is rarely easy.    

But the questions the League poses are far from the interrogations a candidate may encounter from a cable television reporter or an angry constituent.    

Political scientists tell us that decisions in high-profile races typically are made long before candidates face off on stage. News coverage consumed months earlier usually shapes decisions, and debates in these races barely move the needle on a voter’s final choices.   

The research, however, says little about races for school boards, city councils, or state legislatures, where League forums tend to have the most impact. In fact, with no significant news coverage — a reality worsened by the decline of local journalism — a forum may offer the only meaningful opportunity to compare candidates.  

Political scientists say risk-averse candidates may sit out public forums. Candidates leading the pack early on have little to gain by sharing a stage with opponents.  But they have much to lose from a gaffe, an unscripted misstep, or a moment clipped out of context.   

Declining typically stems from a calculation that broad public scrutiny offers greater risk than benefit.  

A forum invitation extended equally to every candidate and by an organization with no endorsement to give, strips away the benefit of having a familiar name, a bigger budget, or an incumbent title.   

Sadly, the practice of retreating from public accountability is growing. Debate participation among U.S. Senate↗️ and gubernatorial candidates↗️ has been falling since at least 2016.    

Voters needn’t assume the worst about a candidate who doesn’t participate. But they should ask what a candidate may be trying to avoid.  

A candidate confident in their record and their answers should welcome the comparison. One who avoids it makes a choice, too.   

And that choice should be part of a voter’s calculation.   

A frequently updated new feature on the League of Women Voters of Washington website↗️ provides links to candidate forum and events across the state — lwvwa.org/Forums↗️. Be sure to check back regularly for added dates.  

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization that neither supports nor opposes candidates or political parties. The League encourages informed and active participation in all levels of government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.   

By Karen Crowley, President, LWV of Washington

Every election season, someone asks the same question, usually with a raised eyebrow: "If the League of Women Voters doesn't take sides, why does it have so much to say?"

It's a fair question. It's also based on a misunderstanding we'd like to clear up, because the answer is rooted in what democracy requires of people who care about it.

Political distinction
Since our founding in 1920, the League has held this stance: We do not support or oppose any political party or candidate. We don't ask our members who they vote for. We don't fund campaigns. We don't wear party jerseys.

We take this commitment to nonpartisanship seriously. It's why our voice carries above the noise of party politics, and why people across the political spectrum have trusted our voter guides and candidate forums for decades.

But nonpartisan never meant neutral. And it certainly never means silent.

Being partisan means taking a firm side tied to a political party — prioritizing one group's success and often resisting compromise because the goal is winning for the team.

Being political, in contrast, means engaging with civic life, public policy and the problems a community faces. It means showing up to public hearings, pushing for clean water or defending the right to vote — none of which requires choosing a party. That's the League’s distinction: nonpartisan on candidates and parties, unapologetically political on issues.

What this means in practice
We take positions on governmental policy — such as voting rights, environmental protection, education, health care — and do so through study, not allegiance. We follow the policy, not the person or party behind it.

Sometimes that position aligns with a party platform; sometimes it doesn't. That's the whole point: We're don’t push a team. We evaluate whether a policy serves voters and strengthens democracy.

Nonpartisanship does not require silence about the actions of elected officials. Once elected, a candidate becomes our representative. We have a right — even an obligation — to weigh in on policy decisions they make on our behalf.

The League is not neutral about democracy itself. We are pro-voter and pro-democracy, and consider the defense of voting access, government transparency and democratic norms a civic duty — not a partisan strategy.

This year, the League of Women Voters of Washington has taken public positions opposing state ballot initiatives we believe would strip protections from vulnerable children and undermine successful state policy, and we support requiring the highest earners to pay their fair share toward education, health care and working families. None of this is about which party wrote an initiative. It's about what the initiative would actually do.

Standing firm without picking sides
The line between 'political' and 'partisan' isn't always where our critics claim. Those who oppose reforms the League supports sometimes call our advocacy 'partisan' to try to limit our influence. The accusation won’t silence us.

That same clear-eyed confidence guides how we work with others. Partnering with another organization to co-host a voter registration drive, work in a coalition or share the stage at an event does not compromise our nonpartisanship, even if that partner has endorsed a candidate.

What matters is whether the partnership itself stays focused on the shared issue. Each League's board weighs that, considering local conditions and community trust.

In fact, today’s issues warrant deep, authentic coalition work. We are stronger and more effective when we can work together to speak with one voice.

The League’s bright line remains: We will not organize or lead an effort built explicitly to support or oppose a candidate or a party. Everything short of that is a judgment call, made locally.

Bold, loud and still nonpartisan
This moment calls us to be bold enough to name issues, loud enough to be heard without apology, nimble enough to mobilize quickly — all while remaining scrupulously nonpartisan. Those aren't contradictions. They're part of the same muscle the League has flexed for 106 years.

Nonpartisan never meant passive. This discipline lets us fight harder for voters. We don't check our voice at the door to prove we're fair. We stay fair so that our voice means something. That's the deal we made in 1920, and it's the deal we're keeping now.

Members can find tabling guidance HERE↗️.