Peggy Watt displaying her instructive shirts.

Editor’s note:  Many League members may remember — and may have purchased — a T-shirt featuring the design above. The shirts were a promotional tactic the LWVWA used as it sought — and secured — adoption of its position on Local News & Democracy at the 2024 national convention in Washington, D.C., in 2024. 

Skagit League member Peggy Watt, who is also a member of the Local News & Democracy team, has found value in wearing other similarly instructive shirts. Here's Watt's story:

I’ve learned that when teaching First Amendment issues to college students, it sometimes helps to dress the part.  

I’ve taught Mass Media Law and Exploring the First Amendment at Western Washington University (my undergraduate alma mater) for 20 years, after a longer career in newsrooms. It is an especially important time for students — and communities — to understand First Amendment rights and journalistic responsibilities. One of the hardest concepts is that the First Amendment applies to everyone (even noncitizens and visitors, under the 14th Amendment) and that it covers even something you disagree with or would rather not hear.  

For every class, I wear a T-shirt relevant to the day’s lesson. To introduce First Amendment history, there’s an “Enemy of the American People since 1791” T-shirt that commemorates the year the First Amendment was adopted and also draws observations about the 45th president’s views of the press.  

The discussion of expressive speech features a “Try to Burn This” T-shirt featuring an American flag that belonged to my conservative father-in-law, who bequeathed me the T-shirt and a flask. Another shirt was a fundraiser for the Marion County Record when the Kansas newspaper was illegally invaded when a local politician was angry about its reporting.  

And yes, I wear the League’s “Local News = Democracy” shirt and share about League priorities and activities.  

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication recognized my T-shirt lessons in the international organization’s Law & Policy Division's 2026 Teaching Competition earlier this month in New Orleans, where I gave a presentation about my tactics. 

By Sasha Bently, Director, LWV of Washington (Klickitat-Skamania Unit-At-Large member)

What we learn in school shapes how we understand our communities, our neighbors, and ourselves. But perhaps just as important is recognizing what we don't learn along the way. 

That's one reason the League of Women Voters of Washington continues to invest in civic education through its “The State We're In: WA” civics textbook.  

With two editions, one for youngsters in grades 3-5, and the other for middle school and older students, the book goes beyond explaining how government works. It helps students understand the history of the state, the relationship between local, state, and tribal governments, and the role each of us plays in civic life.  

Fully integrating information about tribal governments and Native history into the history of the state, it reflects the League's commitment to civic education, serving as a vital tool to empower voters and defend democracy. 

Recently, Beth Pellicciotti, with the Spokane League’s Civic Education project, secured a LWVWA Civic Education grant to provide classroom sets of the textbook to Salish School of Spokane↗️ or, in the language, Sƛ̓x̌atkʷ N̓səl̓xčin̓ Sn̓maʔmáyaʔtn̓. Their school motto is: kʷu haʔnwixʷ, kʷu kʷułnwixʷ, kʷu txət̓nwixʷ, which translates into English as “We respect each other, we share with each other, we take care of each other.” 

The Native-language immersion school, incorporated in 2009 by five Salish women as a nonprofit organization, is dedicated to revitalizing the four Southern Interior Salish languages: n̓səl̓xčin̓ (Colville Salish), n̓xaʔm̓xčín̓ (Wenatchee-Columbian Salish), n̓sélišcn̓ (Spokane-Kalispel Salish), and sn̓čicʷúʔum̓c̓n̓ (Coeur d’Alene Salish). 

Pellicciotti learned about the school from fellow Spokane League member Suzi Hokonson, who serves on the LWVWA committee updating the League's Tribal Study.  

As Salish School of Spokane builds a new campus on the Spokane River for its pre-kindergarten through ninth-grade programs, its mission is a reminder that history isn't just something we study. Rather, history is something we choose to preserve and pass on to the future. 

As she presented the textbooks to the school in late May, Pellicciotti reflected on how her own education left important stories untold.  

Growing up near Seneca Falls, New York (the birthplace of the women's rights movement), Pellicciotti learned all about the 1848 Women's Rights Convention↗️, but not the influence Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) women had on many of the movement's earliest leaders.  

Later in life, she discovered how much history she hadn’t been taught. Beyond the native women themselves, they were inspired by their way of living in equal partnership and participation in tribal government and society. Unfortunately, women suffragists turned that inspiration into appropriation and erasure, actively excluding Native women from their movement↗️.  

Pellicciotti and the teachers also discussed how understanding Native history and government will grow as we learn more, making room for voices and perspectives that have too often been overlooked. 

This spring, the KSPS Civics Bowl in Spokane↗️ included questions from the League textbook about Native American history and government. Doing so helped even more students and viewers develop a broader understanding of Washington's past and present. 

Pellicciotti also noted that Spokane Public Schools purchased 1,700 copies of “The State We’re In: WA” for all seventh graders in July 2025, with students in the dual-language program receiving copies in both English and Spanish. By using the textbook, Pellicciotti said, “students are learning a history of Native tribes and government in Washington state that is important and not to be lost.” 

LaRae Wiley, Salish School of Spokane co-founder and elder linguist, shared similar sentiments. "It took many hands to push our language and our culture down, and it will take many hands to lift it back up again,” she said. “We invite you to partner with us to restore what was nearly lost."  

The LWVWA Lobby Team once again will take up issues when the state Legislature returns to Olympia for the 2027 session. The team’s advocacy will focus primarily on Democracy and Revenue as Washington once again is expected to face tremendous challenges – financial and others.  The team will also address issues relating to climate change, education, immigration, health care, children’s issues, elder care, criminal justice and natural resources, 

Gathering in Tacoma in late July for their annual retreat, Lobby Team members heard details from Nancy Sapiro, the state League’s contract lobbyist, on what’s likely ahead. Sapiro predicted Gov. Ferguson will present a budget that “could pause existing programs and scrutinize new requests,” all to avoid new taxes. 

Democracy Issue Chair Alison McCaffree, meanwhile, identified Democracy priorities this year as “strengthening voting rights, protecting elections, getting corporate money out of campaigns and increasing the accountability of Washington’s redistricting commission.” 

Meeting in small groups during the retreat, team members also reviewed roles and responsibilities of Issue Chairs and Advocates and considered what changes the hiring of a new executive director will mean for operations. 

Members also brainstormed about ways to make the Legislative Action Newsletter, distributed weekly during the legislative session, more reader friendly.   

The retreat was an opportunity to meet the three new Issue Chairs, whose additions bring the count of Issue Chairs to 15.  More than two dozen Advocates support the work of the Issue Chairs.  

Brief profiles of the new Issue Chairs, Kathy Ryan, MAK Mitchell and Kären Wieckert appear below. 

The first day of the two-year legislative session begins Jan. 11, 2027. 

The team met at Quantum Martial Arts Tacoma, a dojo owned and operated by McCaffree. 

Lobby Team co-chair Ann Murphy noted, “A dojo seems an appropriate place for the team to meet.  After all, the Japanese term means ‘place of the Way,’ and, in addition to practicing martial arts, a dojo is a space used for immersive learning and meditation.” 

New Issue Chairs
MAK Mitchell, from the Seattle King County League, will serve as a Democracy Issue chair. She was mentored by Alison McCaffree for two years.  

Among Mitchell’s numerous professional experiences and accomplishments are Harvard University teaching fellow in ethnography; Shoreline schools superintendent, where she managed the district budget and compliance with campaign finance, conflicts of interest and disclosure rules; and adjunct professor at the University of Washington. 

In New York City, Mitchell served as executive director of Urban Assembly NYC, a nonprofit, where she led turnaround strategies for 20 of the city’s poorest schools; and executive director of school governance in the Bloomberg administration. 

In Alaska, meanwhile, Mitchell built and activated school instruction and governance for nine Native schools in the Artic and Kodiak Island. 

In Washington state, her services include past member of the board and presenter for the Washington State School Directors Association; and current member of the Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce. For the League, she led the Seattle League’s effort to assure strong activization of their King County Climate Action plans; and led the analyzation of bills relating to campaign finance and public disclosure during the 2026 legislative session.  

Kathleen “Kathy” Ryan, from Thurston County, is a newer League member, and will serve as Issue Chair for Economic Policy/Revenue. She earned a law degree in 1978 and is retired from the Washington Department of Revenue. There she was manager of the Legislation and Policy division.   

Ryan was mentored by and worked closely with Cynthia Stewart, who served as the Lobby Team chair until shortly before she died early this year. 

Kären Wieckert, who holds graduate degrees in Information and Computer Sciences and brings experience teaching at Stanford University, will serve as Issue chair for Water.  

Wieckert is a member in Thurston County, having previously been a member of the League in Nashville, Tenn., where she was on the board for eight years and was involved in environmental advocacy at the state level for four years. In Washington, she co-chaired an online discussion group called “Hot Topics” for seven years. 

In her application for Issue Chair, Wieckert noted as a sixth-grader in the 1970s, she helped with the first day Earth Day event in Appleton, Wisc.  A few years later, in Cambridge, Mass., she founded the community’s local chapter of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. 

By Kathy E. Gill, LWV Snohomish County

Two hundred sixty-two League members logged in July 19 to hear author and historian Heather Cox Richardson discuss her book, How the South Won the Civil War↗️. The Zoom event was organized as part of the League’s 250th commemoration of the Declaration of Independence. 

At one point in the online conversation, Richardson offered this fantasy, inspired by a comic strip, about women winning the right to vote in male-dominated Wyoming: 

“I always think of that scene from Bloom County, where the alien comes down behind the kid who's looking at the stars and unfurls a sign that says: ‘Mars Needs Women.’ I always think of that in terms of Wyoming, because they could have done the same thing. Wyoming needs women. So, Wyoming Territory recognizes the right of women to vote in 1869.”  

League members submitted questions in advance for Richardson.   

Women’s suffrage and the West 
Responding to a question about women’s suffrage taking hold in the West before the 19th Amendment, Richardson described the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a mark, perhaps, of “a different political era” from that of the Civil War.  

In the West, citizens were engaged in a “reworking of the American government to recognize the importance of all the individuals in a community, as opposed to simply the individualistic guys who are collecting a paycheck.”  

The West marked a rise in populism “that is going to become the modern American state in the middle of the 20th century,” she concluded. 

Why did the founders form the Electoral College? 
Richardson punctured a myth about the Electoral College being designed as a vehicle to enable slavery.  

“What the founders really worried about, and why they come up with the Electoral College, is they're really, really worried about somebody figuring out a way to manipulate the vote to remain in power as a dictator.” 

It was not until Eli Whitney’s cotton gin made cotton so profitable that Southern enslavers turned to the idea of the Electoral College to protect their institutions, she continued. 

How can we strengthen the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments? 
In response to a question about strengthening the Constitution, Richardson suggested the first step is to “get rid of Citizens United.”  

The second? “End partisan gerrymandering.” 

Richardson continued, “The Department of Justice was literally created by Congress in 1870 to make sure the 14th Amendment was honored by the states. We don't actually have to change that amendment to make it honored. We need the Department of Justice to do its freaking job!”    

In fact, rather than amending the Constitution to enforce the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, Richardson urged ensuring the Department of Justice will do its job. And that means the Senate must do the same, she added. 

Remember, we have agency 
Inspiring hope, Richardson reminded the audience that “the Constitution starts with we, the people, and we give our power temporarily to our elected representatives to act for us.”  

She added, “If we don't support what they're doing, we can take that power back.” 

The idea of having “agency in changing the future … is crucial for us to understand in this moment.”  

When people experience joy, community and other positive emotions, she said, “fear and anger of authoritarianism can't take hold.” 

Turning to recent polls, Richardson added, “Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of stopping the rise of authoritarianism.”  

Richardson pointed to the League’s efforts as ways to express that agency. 

In addition to encouraging people to vote, she said, “Make sure people have access to fact-based media, and you can spread fact-based media, and you can push back instantly when you see lies on social media.”   

Richardson added, “But you can also paint, and sing, and … contribute to a world that says, we don't have to live with the guardrails we had in the past. We can create something entirely new.” 

Richardson donated a signed first edition of her book, which was given to Kat Odell of Pullman, whose name was selected at random. 

A video recording of the event is available↗️.  

Editor’s note: Kathy E. Gill organized the event for the League. 

By Lisa Stettler, LWV Snohomish County

When it comes to the challenges facing elections, King County’s top elections officer doesn’t mince words.   

“The biggest threat to elections isn’t voter fraud. It’s rumors,” Julie Wise, King County director of Elections, told attendees at a University of Washington gathering last month. It was sponsored by the school’s Center for an Informed Public and the League of Women Voters of Seattle King County.  

During a conversation with center co-founder professor Kate Starbird, Wise said rumors tend to erode people’s trust in elections, prompting would-be voters to turn away. 

“Democracy is at its finest when everyone votes,” Wise said, explaining how rumors tear away at the foundation of a democratic system.   

Starbird’s name is familiar to many League members. She was a keynote speaker at the June 2025 statewide League convention in Vancouver, where her presentation was titled “Spotlight on Rumors: Influence and Improvisation in the Alternative Media Ecosystem.”  

In that presentation, Starbird reflected on more than 10 years of research into online rumors during times of crisis. She explained how rumors spread and can be exploited to gain influences and shape political outcomes.   

Over the past 18 months, members of the Seattle King League and the state League’s Media Literacy and News Education Project have worked with officials at the center to address mis- and dis-information. 

Rumors make election processes look suspicious, Starbird said at the July event. The result, she added, is “the truth has a disadvantage in this environment.”  

A graduate research student at the center, Stephen Prochaska, explained that the CIP’s goal “is to ensure that people are not disenfranchised due to bad information.”  

Among the day’s activities was an opportunity to participate in a bingo game that Prochaska presented to help people identify repeated, false election rumors.   

Prochaska also discussed five categories of often-repeated rumors: False evidence, misinterpreted evidence, omitting remedies, exaggerated impact and falsely attributed intent. 

Lisa Stettler is a former journalist who taught high school journalism and U.S government and current issues, which included media literacy during a more than 20-year career in education.  She is a member of the LWVWA Media Literacy and News Education committee that produced the four Media and News Literacy Educational Workshops offered to members last fall and this winter.  The group is now developing a toolkit for members to provide media literacy training to the public. The toolkit is expected to be ready early next calendar year.  

League members in Snohomish County didn’t know what to expect when they joined forces with the Seattle and Bellevue Alumnae Chapters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. (DST), for a Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) effort at the 33rd Nubian Jam Festival last month in Everett. 

But with only 35-40 percent of the registered voters in Snohomish County voting in primary elections, members from both groups do know they need to increase participation.  

That awareness is what drew them to the Snohomish County Black Heritage Committee-sponsored event July 25 at Forest Park. 

The national League of Women Voters, formed in 1920, has partnered with DST, a historically African-American sorority, to activate, expand and support civic collaboration between sorority chapters and Leagues nationwide. Founded at Howard University in 1913, the sorority’s members marched in the national suffrage parade in Washington, D.C., that year, the first civil rights parade in the capital city.  

Mountlake Terrace’s mayor, Steve Woodward, who served as the jam’s emcee, set the stage for the event, which featured music, art, fashion, vendors, basketball and youth activities. 

Snohomish League member Nadine Shanti, who chairs the local League’s Community Outreach Committee, said representatives from the two organizations spoke with more than 100 jam attendees about the Aug. 4 election. Most said they had received their ballots and voter pamphlets. “We urged registered voters to take that next step and cast their votes in this crucial election.” Volunteers also emphasized the importance of returning ballots early and using county drop boxes, she said. 

Shanti said the League’s partnership with DST Alumnae chapters is an integral part of its GOTV efforts in Snohomish County.  “These two non-partisan organizations are committed to talking with diverse community members on the ground, where we celebrate, learn, worship and teach.”  

Earlier in July, the groups joined for a community outreach at Bailey AME, one of Snohomish County’s oldest Black churches. That prompted an invitation to the Seattle King County League and DST sorority alumnae to participate in outreach at the AME Church convention in Tukwila this month.  

Additional August plans for the partner organizations included an invitation to The Sounds of Africa Festival. That is an annual cultural celebration featuring live African music, dance and community activities at Garfield Park in Everett, sponsored by the Washington West African Center. 

One of LWVSC’s volunteers, JeShawna Schmidt, who is also a DST member, exemplifies the power of collaboration. “Not every organization values the fullness of who a person is,” she said.  

“I am grateful to be part of organizations that create space for people to bring their whole selves to the work of educating, empowering and strengthening our communities. That is where meaningful change and lasting impact begins.”  

Reporting by Nadine Shanti — Nadine.shanti@gmail.com  

By Angela Gyurko, Secretary and Executive Committee member, LWV of Washington

Members of the LWVWA board of directors came together in early July for a day that began with connections and community-building and ended with a solid to-do list. 

We met for our annual retreat for the second consecutive year at Angel Arms Studio, a former Snohomish Catholic Church turned creative work and meeting space. We proceeded to drill down into the details of the strategic plan that resulted from the 2025 board retreat.  

Key among the topics was the state League’s transition from operating with an organizational structure featuring an administrative director to one with an executive director at the helm. 

Guided by experienced facilitator Barb Davis, we adapted a generic board-to-staff-responsibilities document to meet the specific needs of the League. Under the plan, board members sometimes will serve in strictly governance roles while, at other times, as portfolio leads. In the latter capacity, we will function as unpaid staff.   

In my Event-Planning portfolio role, for example, I will at times work side-by-side with paid staff members Amy Peloff and Carolyn Stewart, and other times, I will turn to Peloff for expertise and guidance before moving forward. 

In my governance role, I also have supervisory and performance-review responsibilities. Successfully juggling roles requires trust, communication and remembering which hat we're wearing at the time. 

With democracy and voting rights under siege from multiple directions, board members also recommitted to support grassroots democracy-building efforts underway in local Leagues throughout the state 

President Karen Crowley also discussed a number of the 19 tasks identified on the state tactical plan, some of which were presented during Council in Lacey in early June.  More about that work will be detailed in coming weeks as board members tackle projects such as expanding Zoom access, updating the state Communications plan and providing added training for local Leagues.

At one point in the July 11 retreat, we were encouraged to envision and then discuss what a successful year would look like. The brainstorming generated discussion on topics ranging from ensuring every member feels valued to what multi-level training might involve. 

After the retreat, new board member Wendy Colbert said, "I left impressed by the gifts each board member brings to the organization, inspired by our mission, and energized for the collective work ahead, especially given this crucial year of defending democracy."   

Crowley hosted the board members for dinner at her home in Snohomish the previous evening.

Angela Gyurko also carries the Fundraising portfolio and serves on the Nominating Committee. 

Central to transforming the LWVWA into a “infrastructure builder,” as the state board of directors voted to do in April, is the creation of a new leadership structure featuring an executive director.  Amy Peloff, state League administrative director, was unanimously approved for the post earlier this month.

Peloff holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Women’s Studies and a master of public administration from Virginia Commonwealth University and is a familiar face — or at least a familiar voice — to many.

For eight years she has overseen daily operations, implemented technology solutions, improved efficiency, streamlined communications and solved seemingly hundreds of last-minute crises, with good humor and great aplomb.

Peloff starts in her new role Aug. 1.  Above, she enjoys a bouquet given to her by the state board at its July 11 retreat in Snohomish.

Watch the August issue of In League for a profile of the League’s new executive director.

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 19^th 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.”   

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

Voters might feel a tad overwhelmed when they learn how many Supreme Court candidates are on their Aug. 4 primary ballots. Five of the nine seats on the bench are up for grabs with primaries in four of the five races happening next month for a total of 14 candidates. 

Last month, Seattle Times editorial page editor Kate Riley underscored the size of the pool of hopefuls in an essay headlined “Supreme interest in WA high court candidates in 2026 election.”  

Atop a story in the edgier Stranger was this summary: “The Washington State Supreme Court Races Are a BFD This Year.” Below that headline featuring the acronym for a “big deal” was another: “They’re the Most Important State Races in 2026 and No One Knows Anything About Them.” 

A new feature on the state League website — Four Questions: Washington Supreme Court Candidate Interviews — seeks to eliminate that awareness problem.  It’s a link that gives finger-tip access to online, individual, six-minute interviews, pre-recorded live, with the Supreme Court primary candidates.

Providing voters ready access to information about candidates, including candidates for the court, has been a key mission of the League since its beginning. Last month, at the Washington state League’s Council in Lacey, Justice G. Helen Whitener put extra emphasis on the task. She discussed the importance of voting in what she termed a “pivotal time” in the nation and in Washington state. (Whitener is not up for re-election this year.)  

The plethora of primary candidates for the court also was an incentive for coming up with a novel approach for informing voters, said state board member Marlene Niemeier, who spearheaded the online project.   

"It would have been impossible to set a single date for all of the candidates to turn out for a forum,” said Niemeier, who was assisted by President Karen Crowley, former state board member Shelley Kneip, and state League Administrative Director Amy Peloff.  

Inspired by Whitener’s message at Council, Niemeier and her colleagues contacted all of the court candidates and informed them of the plan to conduct and record one-on-one interviews, scheduled at the candidates’ convenience.  

Two days before the individual virtual interviews began on July 6, all 14 candidates were sent questions that were prepared by League members with assistance from legal professionals.  

Asking the candidates four of the prepared questions, four League members conducted the interviews. Interviewers were Wendy Colbert from Snohomish League; Eileen McCracken from Bellingham-Whatcom; Amy Easton from Clark; and Peggy Watt from Skagit County. 

Candidates were also asked questions for the League’s Vote411.org site, which, beginning July 15, will feature answers to those additional questions, along with biographical information and details about endorsements.

"Because these races will shape Washington's legal landscape for years to come, we decided this project had to be a priority for the state League,” said Peloff, who designed the page and handled the coding. "We wanted to make it easy for voters to hear directly from each candidate, in their own words, before casting their ballots."

Because judicial races are technically nonpartisan, they historically haven’t generated much attention.  Moreover, most voters don’t have the intricate legal knowledge of how the judicial system works, prompting Niemeier to note, “After all, how do you know how to vote for a judge?”  

Riley, the Times editor, wrapped up her essay last month with a call to action: “Educate yourselves on these races.” 

The League feature allows you to do just that.