by Nancy Halvorson—LWVWA Board Member, MELD Portfolio.

Hello! I've recently been appointed to the LWVWA Board and taken over the vacated MELD portfolio. So, what is MELD and does this all mean for League membership? Keep reading to find out!

Each month, local Leagues send a representative to our Membership, Engagement, Leadership, and Development—or MELD—meetings (pods). At these MELD pods, we share our successes and challenges, learn what other local Leagues and the state League are doing, and receive training on an extensive number of topics. MELD members then take what they learn back to their own local League.

MELD is a great avenue for information sharing between the state and local Leagues, and—most importantly—it enables lateral information sharing among the local Leagues in Washington State. The ideas and suggestions that emerge from the MELD pods are a valuable resource center for other Leagues. This information sharing between the Leagues at all levels strengthens us as an organization, and that is MELD's goal.

Current MELD work focuses on:

• Understanding the League's mission—i.e., what do you respond when someone asks you "what does the League do?"
  
  
• Nonpartisanship—is this talked about in your local League meetings? Is there a clear understanding of best nonpartisan practices? Does your community understand and believe the League is nonpartisan? Are Leagues being responsive to our communities.
  
  
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)—Is DEI at the top of our minds when organizing an event or meeting? Is it an integral part of our outreach efforts? What are best practices to insure equity?

Moving forward, MELD will also be focusing on growing and retaining membership, and as we grow, some things will need to be done differently. We'll will work to make sure that local Leagues fully understand the LWVUS Transformation Process and the dues changes that are coming in the months ahead. MELD will also fully engage with membership leads in order to retain members—what are creatives ways to do this? How can we show appreciation for our members, because remember the League is a grassroots, volunteer-based organization!

MELD will also be exploring how we can foster leadership development. What kind of training is currently available? What resources do local Leagues need from the state League in this area?

Also, don't forget that 2024 is a critical election year. Here in Washington, there is very strong outreach done to register eligible voters; however, actually getting those voters to return ballots often lags behind registrations. At MELD pods this year, members will be sharing their strategies and tips for successful GOTV outreach, election forums, and how League's publicize these efforts. Each League has something valuable to offer, and it is our job to honor those contributions!
 
Do you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions? What ideas do you have about what would constitute value to your local League in the MELD pod setting? Please feel free to contact me, I welcome your comments and ideas. As the saying goes—there is no "i" in "team," this is a group effort!
 
You have questions, concerns, suggestions?  What would constitute value to your local League in the MELD pod setting?  Please feel free to contact me as I welcome your comments.  As the saying goes—there is no “i” in Teams, this is a group effort!

Warmly,

Nancy Halvorson, nhalvorson@lwvwa.org

The League of Women Voters of the US (LWVUS) will be holding its biennial convention from June 27 to June 30 in Washington D.C. The Convention serves as LWVUS' biennial business meeting and is also a great opportunity for League members to gather for training and networking.

Under the LWVUS bylaws, delegates must meet every two years to vote on a variety of items, including a LWVUS biennial budget, the next LWVUS Board of Directors and Nominating Committee, any bylaw amendments that have been put forth, and the organization’s program (or the focus of League work) for the next biennium.

The 2024 Convention will be a hybrid Convention. An in-person event will take place at the Washington Hilton in Washington DC, and an integrated virtual event will take place on this platform. Convention programming includes training opportunities in large and small settings, as well as caucuses led by local or state Leagues from around the country. There will also be a variety of networking events for League members to meet and mingle in informal settings.

The League of Women Voters of Washington is proposing a program at Convention asking LWVUS to adopt our local news position through concurrence. While delegates are free to vote however they choose, we encourage all of the local Leagues from Washington state to support this proposal at the national Convention. A summary of our current local news info and the importance of concurrence can be found here.

Convention delegates are the members of the LWVUS board and representatives from state and local Leagues and Inter-League Organizations (ILOs). Each local and state League and ILO is allotted delegates based on their League type and size. The delegate count formula can be found here. LWVUS will send notification of the precise number of delegates each League can send to convention in March. If you are interested in attending Convention as a delegate, please consult with your local League leadership.

Members may attend the Convention without being a voting delegate as an “observer.”  Observers can participate in all non-plenary activities and observe plenary without presenting, debating, or voting on any motions. Observers may participate in all other training, workshop and networking activities.

You can find out more about Convention in LWVUS' First Call: 2024 National Convention—or with the updates and information about pre-Convention meetings and caucuses provided in this newsletter.

by Susan Daniel, LWVWA Board Member

I was fortunate to meet Dr. Deborah Turner at LWVUS Council in Las Vegas in June 2023. Besides seeing her share her leadership style and wisdom during a three-person interview panel, I got to interact with her when we were in the same small discussion group during lunch.  

Dr. Turner was impressive. She conveyed competence. She was calm, friendly, and engaging. She was the kind of leader who trusted others to do their jobs well and so they did. She was a steady hand at the helm of League of Women Voters.  

I later learned that Dr. Turner was a medical doctor, an OB/GYN, who had practiced medicine for 35 years in the Midwest, and that she returned to school again later in life to earn a law degree in 2007. Again, impressive. 

I’m glad I got to meet her. She will be missed.  

Read about some of the wisdom and inspiration Dr. Turner shared with the League during her nearly four-year tenure as LWVUS President here. Continue on below to read the remarks from LWVUS CEO, Virginia Kase Solomón, below.

Dear League members,   

It is with great sadness that I share the news that LWVUS President Dr. Deborah Ann Turner passed away Sunday morning.  

This unexpected news has struck all of us at the LWVUS Board and staff with profound grief, and I know you all are feeling it too. We are grieving together as a League community for our beloved leader and friend.  

You can read our official statement on LWV.org here.  

A fearless advocate for voting rights and women’s rights, Dr. Turner devoted her life’s work to impacting meaningful changes in the lives of voters across the nation. As the 20th president of our 103-year-old organization, Dr. Turner played a pivotal role in fighting for a more fair and representative union while uplifting racial equity in the League’s mission work.  

Dr. Turner first joined the League of Women Voters of Metro Des Moines in 2010 and later served as president until 2015. At the same time, she also served on the LWV Iowa board as the state vice president from 2011 to 2015, becoming co-president in 2015. In her dual roles with state and local Leagues, Deborah devoted her leadership to strengthening relationships between local leagues and the state Board.  

Dr. Turner practiced gynecologic oncology for 35 years, working directly with patients and teaching students and trained residents in university programs across the Midwest. She participated in a dozen international medical missions and served as the associate medical director of Planned Parenthood of North Central States.  

In the midst of this enormous loss, we are ensuring the great work she started moves forward. The LWVUS Board met Sunday night in accordance with our bylaws, and Sania Irwin assumed the role of Board president. Additionally, I was scheduled to step down as CEO after February 2; however, in light of Dr. Turner’s passing, I have agreed to stay on staff an extra week to help in the transition. As was already planned, Alma Couverthie and Kelly McFarland will take over as interim co-CEOs while the Board performs their search for a new CEO.  

You may send condolences electronically to lwv@lwv.org and in writing to the national office at 1233 20th Street NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC, 20036. All messages will be shared with Dr. Turner’s family.   

The League of Women Voters staff, Board, and Leagues from across the country mourn her loss, and our thoughts are with Dr. Turner’s family during this difficult time. We are committed to honoring her legacy by continuing to uphold our values to empower voters and build a stronger, more inclusive democracy. As Dr. Turner always said, “We will keep on keeping on!”

In League,

Virginia Kase Solomón

LWVUS CEO

by Carolyn Joswig-Jones, LWV Pullman Board Member and Visual Arts Competition Co-Coordinator

In 2022, we initiated a civics education program aimed at fostering an understanding of, and engagement with, government among students in grades 3-12. The program encourages students to channel their artistic talents toward themes aligned with League positions. Its inception stemmed from our surplus of "The State We’re In: Washington," LWVWA textbooks, which we sought to utilize creatively. One of our initial ideas was to organize an art competition, which we later transformed into an annual program.

For the inaugural year, the theme was "What Does Democracy Look Like to You?" We provided participants with the definition of democracy directly from the textbook, a concept both straightforward and intricate, suitable for the age range of student artists. Our program launched on Presidents Day in February 2022, and with a committee of three members, we diligently spread the word to schools, libraries, social media platforms, and our website. Students had until the end of March to unleash their creativity. Although we only received 12 entries, we were pleasantly surprised by the quality and diversity of submissions. The participating students were genuinely engaged in the process! We assembled a panel of four community judges to assess the entries and held an Artists' Reception at our local library to acknowledge all participants, awarding the winners with prizes of $50 and a copy of "The State We’re In: Washington."

Our enthusiasm for the program continued to grow, leading to the expansion of our committee to 12 dedicated members for the second annual competition in 2023. That year's theme, "eARTh Art - Civics and the natural world are connected: How does this affect your future?" was also sourced directly from the The State We’re In textbook. We enhanced our outreach efforts last year through mass emails and developed an educational in-person and PowerPoint presentation centered around the theme. This PowerPoint presentation was made available on our website for both parents and students as a valuable reference. The result was an impressive increase in participation, with 40 entries received!

In 2023, we opted for a panel consisting of nine community judges to evaluate the submissions. Once more, we organized the Artists' Reception at our local library, where the staff played a crucial role in arranging a splendid showcase for the artwork.  A PowerPoint presentation featuring all the artwork is available on the LWV Pullman website. In May 2023, all the pieces were showcased at the 3 Forks Art Walk and the Whitman County Library in November. The final showcase will be at the Whitman County Library during the month of November. All of the original pieces of art were returned to their creators, but copies of their artwork will continue to be used by the Pullman League for social media and for educational purposes.    

By using the The State We’re In textbook as our source, we “speak with one voice,” as the League and are assured of its value as a resource for crafting upcoming themes. Visit the LWV Pullman website to explore details about our previous competitions, and don't hesitate to reach out to the Pullman League if you have any inquiries about launching a similar program within your League. 

A strong democracy requires informed citizen participation, and ACT (Action Coffee Time) via Zoom makes this critical task much easier! At ACT via Zoom, you will learn more about the legislation and issues we ask folks to take action on each week in our Legislative Action Newsletter. League members statewide and guests who want to be informed citizen advocates are all welcome to attend!

Weekly informational and question-and-answer sessions using resources provided by the League, the state, and various community sources will provide the background information you need on topics related to current Washington State legislation.  

Get the basics with our newsletter and during ACT via Zoom, then contact your legislators to make sure your voice is heard!

ACT via Zoom sessions will be held every Monday from 10-11 AM (with an optional 11-11:15 AM social time) through March 11. Attend as your interest in a topic and schedule allow! Each session will also be recorded and posted to our YouTube channel so you can view them anytime.

Topics for the month of January include:

• Jan 15: Washington VOICES—The Updated Ranked Choice Voting Bill (with speakers from FairVote WA)
• Jan 22: How a Bill Becomes Law
• Jan 29: Even Year Elections

Please join us! Register or learn more here.

This month, the LWVWA encourages local Leagues support our bid for national concurrence on our Local News position. This can be done through your League's program planning process, as well by supporting the concurrence proposal at the national Convention in June—attendance can be either virtual or in-person.

The LWVWA's study, the Decline of Local News and Its Impact on Democracy, detailed the alarming effect of the nationwide loss of one-fourth of our newspapers and the statewide loss of one-fifth. The study showed we have fewer candidates for local office, lower voter turnout, greater political partisanship, less civic engagement, increased government costs, among other challenges.

Many local Leagues in Washington are familiar with the Local News study, having participated in the 2022 consensus process. However, if you are unfamiliar (or would like a refresher), visit our website. You will find our local news study, our position, and the current actions we are taking on this issue. For viewing during your program planning meetings, a 7-minute informational video—created by the LWVWA Local News Committee—and summarizing the issue is available here.

The problems that stem from the decline of local news in the U.S. are snowballing. National adoption of the LWVWA position would provide the basis for any League throughout the country to advocate on national, state, and local legislation aimed at rebuilding independent local news outlets and expanding news media literacy.

The LWVWA will propose that LWVUS adopt the position by concurrence. We are asking each local League to submit the proposal to LWVUS through its program planning process. This would entail including local news concurrence in the national survey no later than March 10. You can find further information on how to do this here.

LWVUS Convention

The concurrence proposal will be voted on at the national Convention taking place June 27-30, 2024 in Washington D.C. Learn more about the national Convention here.

Convention provides an opportunity to participate at the national level in a number of ways:

• Delegates from throughout the nation will vote on the 2024-2026 LWVUS Program, the LWVUS budget, the LWVUS Board of Directors and Nominating Committee, and bylaws amendments,
• By providing opportunities to network with fellow League members, 
• Enabling participation in a variety of workshops and trainings, 
• Through a number of opportunities to hear from dynamic speakers.
  

The LWVWA encourage each local League to send as many delegates as they are allowed by the LWVUS bylaws. Delegates at Convention must be voting League members and may vote only if their League has met its per member payment responsibilities. Convention delegates are determined by a local League's membership numbers. Each League is permitted at least one delegate, with one additional delegate authorized for every 50 voting members the League has. Learn more about delegate allocation in Article IX, section 2 of the LWVUS bylaws.

More information about the national Convention will be available on our website soon. Contact Shelley Kneip for more information on the concurrence process, and Dee Anne Finken for more information on the LWVWA Local News study and position.

Be sure to register for Democracy Lobby Week, organized in collaboration with Fix Democracy First, January 22 through 26. This year’s program features a different set of issues each evening. Pick one or attend all!

During the day, Legislative District meetings will be scheduled to discuss issues directly with your local legislators. Use your Speak-up School skills in these 15-minute sessions, which are invaluable in assuring that your legislators know what you would like them to do.

Register Now

Here’s the schedule for this week:

Monday, January 22

An overview of the week and presentation by the Secretary of State on election issues.

Tuesday, January 23

Three Environmental Priorities 

• Reducing waste with the passage of the Re-WRAP Act
• Maintaining funding for the Climate Commitment Act projects
• Establishing zero emission school bus program statewide

Wednesday, January 24

More about Elections: Achieving Better Representation in the 21st Century

• What would better representation look and feel like to you? 
• Why does better representation matter? 
  
• How can we achieve better representation?
• Overview of redistricting

Thursday, January 25

Promoting Basic Human Rights for People in State Custody  

Washington is committed to racial equity, safety and promoting successful community transitions for individuals detained in secure facilities.  What needs to happen in education, health care, voting rights and other state policies/programs to make these priorities a reality?   

Learn about bills being considered by the Legislature, including limiting solitary confinement and promoting voting rights and access to education.  Other high priority social and economic policy bills will be discussed briefly.

Friday, January 26

Take time to debrief and celebrate the week.

Join any or all of these sessions. We hope to see you there!

Sign Up Today

Dear Members,

December can be a quiet time in the League year. The election is over and all the hubbub to educate voters via candidate forums, tabling events, and getting out the vote has died down. The legislative session has yet to begin. Studies and committee work are underway at both the state League and local Leagues. Many Leagues use December as a time for social connections and to meet legislators before the next election season gears up. Other work happens as well—much of it the behind-the-scenes type of work that keeps the League going. For example, there is much preparation at LWVUS happening for National Convention, scheduled to occur this spring, from June 27 to June 30 in Washington D.C. 

This convention will be particularly exciting for LWVWA because we are submitting our recently adopted positions on Local News and Its Impact on Democracy. Please see this article about concurrence for more information. The LWVWA is asking Washington local Leagues to also submit these positions to National Convention for concurrence.  

Much happens at National Convention. Program, budget, nominating committee—everything that will guide LWVUS for the following two years comes up in representative democracy fashion for delegates to act on. I hope every local League will be able to send a full delegation to this important event and urge folks to start thinking about it now. Doing so will increase the odds of getting as many people who want to attend—in-person or virtually—in the room.  

See LWVUS Program Planning Webinars to learn more about program planning at the National League level. 

Post script: The LWVWA Board of Directors will be holding a retreat later in December to review the findings of the Washington State University Research Plan for Assessing LWVWA Effectiveness with a particular focus on the External Survey. I anticipate that next steps for disseminating and discussing this information will follow. Stay tuned. 

 Best,

Mary Coltrane, LWVWA President

Increasingly, fewer candidates seem to respond to the League's outreach to participate in candidate forums. As a result—because of the League’s "no empty chair debate" stance—forums are often foregone, leaving those candidates who do want to participate without a venue to do so.

LWV Kittitas County's (LWVKC) goal is to create "super voters" (people who vote in every election for which they receive a ballot) in younger voters and underserved communities. In pursuit of this, LWVKC wants to get lots of candidate information in front of more voters.

In 2023, there were nearly 80 candidates running for 64 positions in Kittitas County (not counting Selah or Naches school districts). 15 positions had two candidates, the remaining positions had a candidate running unopposed. The League reached out multiple times to the 30 candidates in 15 races, offering something new: a one-on-one interview with a League moderator asking 3 questions sourced from the community. Regardless of whether the opponent also agreed to participate, the League would record and share the candidate’s responses.

Of the 30 candidates vying for 15 positions, the League interviewed 18 (including one write-in candidate for Ellensburg City Council). Interviews were conducted on Zoom with a League moderator and one candidate. Resulting videos were stitched together into a playlist. The League provided an intro explaining the purpose of the special district and its responsibilities and the candidate interview. Candidates for the same position were asked the same questions, in the same order. All videos were uploaded to the LWVKC YouTube Channel and shared with traditional and social media. In addition, ECTV2 ran all of the videos throughout the voting period.

In 6 races, the LWVKC interviewed both candidates for each race. In 6 races, only one of the two candidates responded and was interviewed. In 3 races, none of the 6 candidates responded to multiple outreach attempts by the League.

So, what do the analytics show about this experiment? Let's take a look!

Unique channel views represent all views of all content for the specified period of time, so they may contain views of more than our candidate videos. The unique views column on the right in each table represents total views from upload to date. In Kittitas County in 2021, the odd year election before this one, the League featured 9 candidates in 5 contested races in live recorded Zoom events.

2021 Position	Unique Views
Hospital District 1, Position 3	64
Ellensburg City Council, Position 2	43
Roslyn City Council, Position 6	22
Kittitas Mayor	18
Thorp School District, Position 3 (one candidate had family emergency and could not attend)	13
Election Period: Oct 14-Nov 3 Channel Unique Views = 295, Impressions = 1407, click thru = 5.8% 2021 CY Channel Unique Views = 2,282, Impressions = 18,379, click thru = 4.3% Average candidate race video length: 41 minutes

In 2022, the LWVKC featured 7 Kittitas County candidates in 4 contested races via Zoom. Keep in mind, last year we had national, statewide, and county-wide contests. LD 13 candidates ran unopposed, as did many county-wide positions. The 4 candidate race videos we produced got respectable traffic, as shown in the table below. Please note, the table of unique views is for 2022 to date, which is why unique views for the actual 2022 voting period shows considerably less.

2022 Position	Unique Views
County Clerk (one candidate withdrew)	240
County Coroner	298
County Auditor	322
DC Judge	205
Election Period: Oct 19-Nov 1 Channel Unique Views = 625, Impressions = 4974, click thru = 3.2% 2022 CY Channel Unique Views = 2,200, Impressions = 17,224, Click thru = 4.1% Average candidate video length = 40 minutes

 

This year, LWVKC reached out to 30 candidates in 15 contested races and interviewed 18 of them. This is twice as many candidates as in 2021 and three times as many races as the past two years. The "*" in the table below represents the apparent winners.

2023 Position	Candidate	Unique Views
Parks & Rec 1, Position 1	Lucy Temple*	128
	Susie Weis	107
Parks & Rec 1, Position 5	Keegan Fengler	281
	Jennifer Hyatt*	365
Hospital District 1, Position 4	Jason Badgerow	315
	Jon Ward*	254
Fire District 2, Position 5	Neal Houser	258
Fire District 7, Position 2	Jeff Meyer*	122
	Bill Dickinson	81
Ellensburg SD, Position 2	Cathie Day*	177
Cle Elum-Roslyn SD,At Large2	Monica Oertli Medalen*	86
	Rob Iverson	69
Cle Elum City Council, Pos 2	Ken Ratliff*	41
Cle Elum Mayor	Matthew Lundh*	105
	Kerry Clark	100
Ellensburg City Council, Pos 4	Steve Verhey (WriteIn)	133
Kittitas City Council, Position 3	Jerry Lael*	13
Roslyn City Council, Position 4	Cathy Cook*	22
Election Period: Oct 20-Nov 7 Channel Unique Views = 2,629, Impressions = 9056, Click thru = 9.5% 2023 YTD channel unique views = 4,700, Impressions = 33,115, Click thru = 4.9% Average candidate video length: 7 minutes. Average candidate playlist length (two candidates plus intro) = 17.5 minutes, Average candidate playlist length (one candidate plus intro) = 10 minutes.

 

Caveats

For any given date range, unique views include all channel content, not just candidate videos. In 2023, LWVKC created multiple special district video explainers and playlists that also got a fair amount of traffic (775 views).

The YouTube algorithm favors shorter videos. YouTube Impressions are the number of times a LWVKC video thumbnail showed up in a viewer’s feed courtesy of YouTube. ‘Click throughs’ are the rate at which viewer’s clicked on those thumbnails.

In all three years, our videos were shared with ECTV2 and other traditional and social media.

Discussion

Our 2023 candidate interviews received a total of 2,629 unique views during the voting period, with nearly one thousand of those views occurring in the last three days of the election. This is four times the views in 2022 voting period and twelve times the views in 2021.

While the impression score has consistently risen during the voting period, in 2023, it was the click through rate of 9.5% that bears mention. That click rate means around 10% of the time, a viewer clicked on the LWVKC video thumbnail; twice what the amount in prior years.

By contrast, in-person candidate forums rarely exceeded 50 attendees.

Not only did the LWVKC interview considerably more candidates this year, but those interviews represented two to three times the races as in prior years. Half of our interviews were races where one of the candidates chose not to participate.

In viewing the age breakdown shown below, no measurable channel traffic by the 18-24 age group this year is disappointing, however, it is encouraging to see a more uniform distribution in viewers under the age of 65. This suggests success in LWVKC's outreach to younger viewers.

Viewer Age	2022 Percentage	2023 Percentage
18-24	8.1	0
25-34	8.1	17.7
35-44	14.5	16.2
45-54	8.8	19.1
55-64	18.9	21.3
65	41.6	25.7

 

Conclusion

This year, LWVKC offered more candidate content than any previous election and leveraged the YouTube algorithm—and viewership is way up. This method got LWVKC's content out to two or three times as many viewers.

All in all, LWVKC is encouraged by the traffic and viewership in the candidate interview experiment! Much thanks is owed to the Kittitas League's Board for its support of this experiment and especially to Katherine Murphy for moderating the candidate interviews.

By Sarah Beth Miller and Barb Tengtio, LWV Seattle/King County

This fall, civics came alive for the students in Alexandra Baker’s high school Civics Classes! With Ms. Baker's guidance and support from LWV Seattle/King County (LWVSKC), Inglemoor High School students took the lead in organizing and conducting two city council candidate forums in November. This was just one of many elements in Ms. Baker’s semester of civics instruction that enabled students to be active participants in the future of their community.

Planning for this semester of civics instruction actually began in late summer between Ms. Baker and LWVSKC members. They discussed how a student led forum could be organized; what support would be needed to accomplish this; and how the forums would compliment students' classroom civics education. LWVSKC drafted a plan and at the start of school in September, Ms. Baker secured a facility for the forums. The students jumped right in at the beginning of the school year!

Here’s a look at what the students accomplished:

1. Inviting:
   The students' first task was to recreate the LWVSKC TRY (They Represent You) Pamphlet in poster-size. This activity helped familiarize the students with government offices and local officials in their community. Then, an email went out to all city council candidates in both Bothell and Kenmore, inviting them to participate in the student led forums. Each student had to follow up the invitation with a second email or phone-call introducing themselves and thanking the candidates in advance for participating in the forums.
   
   
2. Preparing:
   
   Students researched current local issues and the candidates themselves. They then developed questions for the forums and created materials to promote the forums on social media and other community outlets. Each student also reached out to an elected official about an issue important to them and asked them to comment back.
   
   
   
   To aid their preparations, a LWVSKC member visited the classes to share information about conducting a forum, the importance of voting, and the League of Women Voters. LWVSKC also provided a forum script, which the students edited and added their questions to. The students were each assigned roles for the forums. There were two student moderators for each forum, as well as students serving as greeters, time keepers, photographers, etc. 
   
   
   
   
3. Success!:
   
   The Inglemoor students practiced their roles and the forum script in class—and went on to execute everything perfectly the night of the forums!
   
   
4. Continued Learning:
   
   The following week, Ms. Baker shared three civics modules on voting, provided by LWVSKC. The first module covered the history of voting in the US and included a game where students took on different avatars (personas) to visually see who could and could not vote at different times throughout US history. The second module included information on who is and is not currently voting in the US and had the students engage in a voting excuses game. The third module focused on local government elections and how to make voting choices based on candidate positions that support an individual’s value and priorities. The module also included a questionnaire designed for students to discuss qualities they value in a leader.
   
   
5. Voting:
   
   Finally, the students had the opportunity to vote in a mock election! LWVSKC worked with King County Elections to produce a sample Kenmore ballot. The students could then practice voting in a election, using a facsimile of a real ballot. LWVSKC tabulated the results and Ms. Baker and students discussed their results with the actual election results.
   
   
   

Of course, Ms. Baker’s semester on civics also included essential instruction about a number of other topics, including: the branches of government, the electoral college, what it means to be a republic, what a primary is, and more. The partnership between Ms. Baker and LWVSKC was able to provide a dynamic, hands-on learning experience on top of this instruction for the Inglemoor students. Our mutual goal was to offer experiential education to allow students to practice participating in the democratic process. We hope that their civics experiences will make a lasting impression and empower them to become future voters.

Going forward, LWVSKC’s plan is to share this program—the civics modules, student led forums, and mock ballot voting—with other schools in King County. Partnering with a social studies teacher in each school is critical. Ms. Baker did an outstanding job with her students and LWVSKC looks forward to working with her again!

LWSKC’s bright hope for these students and for the expansion of the program is grounded in hearing the reflections of Ms. Baker's students. Here are just a few, so you can be heartened too:

• “It was exciting and interesting to write to a city council member.“
  
  
• “The mock election prepared me to vote”
  
  
• “Voting feels like a scary thing. Doing the mock election helped me understand how to vote.”
  
  
• “King County Elections should allow more high school students to have mock election voting.”
  
  
• “I felt very empowered when I wrote my own lobby letter.”
  
  
• “It felt like I had a voice.”
  
  
• “I felt like I was being set up for success.”
  
  
• “If more mock elections were held it would result in more young people voting.”
  
  
• “Voting gave me a better sense of community.”
  
  
• “I thought it was good, very educationa.l” [The candidate forums.]
  
  
• “I thought it was going to be boring, but it was interesting.” [The candidate forums.]
  
  
• “It made me feel special when I got a response from the city council member.”
  
  
• “Because of my experience with the mock ballot I got to sit down with my Mom and talk about her ballot.”
  
  
• “Being moderator was really fun.”
  
  
• “I will be paying a lot more attention to voting in the future.”
  
  
• “I had never met any candidates before this. I was surprised at how friendly and open-minded they seemed.”
  
  
• “Doing the forum really affected my life.  I’m going to pay more attention to elections from now on.”