| Empowering voters. Defending democracy.
| | Make your plan to empower voters and defend democracy throughout the summer! Stay active in your Unit and participate in local community events to talk with community members about voting! Get tips and suggestions from the Unite and Rise Playbook 5 webinar! Share LWVSKC's elevator speech to further understanding of our work. | Volunteers Needed June 18!
Please contact Connie Foster at voteroutreach@lwvskc.org if you can volunteer for the 25th Annual Juneteenth Celebration on June 18 from 5pm - 8pm to be held at the Rainier Beach Community Center, 8825 Rainier Ave S, Seattle WA 98118. | Congress Needs To Hear From You
At a time when the rights and freedoms of communities of color are under attack all over the country, we must stand up and fight for a truly representative, multiracial democracy. Today, demand that Congress stop funding attacks on historically marginalized communities, and reject more funding for ICE and CBP. Congress needs to hear from you now! | This Thursday May 28 Bellevue Botanical Gardens 5 - 7pm
Put on by the Bellevue Chamber's Eastside Leadership Initiative, Believe is focused on connecting the next generation of leaders to nonprofit organizations here on the Eastside. LWVSKC will be participating in this event. Use promo code BelieveFree to receive complimentary admission. For more information click here. | LWVSKC'S Elevator Speech
An elevator speech is a concise, 30- to 60-second summary of who you are designed to be delivered in the time it takes for an elevator ride. Below is the LWVSKC's elevator speech for you to practice and get comfortable sharing in conversation with neighbors/your community, at events, on an elevator, etc.
"The LWVSKC is a nonpartisan organization. We don’t support any candidates or any parties. All our work is grounded in our diversity, equity and inclusion policy.
Our mission is to empower voters and defend democracy. We empower voters through voter services, which includes five things: 1. voter registration, 2. get out the vote work, 3. candidate and educational forums, 4. civic education, and 5. observing at King County elections; and we defend democracy through advocacy - which is based on our long held positions, readily available on our website (at LWVSKC.org).
We envision a democracy where every person has the desire, the right, the knowledge, and the confidence to participate." | Check out LWVSKC Committees and Join In!
Do you know about the LWVSKC Committees and how to join in? The LWSVKC currently has eight active Committees, including: Program, Economics and Taxation, Unite and Rise, Education, Investment, Voters Services, Youth Civics, and Girl Scouts. We will highlight one each week for the next few weeks. This week learn about Unite and Rise...
Unite and Rise
The LWVSKC Unite & Rise Action Committee (URAC) was created to implement LWVUS’s Unite & Rise Campaign. We are currently working with and developing partnerships with various organizations in preparation for the mid-term elections and to support our immigrant neighbors and community.
We recently worked with University of Washington Center for Human Rights (UWCHR). They conduct research and share their findings with community partners. Their research revealed Washington State is continuing to share drivers’ information with Federal Immigration Enforcement. We are conducting a letter writing campaign, which includes a letter from our LWVSKC and LWVWA Presidents, to Governor Ferguson imploring him to stop the use of our Department of Licensing’s (DOL) data base by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). And we are partnering with El Centro de la Raza on several upcoming events. The most recent one in early May was “Understanding the Save Act and How It Effects Our Communities” with Congressman Adam Smith. Other avenues of partnership include candidate and educational forums, Get out the Vote work, ballot party events, etc. Much of this upcoming work overlaps with Voter Services committee work and we will be partnering within LWVSKC as well as appropriate. We are excited about the possibilities!
Our meetings are hybrid twice a month from 5:30-6:30 pm. Please contact Keela Williams at keela.w@lwvskc.org for more information and to sign-up to volunteer. We need you! | Register For The Next King County Elections Observer Orientation
To observe at King County Elections, you need to participate in an observer orientation (if you have not already in the past two years). Below are the upcoming dates/times of the next observer orientation sessions. Please RSVP to Barb at president@lwvskc.org with the date/time of the session you wish to attend - you must do this ahead of attending. All observer orientations are held at King County Elections 919 SW Grady Way, Renton, WA 98057. (There is a limit of ten LWVSKC members per session.)
- Tuesday, July 14 from 11 am to 1 pm
- Wednesday, July 15 from 4 pm to 6 pm
- Friday, July 17 from 11 am to 1 pm
| Candidate filing results are in
Filing week is now done so we know which races are more heavily contested. Races with three or more will appear on the August ballot.
Not sure which districts are where? That's one more way our TRY comes in handy because a description of the area covered is included. Check pages 26-32. TRY_2026_online
What else is coming on the ballot?
It's not just candidates on the August primary ballot, there are measures too! Covington and Seattle have fundraising measures, as does the Skykomish School District. There are also some fire district measures. Want to see more about them? Check the details on the King County Elections webpage. | LWV Guidance For Events: Why we are joining demonstrations; safety tips for participation and being nonpartisan at events:
| Unite and Rise
Unite and Rise 8.5 aims to build a movement of 8.5 million individuals to fight back against the anti-democratic actions of the current administration. The number 8.5 million is the estimated number of voters it would take to bring about change through nonviolent protest.
Now! Playbook 5, May - July 2026, Watch the recording of what you, your Unit, and all of LWVSKC can do here. Passcode is:
L.aI@Dd4
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How do You contact your members of Congress?
| | League Events and Activity | Today: Redistricting Briefing: Putting People First
Join the LWVWA Redistricting Commission Reform Task Force today, Tuesday, May 26 to hear about how we achieve redistricting that eliminates partisan influence and puts people first. With the all the news about mid-decade partisan gerrymandering and the elimination of voting protections, you’re probably wondering: “What does the alternative look like and how do we get there?”
Register here for the 12-1 pm meeting.
|  | The League of Women Voters of Washington plans to commemorate our nation’s 250th anniversary with a statewide book club featuring live-streamed discussions with authors, titled "Conversations on Democracy: A Reading Initiative."
Join us for our first book club meeting with Heather Cox Richardson, as we discuss her book How the South Won the Civil War Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America. Find the promotional graphics HERE. This event is for members only (but you could invite a friend to join you)!
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LWVUS Webinar On AI, Synthetic Media, and The Future Of Trust
Watch this recording of a LWVUS webinar of the subject of AI, Synthetic Media, and the Future of Trust here.
Passcode: ^@5hQx4S | LWVWA Council June 6 - 7
Register here for LWVWA's Council to be held at South Puget Sound Community College’s Lacey Campus, located at 4220 6th Ave SE, Lacey, WA from 10 am June 6 - noon on June 7. Please let Barb Tengtio at president@lwvskc.org know if you plan to attend. | LWVSKC Annual Meeting!
Mark your calendar for Thursday, June 18 at 6pm to join the LWVSKC annual meeting. You will get an update on the past year, vote on the 2026-27 Board, 2026-27 Budget and a small update to the LWVSKC Bylaws, and hear about this year's LWVSKC award winners! Zoom link to follow. Also, in preparation for the meeting, please review the two changes to the bylaws (highlighted in yellow) found here.
Please register to attend the meeting (registration is required so we can track attendance and process voting properly during the meeting). | Unit Meetings
Committee Meetings
Annual Meeting of LWVSKC members
Thursday, June 18 at 6 pm.
Other Key Meeting in June
| Today: Street Celebration
The block where our office is located is part of a Seattle project to beautify the neighborhood. There's an afternoon celebration today, Tuesday May 26 from 4 to 6 p.m. You can also pop into the office and see our space! Click here for details | Thank you to Suzanne Ornstein, Meg Butterworth and Allison Feher for their voter outreach at the Seattle Central Library this past week. | League of Women Voters of Seattle King County
1511 3rd Avenue, Suite 801
Seattle, WA 98101
Email: info@lwvskc.org
Phone: (206) 329-4848
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