The League of Women Voters built its name on two rules: no parties, no candidates. In Clallam County, the local chapter still trades on that name while standing with groups that endorse candidates, buying ads against a president, and helping handle ballots in a race a court already had to throw out. If the national organization will not enforce its own rules here, “nonpartisan” is just a brand.
League of Women Voters of the United States
Board of Directors
1233 20th Street NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036
governance@lwv.org
memberservices@lwv.org
Copy:
League of Women Voters of Washington
Karen Crowley, President
1511 Third Avenue, Suite 801
Seattle, WA 98101
president@lwvwa.org
info@lwvwa.org
August 28, 2026
Dear Members of the National Board:
I am writing from Clallam County, Washington, because the League of Women Voters built its name on a simple promise: it does not support or oppose political parties or candidates. That promise is why people still trust the League with voter guides, forums, and a seat at the table in elections.
Our local chapter still uses that promise. I do not believe it still keeps it.
I respect the national organization. I am not asking you to punish a local League because some disagree with its policy positions. The League has always been allowed to study issues and take stands on legislation. That is not the problem.
The problem is that the League of Women Voters of Clallam County now looks, to a large part of this county, like a political operation wearing a nonpartisan badge. It partners with groups that endorse candidates. It has paid for advertising that attacks a presidential administration. And it has helped handle ballots in a local election where those same allies told people how to vote.
If that is allowed to continue under your name, the name does not mean what you say it means.
What your own rules require
Every local League has to stay nonpartisan toward parties and candidates. That is not optional. Local chapters exist because the national organization grants them recognition. If a chapter will not follow the rules, national can set conditions or pull the charter and the right to use the League name.
You have said yourselves that the League only works if the public believes it is genuinely nonpartisan. In Clallam County, that belief is breaking.
The local chapter is publicly tied to a group that endorses candidates
The Clallam County League has promoted and appeared at events with Indivisible Sequim and Indivisible Port Angeles. These are not neutral civic clubs. They endorse candidates and tell their members whom to support.
In the Clallam Conservation District race, Indivisible endorsed incumbent Wendy Rae Johnson and told people to vote for her. League members, at the same time, have served as volunteer election officers and helped process ballots in that race.
The local chapter can say it did not sign the endorsement. That is not enough. When the League shows up with the same group, under the same banners, and then helps handle the ballots, ordinary people do not see a wall between the two. They see one side with better access.
It ran a newspaper ad against a presidential administration
Last year, the local League paid for an ad in the Peninsula Daily News condemning the presidential administration. It was not a write-up on a local ordinance. It was a public attack on an administration.
A League can criticize a bill. A paid ad going after a president is something else.
If the local GOP bought a Peninsula Daily News ad condemning a Democratic administration and then asked to handle ballots, nobody would call that voter service.
It is inside a local election that already collapsed once
A court threw out the 2024 Conservation District election over bad procedure. The following election was marked by confusion about who received a ballot and by observers being kept outside the room.
League members processed ballots in the last CCD election. That might be tolerable if people here still saw the League as neutral. They do not. They see a group aligned with activists who had already chosen a candidate in the same race.
This is the part that should concern you most. This is not a disagreement about climate policy or abortion. This is the League’s name attached to ballot handling after a voided election.
The pattern is not hard to see
Public reporting has laid out the rest:
The chapter praises some political figures and ignores others.
Visible League leaders have a public record of donations to the Clallam County Democrats and Democratic candidates.
The chapter takes official stances on contested local projects and still expects to be treated as the county’s neutral civic referee.
Its candidate forums use questions submitted in advance and screened by League members.
None of that, by itself, proves a formal endorsement. Taken together, it explains why so many people here no longer buy the “nonpartisan” label.
Private donations by members are not a crime. Using the League’s reputation to keep special access while acting like a faction is the issue.
What I am asking you to do
Please investigate the Clallam County League.
Ask whether it has supported or opposed candidates or parties, directly or by tying itself to groups that do. Ask whether its leaders have kept League office separate from partisan activity. Ask it to produce its nonpartisan policy, its ads, its partnership records, and a plain explanation of its role in Conservation District ballot processing.
Until that review is done, the chapter should not appear at partisan rallies under the League name, and it should not handle ballots in any race where its partner groups have endorsed a candidate.
If the facts show a real breach, put conditions on the chapter or take back the charter.
I will send sources, dates, and links if you want them. The local reporting is collected here: https://www.ccwatchdog.com/s/league-of-women-voters
The national League does not have to stop advocating.
It does have to decide whether “we do not support or oppose candidates or parties” is a rule or a slogan.
In this county, that decision is overdue.
Respectfully,
Jeff Tozzer
Wow Jeff, very powerful letter to be sent to the LWV's headquarters, you also back it up with powerful facts and references. If this doesn't initiate an investigation, then IMO, the LWV has completely lost it reason to exist as an organization.
Thanks for the links.
I took a moment to send a letter.