League of Women Voters of Snohomish County reports growing membership, expanded outreach in 2025-26

EVERETT, Wash. — The League of Women Voters of Snohomish County (LWVSC) grew to 270 members and broadened its community reach during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026, according to the organization's newly released annual report.

The all-volunteer, nonpartisan group’s courier team drove 1,839 miles to deliver registration and education materials to 109 sites, while civic information displays at eight Sno-Isle Libraries branches drew attention from an estimated 130,000 individuals. Candidate forums garnered 6,453 listens and views during the 2025 primary and general election period.

Among the year's more memorable moments: a group of teenage boys wandered past a League registration table at the South Everett Goodwill and, when asked if they were registered, answered, "We're not old enough."

A volunteer explained that Washington lets 16-year-olds sign up through its Future Voter program, and one of the boys scanned the QR code on the spot. 

“He had all his friends register before they left the store and told us he was going to tell everyone how easy it was,” said League volunteer Micke Fellows. Scenes like that helped the League log roughly 1,100 conversations with teens about voting over the course of the year, more than it had in years.

“Recognizing that the national League of Women Voters had declared a ‘Constitutional Crisis,’ we started a Resisting Threats to Democracy program,” 2025-2026 LWVSC President Lisa Utter said. “The challenges keep coming — and we'll meet them,” she wrote in the report. “It takes all of us.”

Other highlights from the year include:

• Partnering with Snohomish County Elections, KSER FM, The Daily Herald, Edmonds College and other organizations on 21 candidate forums;
• Hosting voter education tables at 28 community events, including the Snohomish Pride Parade, Juneteenth celebrations and the Sounds of Africa Fest, and giving nine presentations to groups such as Everett Rotary;
• Distributing 500 Know Your Rights cards to 24 food banks and observing 18 public meetings through the League's observer corps;
• Launching a Resisting Threats to Democracy program during the first full year of the national League's Unite and Rise initiative; and
• Running a responsible forestry campaign on Meta that reached 110,442 county residents from April through June, supported by grants from the Keta Legacy Foundation, the Hazel Miller Foundation and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation.

The League also earned outside recognition. Everett's mayor honored LWVSC with a Civic Engagement Award in December 2025, and the City of Mountlake Terrace recognized Community Outreach Committee Chair Nadine Shanti in February 2026 for her work empowering voters.

The full report is available on their website home page, lwvsnoho.org.

The League of Women Voters was founded in 1920, the same year women won the vote. For more than 100 years, we have been a nonpartisan, activist, grassroots organization that believes voters should play an active role in democracy.