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The Whatcom County Auditor, Stacy Henthorn, invites the public to attend a 2024 Election Center Tour. Observe the election process in Whatcom County firsthand. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to tour the election center, witness the security measures in place, observe all aspects of ballot processing, and have your questions answered by election administrators.

Read about opportunities available for observing the primary election process beginning July 8 and continuing through the Canvassing Board certification on Aug. 20.

To provide information about candidates running in our local primaries, the Forum Team is taking a novel approach. We are interviewing each candidate separately on Zoom, asking the same three questions of each person running for a given office. The resulting short videos will be posted on the LWVBWC website, so that voters will be able to hear from the candidates they’re interested in without searching through a lengthy forum for their answers.

Google is doing research on "prebunking". It's a way of training readers/viewers online in how to recognize specific types of misinformation, such as fearmongering, scapegoating and whataboutism.

The League is looking for a volunteer to produce the Voter email newsletter once a month. The work takes about four hours per month, and the usual term is about two years—not a lifetime commitment! Training and continuing support are provided!

The LWVBWC book group will discuss One Nation Under Guns: How gun culture distorts our history and threatens our Democracy, by Dominic Erdozain. Join us for a conversation about the origins and history of the Second Amendment and how attitudes about firearms are impacting our lives.

Our May book sparked an especially lively discussion. The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy is by Kathryn Gehl and Michael Porter.

Many at the table had brought detailed notes. Our discussion focused on the possible innovations rather than the gridlock. Gehl and Porter compared our current situation to another time of social and economic upheaval—the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, and then they showed how progressive political innovations changed the rules of voting to right the scales at that time.

Minda Rae Amiran and the Civics Education Team have just added another pair of short videos to its public education series. The latest installment is on the Constitution’s division of powers in government, a three-way relationship that is not always well understood. Most of us usually interact with the Federal government through some branch of the Civil Service, so the new video pair also provides a thumbnail history of that institution.

Grab yourself a cup of Columbian coffee and catch up with new and old League friends, on July 17th or August 14th.

Longtime League member Jo Ann Hardee Collinge passed away on June 15, 2024. Two League members share their memories of volunteering with Jo.

In May, the Healthcare Issues Team met with Aly Robinson to learn about the healthcare challenges in eastern Whatcom County. She is the Community Health Specialist at Whatcom County Health & Community Services. A recording of her presentation is now posted on the LWVBWC website under Our Work and Healthcare.

Sign up for text updates to know your ballot was received and accepted by county elections offices. Subscribers to the texts also get alerts if their ballot has a problem – like if they forgot to sign it – with directions to take action to get it tallied.

Did you know that Whatcom County Elections has a guide to accessible voting? It is informative and worth scanning if you know someone who would benefit by improved ease in voting, or maybe for yourself. The guide, which we have posted on our web site here [ Emily please see full clip below ] describes various accommodations or assistance in voting—from registering to vote to private touch screens and more. And Whatcom County Elections has staff available to assist with Spanish translations and accepts relay calls from those with hearing or speech disabilities.

Are there candidates on the primary ballot that you’ve never heard of? Learn more about the candidates by watching short interviews conducted by the League of Women Voters of Bellingham/Whatcom County. In under 10 minutes each candidate is asked the same three questions, and the recordings have been posted on our website.

I appreciated the opportunity to travel to DC to participate as a delegate for the 2024 LWVUS convention. Among many highlights was the successful vote by delegates to concur with our state position on Local News. I felt proud to be part of the WA delegation supporting the team that studied this issue, and who prepared our members for participating in consensus. The team effectively reached out to the LWVUS board and other Leagues over the past year. This effort culminated in a national position to address the local news crisis and its impact on our communities and democracy.