Recent Positions
LWVCC has researched and advocated for a variety of issues. Here is an update on three.
Chinook Justice
The Chinook Justice Committee has been working to better understand why the Chinook tribe lost its federal recognition, why it is important, and how to support their efforts at regaining recognition. This is in the context of the complex political and legal history of Native Americans in the United States. For more on this, please see our
Chinook Justice White Paper . We presented this paper at the LWVWA Council meeting in 2024.
The LWV has no positions related to Native Americans; LWVWA does have several positions, which need to be extended and updated; and LWVCC had none. League of Women Voters of Thurston County (Thurston) adopted
Approved Tribal Positions after completing a study about the tribes in their area; those positions apply to our tribal populations as well. We have been working with Thurston members to strategize about efforts to move LWV forward on supporting Native Americans in the service of justice, and the inclusion and equity portions of our DEI principle.
LWVCC voted to adopt Thurston’s Approved Tribal Positions at the Membership Meeting on November 9, 2024.
Local News
Local news and the impact of its decline on democracy remains a focus of the League in the wake of the
LWVUS adoption in June 2024 of the Local News and Democracy position.
In early November 2024, the state Board in Washington recognized the Local News and Democracy Committee as an advocacy and education committee, paving the way for its members to pursue legislation and conduct programming to help local news organizations survive and to improve access to credible, reliable news for all.
As has been widely reported, the committee’s study, which resulted in the state adopting
its position in May 2023, found the local news decline in Washington, as throughout the nation, is linked with reduced voter participation, fewer candidates seeking elected office, higher government costs, greater political polarization, reduced civic engagement and more difficult access to public health.
The position states the League believes it is the responsibility of the government to provide support for conditions under which credible local journalism can survive and thrive.
Dee Anne Finken, a state board member and League member in Clark County, chairs the Local News Team and said the position does not necessarily call on government to fund a local news revival. Rather, it states that the government has a responsibility to ensure that conditions allow the public to have ready access to accurate, in-depth coverage of government entities, including but not limited to city councils, county councils, county boards of commissioners, health departments, schools, and school boards.
She noted that the nation’s founders believed so firmly in access to news and information that they not only codified its protection in the First Amendment to the Constitution but also extended significant subsidies to the U.S. Post Office for the widespread distribution of newspapers.
In addition to legislation, News Team members are looking to measure the interest of local Leagues throughout Washington in media-literacy training opportunities and well as guidance in developing Observer Corps reports that could be offered to local news outlets for publications.
Other members of the News Team from Clark County are Sally Carpenter Hale, Tracy Reilly Kelly, Liz Backstrom and Jan Pinaire.
Clark County, to date, has escaped the fate of a steadily increasing numbers of regions in the United States, where 200 counties are now “news deserts” with no reliable local news source. More than half of the nation’s counties have limited local news sources.
A third of the nation’s newspapers have closed with an average of 2.5 newspapers closing each week.
After the LWVWA approved the position last year, the League successfully lobbied the Legislature to pass a bill eliminating the business and occupation tax for news publishers for 10 years.
Find the full state study, “The Decline of Local News and Its Impact on Democracy,” and more at
lwvwa.org. The study is also available on Amazon.
Redistricting
The National LWV has a position on redistricting. “The League of Women Voters believes responsibility for redistricting preferably should be vested in an independent special commission, with membership that reflects the diversity of the unit of government, including citizens at large, representatives of public interest groups, and members of minority groups.” LWVWA has followed redistricting issues for many years, releasing a “Report on Redistricting,” in 2017. The report concludes that we need a more non-partisan system. LWVCC has been actively engaged in the Clark County redistricting efforts since the State League brought Speak Up Schools to our community in 2020.
In the fall of 2024, LWVCC member Irene Finley took a survey of local League members. We learned members are not satisfied with the redistricting process. Of the 31 individuals who responded to the Redistricting Survey, 58% were very dissatisfied or somewhat dissatisfied with the process and 41% were neutral. Nearly all of those who were neutral said they did not have the information to give a different response.
Irene will bring our results to the State Redistricting Task Force for their consideration. She will also continue to bring redistricting topics for discussion at future LWVCC meetings.
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We have also taken positions on the following:
Justice in Clark County
Land Use
Library
Orderly Metropolitan Development
Parks and Recreation
Port of Vancouver
Sewers
Solid Waste
Tax Policy in Clark County
Transportation