An organization that touches elections has to be able to say exactly where its edges are. Here are ours.
LCV never endorses, rates, ranks, scores, supports, or opposes any candidate or party. Every program is open to candidates and members of every persuasion on identical terms. This is Article I of our bylaws and can only be amended by a supermajority vote of the full membership.
Every ballot-qualified candidate in a covered race is invited in writing to every LCV event and voter guide. Each is presented identically. Answers are printed unedited and in full. Invitations and RSVPs are documented and kept on file, so fairness is provable rather than merely claimed.
We help any eligible citizen learn to run. Who they run as, and what they run on, is their business and none of ours. We have never asked and will never ask.
Dues stay low. Events stay local and social. Young members get real responsibility fast — not someday, not after they’ve proven themselves, but within their first ninety days.
Administration is capped in the bylaws at 5% of dues and donations, or $2,500, whichever is greater. Every other dollar goes to programs. We publish the numbers annually.
We will, eventually. A moderator lets a question run long. An event lead says something with a lean in it. Tell us. Every nonpartisanship complaint goes to the board, gets a written answer, and is reported in aggregate in the annual report. We would rather be publicly corrected than quietly drift.
Everything LCV does is nonpartisan voter education and civic training, conducted on terms that treat every candidate identically. We never cross into political campaign intervention, which means endorsing, rating, selectively inviting, or timing our communications to favor anyone.
We structure our activities so that we do not expect to trigger political-committee registration with the Washington Public Disclosure Commission or the FEC. We review that with counsel annually.
If a future board ever wants to endorse or fund candidates, that work goes into a separate affiliated organization. It never enters this one.
Nonpartisanship is a bylaws article, not a policy. Policies can be changed by a board on a Tuesday. This can’t.
Every county charter is revocable for cause, with nonpartisanship violations named explicitly as cause. One incident could damage the brand statewide.
Every event keeps its invitation log and RSVP file. If a candidate says they weren’t invited, we produce the email.
Every event lead is trained on the bright line before their first event. Not a memo — a conversation, with examples of what well-meaning volunteers get wrong.