May 2026 President's Update

The mid-year season is upon us and our LWVOR Council is only a couple weeks away,

coming up 15-16 May. It’s not too late to consider attending in person. Marion-Polk

League members are offering to lodge guests from across the state should you choose

to come to Salem. What a great way to meet members you may have only been

acquainted with!

This year, we are going to review the status of our eight strategic objectives: clear and vocal branding, highlighting our voter service, grow Oregon Student Mock Elections, grow non-partisan outreach thru new affiliations, redouble our fiduciary responsibilities, grow the Leagues future with youth outreach, address burnout, and all the while modeling civil discourse. We will hear from a professor of history about the similarities between 1939 and 2025 and why knowing history is crucial to defending democracy and empowering voters now.

This year the proposed budget is quite different. The Board and Budget Committee pose a question to us an inflection point with a serious choice. They are asking us to consider helping our volunteers with new staff dedicated to the operation of our busiest and most demanding portfolios. In these stressful times, we have experienced a reticence to take on leadership. That in turn taxes our volunteers and staff. The Human Resources Committee, Budget Committee, and Board have done their best to create a choice that continues to support our volunteer leadership, with a new model of designed to address the stress and burnout so prevalent in these times. Please join us either in person or online, this will be a big choice about our Leagues future.

On April 25th the League of Women Voters of Oregon (LWVOR) and ACLU of Oregon

filed a “friend of the court” brief in United States v. Oregon, in support of Oregon voters’

privacy and Oregon state privacy law. The brief opposes the United States Department

of Justice’s unlawful demand for disclosure of Oregon voters’ private information, such

as driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of Social Security numbers. The

League is represented by Campaign Legal Center and the Brennan Center for Justice

at NYU Law. The ACLU of Oregon is represented by the ACLU.

And here’s my observation of our support for that action, “The League of Women Voters

of Oregon is determined to protect the private data of Oregonians from the overreach of

the federal government,” said Mark Kendall, president of the League of Women Voters

of Oregon. “We are proud to support our state’s strong state privacy laws against the

federal government’s fishing expedition. The League will continue to protect our

members and Oregon voters from this intrusion that erodes trust in the very institutions

that we expect to uphold our highest democratic principles and values.”

On April 30th, the League of Women Voters chapters of Deschutes, Klamath, and Union

Counties and the Rogue and Umpqua Valleys held a first joint, bipartisan Congressional

Candidate forum for Oregon’s Congressional District 2 (CD2). That district is the sixth

largest in the country and larger than 22 states. These chapters worked closely with one another to select questions from voters in the district to best represent the needs of

citizens in this geographically wide-ranging interests. Moderated by award winning

journalist Les Zaitz, this live Zoom webinar features live local watch parties by each

host across the district. Eight of the nine candidates for the U.S.House of Representatives participated including Peter Larson of Union County; Andrea Carr of Klamath County; Mary Doyle of Deschutes County; Patty Snow, Rebecca Mueller, Peter Quince, and Chris Beck of Jackson County; and Dawn Rasmussen of Wasco County. The moderator Les Zaitz, has been a journalist in Oregon for more than 50 years and is editor/owner of Salem Reporter. He is a two-time Pulitzer finalist who lives and works from his ranch in rural Grant County.

What a great way for our rural Leagues to collaborate in empowering voters!

In League,

Mark Kendall

LWVOR Interim President