League of Women Voters Marks 106 Years With Push to Empower Voters in the Valley

As the League of Women Voters prepares to celebrate its 106th anniversary, Pat Wirth, President of the local League of Women Voters of the Northern Shenandoah Valley, is focused on the future, specifically, on how to engage, educate, and empower more voters across our region.

In a wide-ranging conversation at the Royal Examiner studio, Worth shared the history of the national organization, the challenges facing local voter outreach, and how the League is working to defend democracy, one classroom, voter registration, and policy conversation at a time.

“The League of Women Voters was founded on February 14, 1920, by Carrie Chapman Catt, a suffragist leader,” Wirth said. “It started with a simple goal: to help women understand how to vote and where to vote. And honestly, 106 years later, that mission hasn’t changed much—we still empower voters and defend democracy.”

A Nonpartisan Voice for Voters

The League is nonpartisan and always has been, Wirth emphasized. “That means we don’t endorse candidates, we don’t support parties. We just want people, everyone, to vote.”

That work includes helping voters register, educating them about polling locations, and providing tools such as Vote411.org, an online guide that lets citizens enter their address to see personalized election information, including deadlines, locations, and candidate responses.

“It’s not about telling people who to vote for. It’s about making sure they have access to the information they need to make their own decision,” she said.

Reaching the Next Generation

One of the League’s biggest efforts is registering young voters in high schools. In Virginia, a state law requires public high schools to give eligible students the opportunity to register to vote during school hours, but Wirth said many schools aren’t following through.

Drawing from her experience in Fairfax County, where League volunteers visited all 25 public high schools annually, Wirth is now trying to expand that outreach across the Northern Shenandoah Valley, an area covering seven localities and more than 2,000 square miles.

“There are 24 high schools in our region, but we’re still trying to get access in many of them,” she said. “The teachers love it, we come in, present a short history of voting rights, help students register, and then take the completed forms to the registrar’s office.”

The League also works with local colleges, including JMU, Shenandoah University, and Laurel Ridge and Blue Ridge Community Colleges, to connect students with voting resources.

Defending Democracy, Not Playing Politics

While voter registration is at the heart of the League’s work, Wirth also spoke about the League’s other mission: defending democracy. That includes opposing laws or policies that make voting harder, like certain federal proposals requiring all voters to re-register with proof of citizenship.

Wirth warns that such requirements could disproportionately affect women, people of color, naturalized citizens, and rural residents, especially those who have changed names through marriage or lack access to original documents like birth certificates or marriage licenses.

“People don’t realize how many barriers that creates,” she said. “If you live in a rural area and your registrar’s office is hours away, and you can’t re-register online, it makes voting a lot harder for no good reason.”

She also pointed to the integrity of Virginia’s voting system, praising local election workers and registrars for maintaining strict procedures and chain-of-custody rules for ballots.

“The people running our elections are incredibly well-trained,” she said. “In Virginia, every poll worker gets retrained for every election.”

The Local Impact of National Decisions

Wirth reminded listeners that voting starts at the local level, and so do most decisions that impact daily life, from school budgets to land use to public health.

One topic the League is currently studying is the spread of data centers in the Shenandoah Valley. With proposals under discussion in Warren and Frederick counties, Wirth said residents and local officials need to understand the long-term implications on water, electricity, real estate, and quality of life.

“We’re not anti–data center,” she said. “We just want the community to have all the information before a decision is made. These facilities are resource-intensive, and technology changes so quickly. What you build now might not be relevant five years from now.”

A Call to Serve—and to Vote

The League of Women Voters of the Northern Shenandoah Valley has around 80 members, all volunteers, but the work is growing, and so is the need for help.

Last year, the local chapter logged more than 2,200 volunteer hours. Wirth encourages anyone interested in helping to reach out, especially as Virginia faces another busy election cycle.

“Every year is an election year somewhere,” she said. “And we always need more people who care about access to the ballot and the strength of our democracy.”

For those who believe their vote doesn’t matter, the League points to the many elections decided by just a handful of ballots or even a single one. Every vote counts, and any one of them could make the difference.