Elections
Our vote is our power.
Through our votes, elections make our voices heard. The LWVC protects and empowers millions of voters every year to ensure that California’s elections are fair, accessible, and representative of all Californians.
Why it Matters
Voting is a civic duty and your direct line to real-world change.
Your Community
Local officials decide local budgets, housing policies, public transit, and school funding.
Your State
California voters directly pass laws on ballot measures, from environmental standards to reproductive freedom and labor rights.
Your Future
Federal representatives shape national laws, international relations, judicial appointments, and federal aid programs.
Types of Elections
Every four years, Americans elect our president, a position that carries huge power. The President enacts laws, directs where money and resources go when communities are in need, leads our nation in times of crisis, and represents our country in important matters around the world.
A President’s decisions and policies affect the direction of the country every single day.
Voters elect Senators and Representatives to serve them in the two houses of Congress. We call these officials “lawmakers” because Congress writes and votes on the laws that the President enacts. Often, these officials will have an important say in the way the government spends tax dollars—including whether tax dollars are invested in your community. When a highway is repaired or a hospital is built in your community, one of your elected lawmakers probably helped get money for those projects.
Senators and Representatives are also expected to help their constituents with all kinds of problems, like when a senior is having trouble getting a Social Security check, a family member traveling overseas needs assistance getting home, and a wide range of other matters.
These elections determine state leadership including the governor, state legislators, and attorney general. Many of the laws that affect our lives every day are state laws. Did you get a speeding ticket on the highway? State officials probably passed the law establishing that speed limit and the fine. These officials are responsible for writing, enacting, and enforcing those laws.
California elections also include ballot measures and initiatives on a variety of issues like the state minimum wage, reproductive rights, taxes, and many other topics. When voting on these, voters choose for themselves, directly, what laws they want.
These are elections for local community offices, such as mayors, city councils, sheriffs, district attorneys, or school boards. Elected officials at the local level impact decisions in your community, everything from public safety to trash collection to the books that are used in your child’s classroom.
These elections directly impact your day-to-day life and the lives of your friends, neighbors, and community members. Voting in your local election is critical to making sure you can choose how issues and opportunities in your local community move forward.
What We’re Doing
The League works not only to empower voters with the information they need to take part in elections, but to create more fair, accessible election systems.
Candidate Debates & Forums
Hearing and seeing candidates engage in healthy debates before an election is an important part of our democracy. Candidate debates and forums help us determine which candidates align with our values and which ones we want to support with our votes. Every year, Leagues across California host candidate debates and forums for candidates running at all levels of government, from congressional races to statewide offices, city government, local school boards, and everything in between. Due to our deep roots and long history of nonpartisanship, communities across the country have put their trust in the League to host these events.
VOTE411
Our award-winning voting and election resource, VOTE411.org, provides reliable, nonpartisan information in both English and Spanish, including candidates guides, voter registration and verification, details about your unique ballot, and how to cast your ballot in California. For over a decade, the LWVC Education Fund has provided millions of Californians with reliable ballot information through an online ballot planning tool, so they have what they need to use their power and vote.
Advocacy & Community Education
We engage in legislative lobbying, grassroots organizing, and community education to build equitable, accessible election systems across California. Through proactive outreach, we empower voters and ensure every community’s voice is represented in the halls of power. Policies we’ve fought for, or have won, include:
- Access to same-day voter registration
- Expanding voting locations in historically underrepresented communities
- Reinstating voting rights for formerly incarcerated individuals
- Expanding access to secure vote-by-mail statewide
- Protecting local election officials and expanding Automatic Voter Registration
LWVC Litigation Center
When the freedom to vote or democratic integrity is threatened, the League steps into the courtroom. Through strategic litigation and amicus briefs, we hold power accountable, safeguard voter privacy, and defend constitutional rights across California. Legal cases we’ve been involved in included issues such as:
- Challenging unlawful county measures and hand-count mandates.
- Intervening in federal court to block forced releases of unredacted state voter rolls.
- Defending complete Census counts and fair redistricting maps.
- Fighting campaign dark money and standing up for civil rights and constitutional protections.