By Barbara Lipsky Communications Co-Chair Falls Church League of Women Voters
Early voting in this fall’s general election begins on September 19. Are you ready? Have you registered to vote or checked that your voter registration is up to date? Do you know who and what is on the ballot? Do you plan to vote on Election Day (November 4), or do you want to take advantage of early voting days or request a by-mail ballot?
The League of Women Voters of Falls Church (LWVFC) can help you accomplish these tasks. One of the main tools we offer the public is our nonpartisan voter information website, VOTE411.org. This is one stop shopping for everything you need to know about the upcoming election. When you go to Vote411, you can click on different choices to “Register to Vote” or “Check Your Registration” or “Find What’s on Your Ballot.” It also includes a polling place locator so that you can be sure where to vote.
One of the most useful and popular features of Vote411 allows you to see exactly what will be on your ballot. When you enter your street address, Vote411 will show the races that you will be voting on whether at the national, state or local level. It then allows you to click on each candidate for office and see the candidate’s answers to questions posed by the League. The League prints the candidates’ answers verbatim without any editing. You can compare the answers from each candidate as you are deciding how to vote. The League’s website is strictly nonpartisan; it makes no recommendations about which candidate or party to select.
Falls Church City voters will find Vote411 particularly helpful as it has information on all the local candidates running for city offices. This year, Falls Church City voters will be electing four members of the City Council, four School Board members and three “constitutional officers:” Sheriff, Treasurer and Commissioner of Revenue. These candidates were sent questions on local issues prepared by LWVFC. The candidates’ answers to these questions are included in the online Voters Guide, along with biographical information and a photo of the candidate. Voters in this year’s election will also be selecting state-wide officers, including Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General and a member of the Virginia House of Delegates. Vote411 also has information on these state-wide candidates and their responses to questions posed by the state and regional levels of the League of Women Voters.
Candidate Forum on September 25: To further inform voters about those running for the four seats on the City Council, the local League will co-host with the Village Preservation and Improvement Society (VPIS) a Candidate Forum on Thursday evening, September 25, from 7:00 to 9:00 pm at the American Legion Post, 400 N. Oak Street. LWVFC and VPIS moderators will be asking several questions of the candidates but we will also be reserving time for questions from the audience. We hope you will attend and bring your questions for the candidates!
Printed Voter’s Guide: In addition, in the coming weeks, LWVFC will publish a printed Voters’ Guide in the Falls Church News-Press and will make this guide available at the Mary Riley Styles Public Library and at the polls on Election Day. The League is grateful to the Falls Church News-Press; they have generously included our Voters’ Guide in an issue of the paper near election day for many years.
At the State and National levels, the League of Women Voters Protects Voting Rights: All Falls Church members are also members of the Virginia and US Leagues of Women Voters and thus contribute to their efforts to protect voting rights of all citizens. Last year, the League of Women Voters of Virginia joined the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights and African Communities Together to file suit against a state program that purged supposed non-citizens from the voting rolls based on DMV records that were not necessarily reliable or up-to-date as to the voter’s current citizenship status. The lawsuit contends that the state’s practice is actually removing eligible voters, and particularly naturalized citizens, in violation of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act. In a win for voting rights and the rule of law, Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on August 12, 2025 largely denied the state’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit, allowing the case to proceed to discovery and trial.
At the national level, the League of Women Voters of the United States (LWVUS) is working to defeat the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act), proposed federal legislation that would require voters to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections. The League argues that the bill creates significant barriers to voting, especially for married women who may not have a birth certificate with their current legal name, as well as for rural voters, seniors, and others who lack may lack easy access to documents such as passports. Passed by the US House of Representatives, the legislation is now before the Senate.
Join Us: If you are interested in participating in readying citizens to vote this fall and supporting the League’s state and national initiatives, we hope you’ll join us. LWVUS has introduced a new nationwide membership portal, which is used by all members to join the League, update their contact information, and renew their memberships. Please visit portal.lwv.org for more information on joining the League.