2024 Impact Report

Empowering Voters
Defending Democracy

2024 was a big year.

2024 was a notable election year nationally, but it was also big for our League in North Dakota. We empowered more voters than ever before thanks to our League members, volunteers, and core team of voter engagement volunteers. We tabled at more events, presented to more organizations, and increased the visibility of our statewide voter guide.

It was also a year of firsts: our first statewide election observation program, our first time translating voting information, and our first virtual escape room about voting in North Dakota. (Cute zombies, anyone?)

North Dakota had a record number of ballots cast in the November election, and more people than usual chose to vote early in-person. With a 20% turnout for the June Primary/City Election Day, we know there's much more work to do. Building a culture of voting and civic engagement is year-round work, and we are committed to the task.

In 2025, we will focus on voting rights in the ND Legislative Session, expand our how to run for office program, explore voter engagement for incarcerated North Dakotans, and work with high school teachers to create civics resources. But let's not jump to 2025 just yet. Join us in looking back at our impact in 2024.

Empowering
Voters

Our statewide voter guide on VOTE411.org reached more voters than ever due in part to our intentional outreach to high schools, universities, libraries, and nonprofits. The site visitors from North Dakota nearly doubled since the last election year.

We were excited to translate candidate responses and voting information into Somali and Arabic for the first time. We worked with community leaders to get the resource out to new American voters.

Impact

Voters & Candidates

22k+ ND users
1,800+ candidates
6 state ballot measures summarized
36,000 households reached through ND Farmers Union magazine
1,000+ voting flyers handed out at mobile food pantries

"What you are doing allows everyone the chance to see all the candidates and what they can offer. Keep up the good work."

-Rural School Board Candidate

Volunteers

Over 500 volunteer hours went into creating and promoting our voter guide. Our volunteer Barb spent dozens of hours hanging posters in Fargo-Moorhead and reported:

"A lot of people I've talked with are really wanting the VOTE411 info. There's a hunger for info that people can trust."

445755743_881736127321346_2423083123545856675_n (1).jpg

New American Voters

This project was a dream come true. We worked with community partners to translate voting information and congressional candidate responses into Somali and Arabic.

“Supporting [new Americans] in overcoming voting challenges ensures their full democratic engagement and representation.”

-Siham Amedy, Inclusive Moorhead

Improving
Elections

We were thrilled to pilot a statewide election observation program for the 2024 elections. Our trained volunteers were deployed to polling sites on Election Day to check the conditions and report any issues. Afterward, we sent observer reports to election officials to improve our future elections.

Observers enjoyed their volunteer experience in the June Primary Election, so the number of volunteers more than doubled when we ran it again in November. It made recruiting easier!

Election Observation Impact

Volunteers

95 volunteers
550 volunteer hours
48 polling sites
13 of our largest cities

"Thank you for organizing this effort so well! I learned a lot and have increased respect for the kind, devoted, hard working election officials and the County Auditors who train them."

-Election Observer

Election Workers

We wanted to celebrate and support our election heroes. We asked our observers to thank poll workers during their shift and be respectful if they needed to address any issues.

"I am grateful to the LWV observers that were at my site for being kind, courteous, and most importantly for bringing issues directly to me so that I could address them on the spot."

-Election Inspector

Resolving Issues

An observer reported that clerks at a polling site were asking new American voters to bring in their naturalization papers to vote a set aside ballot. The county auditor responded quickly to our call to correct the issue.

"Cassie, you defended democracy today!"

-Our team when calling the observer to thank her for the report

Building
Elected Leadership

In 2023, someone asked us, "How do people run for office in North Dakota?" We couldn't find a resource, so we made one! This year the program came to life: we hosted how-to-run trainings at local libraries.

Our North Dakota program received a national spotlight when the American Library Association asked us to present at a virtual event. Over 350 librarians and League members on the call learned about our program and received our written guide on running the training in their own community.

How-to-Run Impact

Trainings

6 in-person trainings
4 cities
70+ people trained

"I wanted to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude. Your guidance in explaining the process of running for office was invaluable."

-Judicial Candidate

Candidates

At least 20 people who had attended one of our trainings or requested a copy of the presentation ran for office in 2024.

Two of the candidates were young women who won their election for local nonpartisan office and are now serving their communities.

How to Run YouTube Thumbnail (Instagram Post).png

Online Resources

79 viewers of our how-to-run video
223 viewers of our how-to-run webpage

“This video looks great! I think it paints a clear picture of the requirements to run for office.”

-ND Election Official

Learn more

Growing
Our League

As we have grown our statewide programs the past few years, our membership has increased along with it. People are seeing the power of the voter and civic engagement we're doing through a nonpartisan lens.

Membership in our current chapters—Bismarck-Mandan, Fargo-Moorhead, and Minot—has grown, but also in cities big and small across North Dakota. And exciting news: Grand Forks members are starting a local chapter in 2025!

Grassroots Growth

462211447_977222347772723_9146399657522692267_n (1).jpg

Membership

We have more than tripled our membership since 2022. This year, we added 70+ members.

"I didn’t realize the scope of LWV! I’m blown away! I joined immediately after your presentation. Take my money! I know y’all are doing great work!"

-New League Member

THIS ONE PHOTO LWV Lisbon forum audience from balcony 09-24-24_edited.jpg

Cities Across North Dakota

Our at-large membership is growing rapidly to empower communities across the state. Here's how we are growing:

Groups of members in Valley City, Jamestown, and Grand Forks
Members in cities like Glenburn, Stanley, Rugby, Bowdon, Tioga, Dickinson, Williston, Mayville, Casselton, and Northwood

Above is a photo of the historic Lisbon Opera House where at-large League members held a candidate forum.

New League Chapter

We were beyond excited to add a new local League chapter in Minot this year. Here's some of their amazing work this year:

Held how-to-run trainings
Helped seniors in assisted living with absentee ballot applications
Placed the first-ever League billboards in North Dakota

“Our LWVND president emailed me today with the news. We're official! WooHoo! Go Plum Valley!”

-Denise, LWV-Plum Valley president

Learn more

Expanding
Community
Outreach

Something that makes the League special is that the work isn't just state or national—it's local, too. We're a grassroots organization where members do the work in their communities year-round. As our membership has grown so has our local impact.

North Dakota is the only state without voter registration, so our local Leagues engage voters through events, presentations, and candidate forums.

Outreach Impact

Community Events

32 presentations
28 tabling events
7 First Friday speaker events
1 Constitution Day event
1 Band Day Parade

"Today I was fortunate enough to attend the panel discussion at the League of Women Voters' First Friday. I came away incredibly inspired."

-Attendee of The Importance of Diversity in Elected Office Panel

Candidate Forums

25 candidate forums for
28 different races

Our local Leagues' nonpartisan candidate forums are a great way to connect voters to their candidates, especially for local offices.

Our Valley City League members ran their first candidate forum this year and 90 people attended. It shows that voters want to hear directly from their candidates.

432737669_833609785467314_174143345257725350_n (2).jpg

Civic Engagement

A whopping 57 people attended the Red River Valley League's 3rd Annual Family-friendly Tour of Fargo City Hall.

City staff made a scavenger hunt for the kids, and the Mayor Mahoney showed up decked out for the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

"My kids have asked about this building, and I didn't realize that you could just come into city hall."

-Parent attendee

Increasing
Digital
Engagement

We increased our digital impact this year by improving our website, posting more often on social media, and having fun with our posts. Our social media accounts and website saw a jump in usage.

We also want to celebrate the work of the Red River Valley League who started a quarterly newsletter in October 2022. Their latest email had an incredible 76% open rate.

Digital Impact

Website

4,000 unique visitors - 167% increased usage from the previous year
14,080 page views
4 minutes and 14 seconds - average time on the site

Our website is becoming a go-to resource for election information: 489 people visited our page about voting in North Dakota!

Facebook

49.7k views
23.3k reach
5.3k content interaction
367 follows

We focused on crafting well-designed, helpful, and fun content to increase engagement. We posted 286 times this year.

Instagram

13k views
4.3k reach
1.3k content interaction
113 follows

Instagram Comment: "You all are rocking it, League of Women Voters!!"

Bonus Track

We can't encapsulate all we have done in just a few sections. Members and volunteers poured thousands of hours into our League in North Dakota this year. So, here it is: the bonus track! That extra fun song at the end of an album. This section holds some extras for those who would like an encore.