One page. Every event. Every guide. Provable, not promised.
Nonpartisanship that lives in a mission statement is a promise. Nonpartisanship that lives in a checklist, a log, and a certified moderator is a fact. This is the checklist. Every chapter runs every meet-and-greet, forum, and voter guide to it, keeps the log, and can show the log to any candidate who asks.
Every candidate in a race, or the race is not covered.
Adopted by the Board under Article IX of the Bylaws. Reviewed annually. Applies to every meet-and-greet, forum, and voter guide of the League and every chapter.
Every candidate who has qualified for the ballot in a race the League covers receives an identical written invitation, sent the same day by the same method, with proof of delivery kept. Races are covered whole: every candidate in a race, or the race is not covered.
Questions are written by certified members who are not candidates, campaign participants, or officers of any political committee. Questions cover a broad range of subjects relevant to the office — its duties, budget, meetings, decisions, and the qualifications the candidate brings — and never concentrate on a single issue or evidence a preference on any issue.
The same questions, the same time, the same placement, the same seating, the same microphone. Speaking order is drawn at random or set alphabetically, and the method is announced before the event.
Keeps time, reads the questions as written, and says nothing else. The moderator does not comment on any question or answer, does not imply approval or disapproval, and does not permit the audience to turn a question into a statement.
No candidate is asked to agree or disagree with any position, agenda, platform, pledge, or statement of the League or anyone else. The League has no positions.
Voter-guide responses are printed unedited and in full, within any stated word limit applied equally. A candidate who declines or does not respond is listed as “no response,” with no commentary.
No endorsement, rating, ranking, scoring, or comparison by the League or by anyone speaking in a League role. No League money, list, room, or name to any candidate, party, or political committee. No fundraising for or by any candidate at a League event.
For every event and guide: the invitation log with dates and delivery proof, the RSVP record, the question set and who wrote it, the speaking-order draw, and the published responses. The log is available to any candidate in the race on request and to the Board at any time.
Only a member holding current Moderator Certification may moderate a League event or edit a League voter guide. Anyone who becomes a candidate, or takes a paid or titled campaign role, steps away from every League role until the election is certified.
The Standard is adopted by the Board under Article IX of the Bylaws, reviewed every year, and published here. It is built on the factors the IRS uses to distinguish nonpartisan voter education from campaign intervention (Rev. Rul. 2007-41; Rev. Rul. 78-248). If you believe a League event or guide fell short of it, write to us; corrections are published, not made silently.
One page, for every kit and every officer.
The League endorses, rates, ranks, scores, supports, or opposes no candidate and no party, and takes no position on any policy question — Article I, amendable only by two-thirds of all members.
Every ballot-qualified candidate in a covered race gets the identical invitation, questions, time, and placement; responses run unedited; “no response” carries no comment; the log is kept.
Questions are written by people who are not candidates or campaign participants and cover the full scope of the office; the moderator does not comment; no one is asked to agree or disagree with anything.
Learn to Run is open to anyone, screens no one, tracks no one by party, balances its faculty across parties on the same panel, and ends when instruction ends.
The Empty Ballot List is complete and mechanical — every under-filed office, regardless of who holds it. The League recruits for seats, never against people.
No League money, list, room, or name goes to any candidate, party, or political committee, for any purpose, at any price.
A member’s own politics are the member’s own. Speaking for the League — by role, title, or banner — is nonpartisan or it is not done. Anyone who becomes a candidate or joins a campaign steps away from every League role until the election is certified.
Youth programs use no real party, platform, or issue position; no candidate serves as faculty, judge, or counselor in an election year; contest rubrics award nothing for the position taken.
Scholarships and grants are awarded on written, objective, nondiscriminatory criteria by people unrelated to the applicants, and the record is kept.
Every number the League publishes is dated, sourced, and never rounded up. Corrections are published, not made silently.
Only a member holding current Moderator Certification may moderate a League event or edit a League voter guide. Certification covers the Standard and a practicum, and is valid two years. Certified moderators are listed on each county page, so any candidate can check before an event.