Our legal structure, operating rules, financial commitments, and the records we make public.
League of Constitutional Voters is a Washington nonprofit corporation, UBI No. 606 274 233, incorporated effective August 12, 2026 and governed by the Washington Nonprofit Corporation Act, chapter 24.03A RCW. We are absolutely nonpartisan: the League endorses no candidate, opposes no candidate, takes no position on any question of public policy, and gives no money to any campaign, party, or political committee. That is not a slogan; it is written into our charter, and it can be changed only by two thirds of all of our members.
The League is preparing its application to the IRS for recognition as a tax-exempt charity under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Our Articles of Incorporation are the League's charter, filed with the Washington Secretary of State. They do five things. They limit the League's purposes to charitable and educational work under section 501(c)(3): teaching how government works, publishing who is on the ballot, presenting every candidate on equal terms, teaching anyone how to run, and educating young citizens. They make nonpartisanship charter law: no endorsements, no positions, no political contributions, no political committee, and no affiliated 501(c)(4) or PAC, ever, changeable only by two thirds of all members. They forbid private benefit and substantial lobbying. They provide for members, one class, one vote each, at every tier. And if the League ever dissolves, they dedicate every remaining asset to nonpartisan civic education or to government, never to any member, director, or officer.
The Bylaws are the League's operating rules, and their first article is the nonpartisanship article. It requires that every candidate who qualifies for the ballot in a race we cover receive the identical invitation, the identical questions, the identical time, and the identical placement, with a written log kept to prove it; it bars anyone from endorsing or opposing anything in the League's name; and it requires any League leader who becomes a candidate, or who takes a role in a campaign, to step away from every League role until the election is certified. Beyond that first article, the Bylaws provide for one class of members with one vote each; a member-elected board with a seat reserved for a director under thirty; chapters that operate as divisions of the League under a signed charter, never as separate political outfits; mandatory training for everyone who leads, moderates, or edits in the League's name; published program standards for forums, voter guides, and the Empty Ballot List; and public records, including these governance documents, our annual financial report, and our federal information return.
The 93-cent pledge. Our goal is that administrative overhead (state and federal filings, insurance, banking, accounting, and legal fees) not exceed the greater of seven percent of revenue or eight thousand dollars in any year, so that as the League grows, at least 93 cents of every dollar goes to programs. The floor exists because a brand-new organization has fixed costs before it has revenue; the percentage takes over as the League grows. The Treasurer reports against this goal at every board meeting and in the annual financial report, and if we ever miss it, the same report will say so and explain the plan to return to it. We will not silently reclassify our way to the number.
The Expansion Fund. Growth is a program, not overhead. Every year the League sets aside at least the greater of ten percent of gross revenue or five dollars per member into an Expansion Fund spent only on starting and supporting chapters: charter kits, training, Empty Ballot Tour stops, Filing Week micro-grants, and youth programs, with priority to counties and states that do not yet have a chapter. Unspent balances carry forward. Nothing spent from the Fund counts toward the administrative goal, because none of it is administration.
Controls. Two signatures on any disbursement over five hundred dollars. Fidelity coverage for everyone who handles funds. No compensation to any officer until revenue crosses a published threshold, and then only as approved in advance by disinterested directors using comparability data, under the federal rebuttable-presumption procedure. No League dollar to any candidate, party, or political committee, for any purpose, ever.
The League keeps the following available to any member on request and to the public on this website: the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws as amended; the Equal-Treatment Standard; the compensation ladder; the annual financial report; the annual federal information return once filed; the list of chartered chapters and their officers; and the annual Contested Ballot Report. Corrections to any League publication are published, not silently made.
Do not take our word for any of this. Look the League up in the Washington Secretary of State's Corporations and Charities Filing System by our UBI number, 606 274 233, where every document we have filed is public.
Our Articles were restated to write the League's nonpartisanship into the charter itself and to bring the document to the IRS's standard for 501(c)(3) recognition.
Neither, and our charter makes it illegal for us to be either. We do not endorse, oppose, rate, or score any candidate or party, and we take no position on any policy question. What we do is arithmetic: we publish which offices are on the ballot, who filed for them, and which races have no contest at all, and we teach anyone, of any party or none, how the offices work and how to run for them.
Any person sixteen or older who supports our purposes and agrees to our nonpartisanship rules, regardless of party, registration, citizenship, or residence. Every member has exactly one vote, whatever they pay or give.
See our financial promises above: at least 93 cents of every dollar to programs as we grow, an Expansion Fund that treats growth as a program, published books, and published reports.