To preserve the League’s credibility as a nonpartisan organization, and to avoid any appearance of bias, moderators and timers for these forums shall not have contributed to, endorsed, or publicly supported any of the candidates participating in the forum in which they are moderating or timing.

This policy applies to individual events and circumstances. It will only apply to a forum where a moderator or timer may have endorsed, publicly supported or donated to a specific candidate in that forum. A moderator or timer may have a conflict in one candidate forum, but not in another and will still be able to moderate.

A forum shall not be conducted if there is a single candidate participating. This is called an empty chair situation. If a candidate cancels in time to allow the League to make other arrangements, the League should attempt to reschedule that forum.

In primary races with more than two candidates, a forum may be held if more than one candidate is willing to participate. For example, if there are five candidates for a position in the primary, but only two agree to participate, the forum may still be held. To achieve this, we invite all candidates as early as possible and we strive to obtain commitments early. We make every effort to encourage candidates to participate and to reschedule if necessary.

The forum committee may consider a write in candidate as a participant in a candidate forum, if
they meet the following: (1) the candidate must have officially filed and paid any fee to the county
elections office in accordance with RCW 29A.24.311; and (2) there must be an active campaign on
behalf of the write-in candidate.

If a write-in candidate participates in a forum, the moderate must announce in advance that the
write in candidate’s name will not appear on the ballot and ballots for the write in candidate will
only be counted if they meet the requirements in RCW 29A.60.021(7) or (8).