LYNNWOOD — The League of Women Voters of Snohomish County opened its second year of Constitution Day community readings marking 239 years since delegates signed the United States Constitution in Philadelphia.
On September 17, in the chamber of the Edmonds School District Administrative Building, community members took turns reading sections of the Constitution and then the Bill of Rights aloud.
Lynnwood Times was among the co-hosts and among the readers. So were Larry Vogel of MyEdmondsNews, Kim Hunter, Ali Eden, Doreen Duvall, Lisa Watson, Jayce Crown, Tracy Little and Karsen Mosman. Three of the readers, Lynnwood City Councilmember David Parshall, Dena Singleton and Edmonds Heights student Finn McKeown, shared with the Lynnwood Times the importance of why they participated.
Councilman Parshall had already read at the Lynnwood Senior Center earlier on Thursday making this his second Constitution Day stop. A former high school social studies and civics teacher, he said the document is still one of his favorite things to teach.
“I just want to come out and kind of just bask in that Constitution goodness again,” Parshall said.
Asked what he feels most connected to as an elected official who has sworn an oath, Parshall declined to rank clauses but pointed to the Bill of Rights, then to the opening words of the preamble of the Constitution, “We the People.”
“I love just the opening, the preamble, just talking about we the people,” he said. “I think if you’re an elected official, it’s always important to remember that the people are where the power is derived from, and that’s who we’re out here working for.”
Singleton, a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, founded in 1913 with a public-service mission that has long included voting rights, read Section 8. The chapter, she said, marched for women’s suffrage when Black women still could not vote and recently joined the multi-state lawsuit against the U.S. Postal Service new rule for mail-in ballots.
The Delta Sigma Theta Sorority is a named plaintiff in League of Women Voters of Massachusetts et al. v. Trump et al., filed in U.S. District Court in Boston (No. 1:26-cv-11549).
That rule, published in late August as “Ballot Mail for Federal Elections,” would have changed how mail ballots traverse USPS. States that send federal ballots through the mail would have had to use Postal Service–approved envelopes with unique barcodes, upload each intended recipient’s name, address and barcode data into a federal portal, and keep voters on a state-by-state mail-participation list. Ballots that did not match the list could be refused in transit.
The Trump administration called the rule a modest integrity and design standard; whereas plaintiffs, including AG Nick Brown and Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, called it an election-administration power grab the Postal Service did not have.
The Supreme Court on September 14 denied the Trump administration’s emergency application to stay a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking the USPS “Ballot Mail for Federal Elections” rule for the 2026 midterms.
Singleton shared with the Lynnwood Times that her sorority is nonpartisan but not passive.
“Everyone has to know what their rights are,” Singleton told the Lynnwood Times. “Everyone should spend time and energy trying to make this a better place to be.”
Adding, “I used to be three-fifths of a person. Even though I wasn’t alive, my people were alive and we’re three-fifths of a people. And so now I am a whole person. My vote is, one vote is equal to everyone.”
She wants young women and young men to see people of color in rooms like this one, naming their rights out loud.
“There are hard times right now. And it’s easy to be discouraged. And you can’t be discouraged,” Singleton said. “You’ve got to know that even when it’s hard, just continue to try, continue to be out there. … Don’t cry. Vote. Don’t be sad. Vote.”
Show up, she said, as showing up is half the battle.
Finn McKeown, a student at Edmonds Heights K-12, read the Preamble. His father, Jeff, came with him but said the idea to participate was his son’s.
“I really like history, and the Constitution is a thing that we haven’t learned too much about in school, so I thought it would be important to learn more about it,” Finn told the Lynnwood Times.
He is drawn to History because it is the foundation of which governs society.
“It’s the basis for everything that you learn about because everything has a history,” Finn said. “So, it’s a very broad subject so you can learn about almost anything with history.”
Outside school he tap dances at Alderwood Dance Spectrum and also likes math and science.
The League of Women Voters of Snohomish County is a nonpartisan Everett-based organization that works to help people take part in government with their eyes open.
Co-hosts this year include the American Association of University Women, the city of Mountlake Terrace, The Daily Herald, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Edmonds School District, Edmonds United Methodist Church Political Action Group, Everett Public Library Evergreen Branch, Faith Action Network, KSER, Lynnwood Times, My Neighborhood News Group, Sno-Isle Libraries and the Snohomish County Tribune.
The League is currently promoting “Get to known Washington Supreme Court Candidates” Q&A videos to help inform voters to making a decision by the November 3 election.
Author: Mario Lotmore
