Multiple sources have indicated that part of a banner bearing the slogan “Register to Vote Democracy Depends On It!!” displayed at a voter registration table at the 2024 Sand and Sawdust Festival in Ocean Shores was ordered covered or rolled up so the tagline “Democracy Depends On It!!” was no longer visible.

The voter registration table was organized by Indivisible Ocean Shores (IOS). IOS members say Ocean Shores Mayor Frank Elduen ordered the tagline obscured.

According to IOS steering committee member Maria Van Horn, registering people to vote and voter education are high priorities for Indivisible Ocean Shores.

“One of our goals is to provide an opportunity for people to register to vote. We have been doing it for eight years. We do it at any activity where they can find us a little table,” Van Horn said. “We do it at the library, we’ve done it at the grocery store, we’ve done it at ACE Hardware. We try to target the festivals, especially the ones that the city sponsors, which are Sand and Sawdust and Hog Wild. It’s a nonpartisan activity. Indivisible does not represent any particular party, we never have and never will. That’s one of our goals too is to educate people. We meet with the Grays Harbor County Auditor once a year to get the most current application form, the most current rules and regulations, they give us material, we get the dates for the elections and the primaries, we have all that available to people.”

Van Horn said it is made very clear to IOS volunteers to maintain nonpartisanship while they staff voter registration tables. She said Mayor Elduen insisted members of the “other side” be afforded the opportunity to volunteer with IOS.

On the first day of the festival, Van Horn said a handful of presumed Republicans showed up unannounced to help at the table and then the banner’s tagline was obscured and literature was removed from the table. She maintains that Indivisible Ocean Shores did not pass out partisan materials at the festival.

“They never did produce anything that showed that we were giving out partisan information or information about our organization,” Van Horn said. “They made sure that that word was covered up, but they never told us ‘you can’t have that document out here,’ even though they were scouring our table they never came back and said ‘you can’t have that piece of paper on that table, that’s a partisan piece of paper,’ ever, but they made sure to come by every day and make sure the part that said ‘democracy depends on it’ was covered up.”

After the issue with the banner at the Sand and Sawdust Festival, IOS sent letters alleging a violation of free speech to various entities late last summer, including elected officials and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The letters stated, in part, “During the Sand and Sawdust event, things of a contentious manner began to unfold. 1) IOS displayed our ‘Register to Vote; Democracy Depends on It!!’ banner as always, but there was objection to the word ‘Democracy’ on the banner and Mayor Elduen and Sara Logan, City Clerk, required us to fold the bottom of the sign up so as to hide the words ‘Democracy Depends on It!!,’ saying ‘Democracy’ was a code word used by Democrats; 2) The Convention Center staff took a copy of our handouts at the table for no known reason. Later we learned that there was apparently a complaint about the word ‘democracy’ in the documents; and 3) After objection to the contents of the banner were voiced, we asked Mayor Elduen if we would have the freedom to display the banner if we had paid for the table and his answer was that he would have to ‘think about it.’ We feel all these actions were a violation of our civil rights by city government. Most notable in this situation is that the city was touting the premise that the word ‘democracy’ was a partisan expression and disallowed its appearance on the banner.”

Van Horn used the public comment period at the March 25 Ocean Shores City Council meeting to recall her experience at the 2024 Sand and Sawdust Festival. The banner at issue was on full display. According to Van Horn, IOS has been displaying the banner as part of their voter registration efforts for the better part of a decade without incident.

“Indivisible Ocean Shores has used this sign for over eight years to identify our approved voter registration booth. We have always performed this service as volunteers in a non-partisan way,” Van Horn said at the meeting. “We’ve never received any complaints until June of 2024 during last summer’s Sand and Sawdust Festival. The mayor and his staff told our group to cover up the word ‘democracy’ because it was offensive to some citizens and they complained. For longtime residents of Ocean Shores to be treated with such disrespect at the event was shocking.

“My ask, on behalf of Indivisible Ocean Shores, is to receive a written letter of apology from the mayor stating we did nothing wrong in displaying our banner. If we do not receive a letter of apology emailed followed by a hard copy by close of business on Friday, March 28, 2025, we will continue to take our concerns to the citizens of Ocean Shores so they are aware of what is happening in their community.”

They did not receive a letter by March 28.

The city’s response

In recent weeks, IOS has taken to the streets to stage a handful of protests against Elduen at different locations throughout the city, including the city’s offices at the James Building on Point Brown Avenue. These events prompted the city of Ocean Shores to issue a press release regarding the matter. And, with the increase in protests in the seaside town of approximately 7,500, including the April 5 “Hands Off” demonstration, Chief of Police Necci Logan and the Ocean Shores Police Department posted a list of RCWs governing protester conduct on their Facebook page.

“It’s bothersome to me that it seems like we’re going backwards when I thought we were actually getting some headway of healing the town. I’m hoping it’ll change, that we can come together,” Elduen said. “I don’t have an agenda for myself, I’m here to serve the public, that’s the most important thing to me. I’m not happy this is going on. I’m trying to bring everybody together but you gotta have people who are willing to do it.”

According to the city’s press release regarding the free speech issue, city officials went out of their way to accommodate IOS’ request for a table or booth at the Sand and Sawdust Festival for the purposes of voter registration at no charge to IOS.

“The Mayor wanted to utilize this opportunity to get different groups to work together for a greater outcome in the community and to build respectful relationships between neighbors, regardless of their personal feelings or political opinions. This is how the Community Engagement Committee was designed to operate and that has proven to be an overwhelming success,” the city’s press release said. “Since Indivisible Ocean Shores (IOS) supports the Democratic Party, the Mayor then approached a group who were supporters of the Republican Party and asked if they would participate in a nonpartisan voter registration drive. The fact that the Republican leaning group was there, even if they did show up unannounced, should not have come as a surprise since this condition was agreed upon at the initial meeting.”

Despite a vow to resist President Trump’s and the GOP’s agenda, Indivisible does not appear to explicitly align itself with the Democratic Party yet is very much left-wing.

According to the Capital Research Center’s Influence Watch, “The Indivisible Project (or Indivisible) is a left-of-center 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., and created in late 2016 as a response to the election of President Donald Trump. … Indivisible claims not to be a part of the Democratic Party establishment.”

Elduen says he is trying to bring people together and encourages citizens to reach across the proverbial aisle and engage with their neighbors despite any political ideological differences.

“We started that community engagement committee with people that were very negative about me, and they got on this committee with people that supported me and they’re doing all kinds of great stuff,” Elduen said. “I got picked on during the election for going to church, for having conservative values. But I also come from the labor side, I am very pro labor. I vote for democrats. I’m more of an in-the-middle type guy. Just because you support a conservative doesn’t mean you’re MAGA. I vote for people, I don’t vote for parties, that’s how I look at it.”

Ocean Shores City Administrator Scott Andersen said that partisan politics does not play a part in his working relationship with Elduen.

“The mayor and I have different politics. We come into this job every day. We look at each other and we say ‘what are we going to get done today?’” said Andersen. “That is not what our priority is is national politics, our priority is about helping the citizens of this city and getting things done. And we work together perfectly and we have very different politics. We have a diverse staff, we work together every day as a team to move the city forward.”

Andersen added he believes the nationwide political temperature is boiling over into small town America where partisan politics usually takes a backseat to civic priorities.

“I think the tensions and stresses you’re seeing in national politics are funnelling their way down,” Andersen said. “When you drive down the streets in Ocean Shores, everyone waves at you, people say ‘hi’ to each other. That’s the community we should be. Then you have the Facebook Ocean Shores, which is not day-to-day Ocean Shores, it’s a very different thing. I think a lot of these tensions at the national level are working their way down here and we’ve got a city that’s really determined to get things done for people, it’s not operating on an agenda.”

The city’s press release continued, “A heated electoral talking point during the recent presidential campaigns was the issue of whether or not Donald Trump intended to dismantle certain democratic principles. It was not the word ‘democracy’ itself that was in any way questionable; it was one party at the booth implying that the other party would govern undemocratically. The phrase ‘Democracy Depends on It!’ in this context was clearly a partisan political talking point. The nonpartisan agreement for the free voter registration booth was designed to avoid exactly this. The whole idea was to bring the community together, not divide it. This phrase had direct political implications and was therefore asked to be covered up.”

Although Democratic Party candidates seldom, if ever, use the word “democracy” in campaign slogans or taglines, concerns about a second Donald Trump presidency and attacks on democratic norms are evidenced in a paper titled: “TRUMP ON VOTING RIGHTS — Threatening Representational Equality, Restricting Voting Access, and Undermining the Integrity of Elections” published by the ACLU in July 2024. In February of 2017, The Washington Post adopted the slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” and replaced it in January 2025.

In a May of 2020 article for The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, Franita Tolson, Dean and Carl Mason Franklin Chair in Law, University of Southern California Gould School of Law, wrote, “The right to vote, for example, is considered the cornerstone of democratic legitimacy in our system. Yet our history is littered with examples of wrongful disenfranchisement against people of color, women, the disabled, the impoverished, and others from all walks of life, with state sanctioned violence and intimidation being used to deprive people of this most precious right. Today, we are still fighting these voting wars because the democratic norms that allowed for broader access to the ballot six decades ago have been easily eroded since they are not explicitly written in the text of the U.S. Constitution.”

Tolson’s critique would suggest that the fight to maintain democratic norms and the right to vote in the United States predates the rise of President Trump.

The city’s press release went on to state, “On the first day of the Sand and Sawdust event the General Manager of the Convention Center (George Lee) and the City Clerk witnessed partisan political materials promoting Indivisible Ocean Shores, (IOS) and expressing opposition to then-former President Donald Trump. These materials are prohibited at voter registration booths: ‘Partisan materials cannot be handed out or displayed if your organization is a 501(c)(3),’ which the republican group was. (See Vote WA to Registering Voters Guidelines).”

A search of the IRS’ website for tax-exempt organizations indicates that North Beach Republican Women (WA), the National Federation of Republican Women and Indivisible Ocean Shores do not have 501(c)(3) status. All three searches came back with “Your search did not return any results. Try again.” The national Indivisible organization claims both 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) status.

Differing accounts and viewpoints

During the public comment period at the April 8 City Council meeting Melissa Smith disputed Van Horn’s account of the events at the Sand and Sawdust Festival that were voiced at the March 25 meeting.

“I arrived with another person and we were immediately met with hostility and outrage. Mind you, neither one of us had said anything to anyone other than ‘hello,’” Smith recalled. “They were angry that we were there, and became quite loud and aggressive. On the table was a document titled: ‘Your Vote Does Count and Here’s Why.’ The first sentence says, ‘You live in a democracy.’ On the wall was a banner which reads, ‘Register to Vote Democracy Depends on It.’ These phrases about democracy are recognized as political talking points against one particular president and party. Although not noticed until later the following day every single clipboard used had a large sticker that read ‘Indivisibles’ which are known as liberals and democrats. They were told that the handout needed to be removed and the words ‘Democracy Depends On It’ must be rolled up so the sign simply reads ‘Register to Vote.’ More anger. More harsh words.”

Smith went on to try to illustrate the differences between a democracy and constitutional republic.

Van Horn then took to the podium to refute the city’s press release.

“One of Indivisible Ocean Shores’ goals is to protect democracy which is only successful if people register to vote,” Van Horn said. “Democracy is the issue. There is no difference between the word ‘democracy’ and ‘democracy depends on it,’ implied or otherwise. The issue I presented to you two weeks ago had nothing to do with volunteers from the ‘other side’ joining us that weekend. There is no other side at our voter registration booth. It has been and will remain nonpartisan.”

That April 8 public comment period, which began with an American history lesson from Nancy Milliman and an attempt to define “democracy” by Melissa Smith devolved into arguments and a break with decorum of which Van Horn and IOS were at the center. Prior to Van Horn’s turn, Mike Avolio turned and faced the audience and pointed while members of the audience flipped him off while he spoke. “If any of you want to walk outside and call me a Nazi, I’d be more than happy for you to come and talk to me and we’ll have that discussion out in the parking lot,” Avolio said. When Van Horn was finished at the podium, an argument ensued with another resident when she took a seat.

Elduen then cleared the room and the city council meeting resumed after a 10-minute recess.

Municipal sign code and free speech

During a discussion about proposed changes to the city’s municipal sign code which would prohibit temporary signs in the right-of-way, Attorney Lisa Marshall, filling in for Ocean Shores City Attorney Kendra Rosenberg, said, “Political signs receive the highest degree of protection under the First Amendment, the city cannot regulate speech, political speech is the highest form of speech.”

According to the Municipal Research and Services Center (MRSC), “Signs are a form of speech protected by the First Amendment. Local governments must therefore be careful in drafting and enforcing sign regulations so they do not infringe on a person’s right to free expression. The U.S. Supreme Court decision Reed v. Gilbert (2015) prompted most governments to significantly redraft their sign codes. In that decision, the court deemed the typical method of regulating signs by content-type (such as political, ideological, directional, etc.) unconstitutional. …

“The area of sign regulation most impacted by the Reed decision is the regulation of temporary signs — and more specifically, non-commercial temporary signs. This is generally inclusive of political, ideological, temporary events, community, and directional signs.”

The discussion about changes to the city’s sign code mentioned “city-owned” property in the context of public right-of-ways and not tables or booths at event venues such as the convention center.

The definition of democracy

Merriam Webster defines the word “democracy” as “government by the people: rule of the majority;” “a form of government in which the people elect representatives to make decisions, policies, laws, etc. according to law;” “a form of government in which the people vote directly against or in favor of decisions, policies, laws, etc.”

National Geographic’s encyclopedic entry on the creation of the first democracy in Ancient Greece states, “Democracy is the idea that the citizens of a country should take an active role in the government of their country and manage it directly or through elected representatives. In addition, it supports the idea that the people can replace their government through peaceful transfers of power rather than violent uprising or revolution. Thus, a key part of democracy is that the people have a voice.”

However, some have found the word to be pejorative and insist that the United States of America is not a “democracy,” and believe the term to be a slogan or catchphrase of the Democratic Party. Although the United States, governed by the U.S. Constitution, is technically a “republic,” numerous institutions describe and define and use democracy and republic interchangeably. Take the Center for American Civics at Arizona State University for example. Their Civic Literacy Curriculum uses the terms “Principles of the American Republic” and “Principles of American Democracy” in their online study guide.

A “Government and You” handout provided by the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services office states at the very top, “The United States is a representative democracy. This means that our government is elected by citizens. Here, citizens vote for their government officials. These officials represent the citizens’ ideas and concerns in government. Voting is one way to participate in our democracy.”

Nonpartisan grassroots organization RepresentUs says, “The United States is both a democracy and a republic. … Yes, the United States is a democracy, since we, the people, hold the ultimate political power. We’re not a ‘direct democracy,’ but we are a ‘representative democracy.’ … In practice, the word ‘republic’ has the same meaning as the term ‘representative democracy.’”

The U.S Embassy in Argentina states “constitutional federal republic” is more accurate, while a Mormon Women for Ethical Government article says, “The U.S. is a constitutional, federal republic working under principles of democracy.”

In a 2017 article, Ryan McMaken, executive editor at the Mises Institute, wrote, “The claim that the United States political system is ‘a republic, not a democracy’ is often heard in libertarian and conservative circles, and is typically invoked whenever the term ‘democracy’ is used in any favorable context. … in contemporary usage, there is no relevant difference between the words ‘republic’ and ‘democracy.’”

Meanwhile, at the heart of the issue, the National Archives summarizes the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution this way, “The First Amendment provides several rights protections: to express ideas through speech and the press, to assemble or gather with a group to protest or for other reasons, and to ask the government to fix problems. It also protects the right to religious beliefs and practices. It prevents the government from creating or favoring a religion.”

The importance of voter registration

“We don’t want this to happen again, we would like to be at Sand and Sawdust this year at a free booth, and if (Elduen) wants others (to) come, they just need to talk to us ahead of time,” Van Horn said. “We want to provide this service but we don’t want to go through this agony to do it. Democracy doesn’t work unless people register to vote. The whole idea of a democracy is because we vote (for) people to represent us. Without voters there is no democracy. That’s why it depends on voter registration. Being a registered voter is what protects democracy.”

According to A Healthier Democracy, “In the United States, a staggering 72 million Americans are eligible to vote but remain unregistered.” U.S. News & World Report reported nearly 90 million Americans did not vote in the most recent general election. That’s almost 162 million people who chose not to participate in the electoral process in 2024.