Come election season, the goal and mission of the League of Women Voters (LWV) is to educate voters on their local issues and candidates.

It was with this mission in mind that members of the LWV of Seattle-King County organized and moderated last week’s debate between Redmond’s mayoral candidates — incumbent John Marchione and challenger Steve Fields — at Emerald Heights.

“Our whole purpose is to educate,” said Ruth Werntz, who lives in the retirement community and has been a member of the league for about 50 years.

The debate came about after Emerald Heights administrators approached Werntz and asked her to find someone within the league to moderate the debate. She said the retirement community has hosted candidates’ meetings in the past, so they thought holding a debate would be the perfect opportunity to inform Emerald Heights residents on the mayoral election.

“We know that the people that live here vote,” Werntz said.

She said about 300 people attended the debate, adding that she was “extremely pleased” to see people from throughout Redmond — not just residents from the retirement community — show an interest and attend the debate.

Prior to the debate, audience members submitted questions to ask the candidates.

Judy Love, the LWV member who moderated the debate, said those questions ranged from Redmond traffic, to housing, to long-range planning.

“There were probably more questions about traffic than anything else,” said Werntz, who sorted out the questions to give to Love to ask Marchione and Fields.

Werntz added that they also received many questions regarding the schools and education system, but as city government does not have to do with the education system, they did not include those questions in the debate.

When asked what issues she was concerned about as a Redmond resident, Werntz said they were covered in the debate: traffic and how the city will work to be more inclusive of senior citizens.

Thinking back about the debate, Love said the audience knew the questions to ask and everyone — the crowd, as well as Marchione and Fields — remained civil throughout the evening.

“They were respectful to each other,” Werntz said.

She and Love, who lives in Issaquah, said both candidates came to the debate prepared. They said Marchione’s experience led him to have more to say, but Fields was also knowledgeable on the issues.

Werntz said she found the debate interesting as it showed the importance of experience, but also the importance of bringing in new voices to city government.

“I was pleased with the evening,” she said.

Love added, “So was I.”

She added that she would like to see more formats such as the debate during elections so people can learn more about what is going on in their communities.

In addition to organizing in-person events such as debates and candidate meetings, Love and Werntz said LWV also has a website, vote411.org, that provides voters with information on their local elections.