Linda Harris honored for years of voter outreach in Lewisburg area

Lewisburg voters who compared candidates, checked a ballot or learned a new voting machine were seeing the kind of work Linda Harris helped make possible. The League of Women Voters of the Lewisburg Area honored Harris with its 2026 Jill Reynolds Award for years of voter outreach and civic service that kept local democracy easier to navigate in Lewisburg and across Union County.

Harris had been a League member for 11 years and served nine years on the board, giving her a long run in the day-to-day work that rarely gets public attention. Her service included helping coordinate candidate forums, distribute voter guides, support voting machine trainings and advance broader voter education efforts. The League’s recognition put a spotlight on that behind-the-scenes labor, the kind that helps residents show up informed when borough, township, school district and county decisions are on the line.

That work matters in Union County, where Lewisburg serves as the county seat and where the League says it serves Lewisburg and all of Union County as a nonpartisan organization that does not support or oppose any political party or candidate. The county’s population was 42,681 in the 2020 Census, with estimated totals of 42,159 in July 2024 and 42,313 in July 2025. In a county that size, civic information can travel only as far as the volunteers who prepare it, explain it and bring residents into the process.

The League also named Harris to one of four members of a new Observer Corps in February 2026. The group, which included Teri MacBride, Susan Mathias and Mary Zimmerman, was set to attend Union County Election Office meetings and report back to the membership, extending the League’s role beyond voter education into election oversight and civic monitoring.

Harris’s honor also fits a longer local pattern. The Jill Reynolds Service Award is presented at the League’s annual meeting, and the recipient’s name is engraved on the Jill Reynolds Service Award Silver Cup. Dawn Maneval received the award in 2021 for voter-services work, especially publications and educational materials. This spring, the League also said Vote411 launched on April 8 to help voters preview ballots and candidate responses, another tool that depends on the same steady volunteer infrastructure Harris helped build. The award marked not just one member’s service, but the civic pipeline that keeps local elections understandable, accessible and rooted in Union County.