Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi requesting an early vote on the D.C. Voting Rights Act. Although Norton's office was in touch with the offices of the leaders of both the House and the Senate immediately following the Nov. 4th elections, she used her letter to pass on the suggestion of Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, that a date close to February 12^th, the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth and the centennial of the NAACP's founding, would be especially appropriate.  "We fully understand the weight of the unprecedented issues that confront you and the new Congress.  However, we believe that with an even larger Democratic majority here and in the Senate, and a party committed to this issue in its platform, the District of Columbia Voting Rights Act should be an easy, bipartisan vote in both the House and Senate," Norton said in the letter.

            The Congresswoman's District of Columbia Voting Rights Act passed the House in 2007 and came within three votes of the 60 votes required in the Senate.  Now, with seven of the Republican senators who opposed her bill replaced by Democrats, Norton expects Senate passage.  She said the national D.C. voting rights coalition also is pressing for an early vote and cited the Veteran's Day rally held by DC Vote in her letter.  The Congresswoman is particularly encouraged by her conversations during the primaries with President-elect Barack Obama, who cosponsored the bill in the Senate.   The D.C. City Council also continues its leadership role by sending a letter this week to President-elect Barack Obama, asking him to use D.C.'s "Taxation without Representation," license plates on his presidential limousine as he rides down Pennsylvania Avenue in the inauguration parade after being sworn in. 

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