Fighting for the D.C. Vote


By Angela Swinson Lee
The Washington Informer
November 26, 2008

For several years now, city leaders and activists have pushed lawmakers to give residents of the District of Columbia a vote in Congress, and with President-elect Barack Obama's recent victory, many are hoping their efforts will soon become a reality.

"We're very hopeful about victory in 2009. Our goal is to push them to make the issue a priority in 09," said Jaline Quinto, communications manager for D.C. Vote, a nonprofit education and advocacy group that has worked to secure full voting representation in Congress for residents of the District since 1998.

"I think at the heart of it is, there are more than half a million people living in the country that are denied a voice. You are denying them a vote on critical issues."
 

During the presidential campaign, Obama made comments that indicated his support for representation in Congress for the District. The D.C. voting rights bill passed in the House of Representatives in April 2007, but was met with a filibuster in the Senate.

"The voting rights act is legislation that the majority of Congress is familiar with. We are really hoping to push this bill which is incremental steps toward representation," Quinto said.

The group said that denying residents the right to a voice in the House and Senate affects them in various ways. Those who have served in the military fight and die for their country, have no voice when Congress votes to send them to war. They also say District residents pay the second highest per capita federal income taxes in the country, but have no say in how the government spends their money.

With education, parents, teachers and community leaders do not have a voice in the shaping of education policies and academic standards.

"Local laws, passed by locally elected officials, are routinely overruled by members of Congress pursuing their own personal agendas without regard for the welfare of D.C. residents," D.C. Vote's Web site said.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), who has long championed for voting rights for the District, released a statement shortly after Obama's victory that said in addition to the American people, the historic victory could have a greater impact on District residents.

"After 209 years, District residents will have not only a president who has already changed America, and the president that our residents most wanted, but they will have a Democratic president, who, as senator, co-sponsored the District of Columbia Voting Rights Act, and has told me he will sign our bill," Norton said in a statement.

At one time the push was for D.C. statehood, but until the District pays for all state functions, that is no longer possible. Instead, advocates have pushed for congressional voting rights.

"The change in the national government can open the path to a true democratic transformation in the District of Columbia. Our goal should be to go the full way to complete democracy for the 600,000 Americans who live in our nation's capital. We can make 2009 the year of the clean sweep for democracy in hometown D.C.," Norton said.

"For D.C., [we need] voting rights and full self-government, too, after centuries of unceasing and hard work."