NOW Demands Voting Rights for D.C. Residents

April 17, 2007

By Lisa Bennett, Communications Director

NOW activists at the April 16 march for D.C. voting rights.

NOW leaders and activists joined a crowd of thousands to march for voting rights in Washington, D.C., on April 16. Despite the blustery cold and rain, participants were fired up, chanting "Free D.C.! Free D.C.!" The Washington Post called it the largest demonstration for full representation in the District of Columbia in decades, possibly ever.

Organized by the group DC Vote, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), and local political leaders, the action was held on Emancipation Day, a date that marks the freeing of the slaves in the District.

This week the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on H.R.328, a bill sponsored by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), which would finally give the District one full voting seat in the House. Because D.C. is not an official state, its residents have never been granted the basic right of voting representation in the Congress, even though they pay the same federal taxes as the residents of every other state. Until 1961, D.C. residents didn't even have the right to vote in presidential elections!

Currently, the District is represented in Congress by Delegate Norton, who can serve on committees but cannot participate in floor votes. To balance the introduction of a vote for D.C., the proposed legislation would provide Utah, a traditionally Republican state, with a fourth seat in Congress, increasing the total number of seats from 435 to 437.

Granting D.C. "statehood" would give the District two senators and one representative in Congress, but H.R.328 doesn't go that far. This legislation is seen as the first step in bringing democracy to Washington.

"How could the United States Congress deny voting representation to the residents of our nation's capital?" asks NOW President Kim Gandy. "I believe racism and partisanship are at work, plain and simple. The population of Washington, D.C., is more than half African-American and is politically progressive and predominantly Democratic. The fear that residents would consistently elect African-American, progressive representatives and senators, likely Democrats, has blocked our progress for decades. But we are finally seeing daylight with this new Congress."

If passed in the House, the bill would next go to the Senate, where it is expected to meet greater resistance. Not surprisingly, George W. Bush appears poised to veto the bill, should it make it through both chambers.

In 1978, NOW members voted to support full representation for the residents of D.C. The resolution stated that "feminists have always recognized and fought for universal suffrage as a basic human right" and called the lack of voting rights in the District a "gross injustice."

"D.C. statehood is a feminist issue," says Gandy. "When any group of people is refused representation in their government, they lack the power to control their lives. NOW's vision of equality includes voting rights for all."