D.C. residents fight for voting rights

Posted by University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service on January 27, 2009 |

In a U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary hearing on H.R. 157, the “District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009,” heartfelt stories were told and frustrations were let out.

Even though the District of Columbia is considered the heart of the U.S., the people of D.C. do not have the same voting rights as do others in the other 50 states. D.C. residents do not have voting representation in the U.S. Congress or Senate, instead they are represented in the House of Representatives by a non-voting delegate.

D.C. native and U.S. Army Guard Captain in the D.C. National Guard, Yolanda O. Lee said “I am proud to be an American. I am proud to be a Washingtonian and I am proud to be a soldier. That will never change but I ask you to change my status as an American citizen who pays taxes and serves in war and peace, but is entitled only to a non-voting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives. I ask for your support of the D.C. House Voting Rights Act.”

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said “Some of you believe that our founding fathers as all of us do had a pretty good handle on what they intended to do. Their voice in the election of the government which is to exercise authority over them. And that some 600,000 of our fellow citizens do not have that right. But where is that equal voice today? The people in the District were represented in Congress under the constitution until the Capitol moved here and their vote was taken from them.”

Other witness list panelists like Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) argued against the act. “The constitution must come first.” said Chaffetz.

 

 House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

January 27, 2009

3 Responses to “D.C. residents fight for voting rights”

1. citizenw Says:
   January 28th, 2009 at 9:50 am

   The principles of full suffrage were clearly laid out by George Mason in the Virginia Declaration of Rights, June, 1776:

   “6. That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people in assembly ought to be free; and that all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the community have the right of suffrage and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for public uses without their own consent or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assented, for the public good. ”

   Those rights of suffrage are timeless, indestructible, INALIENABLE; ie, innate, inherent, intrinsic. They cannot be bought, sold, taken away, or traded, whether for a bowl of pottage or for freedom from taxes. At most, they may fail to be recognized or respected…that is what has been happening for the last 200-plus years with regard to DC.

   Please note also, that Senator Steny Hoyer, representing the people of the state of Maryland, made absolutely no effort, to my knowledge, to advance the idea of retrocession of DC to Maryland.

2. arc Says:
   January 28th, 2009 at 11:42 am

   When part of D.C. went to Virginia, it was the residents of D.C. that pushed for it. The area was being forgotten. I believe the current residents of D.C. would be better off with Maryland. That is the way this should go. Rep. Chaffetz is correct.

3. citizenw Says:
   January 29th, 2009 at 9:49 am

   arc Says:
   “I believe the current residents of D.C. would be better off with Maryland.”

   arc, tell that to Maryland. Maryland Senator Steny Hoyer, representing the residents of Maryland, made no effort to push retrocession