Activisits Push For D.C. Representation

By Laura Smith, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

Today, DC Vote hosted I Am DC on Capitol Hill and urged Congress to pass the DC Voting Rights Act. The act will allow DC residents to vote like other U.S. citizens, and protect gun restrictions in the District.

Since Washington D.C. is not a state, voters do not have full representation in Congress.

Ilir Zherka, DC Vote Executive Director, said he is frequently asked by reporters if he’s optimistic that the bill will be passed. “We’re determined to get it passed. Optimism doesn’t have anything to do with it. We’re determined, and we’re going to get this done,” he said.

DC Vote was founded in 1998 and they are committed to get voter representation for the half million people of the District of Columbia.

Zherka is confident the legislation will pass through Congress. “We have the votes in the House and we had the votes in the Senate and we have a president who will sign this bill. So we need to get this [bill passed], and that’s what we’re going to do,” he said.

He said they were also taking on opponents head on who were promoting the gun amendment and people who want to wipe away the city’s ability to regulate guns, and that DC Vote would defend the city.

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said that efforts are underway to get enough votes for a “clean bill”. “Despite their best efforts, some Democrats still feared the [National Rifle Association] and leaders came to us in June and sadly said, ‘Look, there are two choices. It’s up to you. It’s up to DC. You’ve fought a long fight. You can go to the floor now, and accept the trade-off of the vote… all you have worked so hard for, which is what you want. You can accept that, with an amendment that wipes away all of DC’s gun laws.’

“Or, they said, we still have time. So you can try on your own to find a way to get a bill that you can live with,” Norton said.

Congressional supporters of the bill believe they could not “give up to guns and NRA blackmail” without making an effort to see if they could find a better way, Norton said. “We knew we owed it to our city to make that effort, and what we are finding makes us certain that we made the right decision. And so did DC Vote,” she said.

In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that DC’s 32-year-old ban on firearms was unconstitutional. Firearms are still banned in the District, except in instances of self defense inside the home.