DC Residents Protest Lack of Vote

"When I grow up I want to be a U.S. Senator, but I can't because I'm a citizen of Washington, D.C.," 12-year-old Renae Little said over the loud speakers echoing through Farragut Square in front of more than 200 protestors at a Taxation Without Representation rally Monday.

Additionally several demonstrators declared that constitutional violations have been imposed upon D.C. voters, as they have supported medicinal marijuana initiatives and opposed the death penalty in the District, and claimed that federal mandates have overridden local legislation. District residents also burned copies of their tax returns, in symbolic protest to what they see as their lack of input on how tax dollars are spent. The protest was sponsored by a broad based coalition of organizations including DC Vote, Committee for the Capital City, D.C. Democracy Fund, Free D.C., Stand Up For Democracy, and the Statehood Solidarity Committee. Speakers included Mayor Anthony Williams, D.C. City Council Chairwoman Linda Cropp and D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who has no vote on the House floor.

Daniel Solomon, chair of the headlining organization D.C. Vote, said that there are three main options for the District to achieve voting rights. The first of these calls for Congress to pass legislature under the "District Clause" of the Constitution, which enables Congress to grant voting representation. An alternative suggests D.C. incorporation into Maryland as a new county, as the District is approximately the size of a federal congressional district, and this would allow for representation through state government.

Another controversial option calls for full statehood, a move that would establish Washington D.C. as the 51st state in the Union. "Reunion and incorporation into Maryland appears to be the most politically and economically feasible solution," John Forester, of the Committee For the Capital City, said. "Statehood would not be politically viable, as it would establish two Democratic, urban Senators, while the city itself simply isn't large enough to be considered a state." Supporters of this alternative assert that incorporation would provide more resources for the state of Maryland and would only bolster the state. Advocates of the Voting Rights Bill under the District Clause maintain that it is outlined within the Constitution to allow for D.C. independence and can be achieved through a simple congressional majority.

Protest participant and AU student Timothy Sini said that the issue is difficult to debate. "Because it is a Constitutional matter, it becomes a much more substantial legal argument with no clear foothold," he said.

Sini, a former employee for a private law firm strongly in favor of D.C. independence, continued, "the denial of D.C. citizens' voting rights is nothing more than taxation without representation."

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