National Call-In Day for DC Voting Rights
For months the Senate has been pressured by voting rights advocates to take action on the DC House Voting Rights Act. Senator Reid has committed to bring the bill up for a vote next Tuesday! Your help is needed now to ensure Senators hear from their constituents around the country. PDA is partnering with DC Vote and other election integrity activists to ensure its passage.
Call your Senators on Monday, September 17, from 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EDT, at this toll-free number: 1.866.346.3008. Tell them "Give D.C. the vote-End taxation without representation."
Your voice of support is critical, and we need you to enlist as many friends and family members as possible to help out too! Please forward this important call to action to five friends or family members across the country.
Let's flood Senate offices with calls from DC voting rights supporters demanding the vote for the nearly 600,000 Americans living in the nation's capital.
Mark your calendar:
National Call-In Day for DC Voting Rights
Monday, September 17
Between 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EDT
1.866.346.3008 (Toll free!)
It is especially important for Arizona residents to contact Sen. John McCain. McCain is key to moving this legislation forward.
This is the first time in nearly 30 years that a DC voting rights bill will be before the Senate for a vote. We need support from every Senator to pass the DC House Voting Rights Act. Your calls and continued support are crucial in the demand to bring democracy to the citizens of DC!
Thank you!
Tim Carpenter
Executive Director
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Anne,
Are you supporting this bill????????????...................Scott
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No, I am not, Scott.
I have several reasons for not supporting the bill to give DC voting representation in the House:
1) Even if it passes the Senate, and Mr. Bush signs it (he has promised to veto), it still does not solve the basic inequality problem. All these arrangements, even if they are constitutional--which I don't believe--are revocable with the next shift in the political winds. Statehood is irrevocable, puts the State of New Columbia on par with the rest of the United States, including representation in the Senate as well as the House.
2) I do not think that the bill is constitutional. The Supreme Court has been clear in the past on issues related to representation in Congress. It says the STATES shall be represented. The current argument that this is constitutional is that Congress has exclusive jurisdiction over the District of Columbia so it can do what it wants. I think that this thinking will be overturned because the issue of representation of states is so powerful, and the impact of this move by Congress would be to affect all of the states by reducing their influence.
3) In the meantime, the bill calls for another seat in the House for Utah. This is out of sequence with the census, could possibly create a precedent for future shenanigans, and since it IS a state, could possibly keep its seat even if the one for DC is determined to be unconstitutional.
4) Finally, without becoming an equal partner with other states, and with DC still being under the complete jurisdiction of the Congress, our vote would only be one unequal vote in a sea of others, so it would not do much to help our capacity to have control over our local issues like being a state would. And, with the symbolic "vote in Congress," the issues of inequality become much more complicated to discuss. DC Vote, which is pushing this bill, believes that we can get equality incrementally. I would hope so, but that is not what my experience has shown me since I moved to DC in 1964.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
Love, Anne
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