“It’s the most preposterous, offensive thing I could think of,” said George Washington University senior Josh Bumpus, 22. Bumpus changed his voter registration from Florida to D.C. two years ago, and in doing so lost the right to elect voting representatives in Congress.
According to the Constitution, only states may have full representation in Congress. As a non-state, the District of Columbia is permitted one non-voting representative in the House of Representatives. This representative can vote in committee and engage in debate, but has no actual vote for passing a bill in the House.
Thus there are more than 500,000 Americans living in Washington, D.C. who have fewer voting rights than citizens in the rest of the country.
“My mother thought I was stupid [for registering in D.C.] because I wouldn’t have a representative or senator,” said Bumpus. “But I would rather be registered where I live.”
Bumpus came to this conclusion after the 2004 presidential election. He was unable to vote that year because he never received his absentee ballot from Florida.
“It’s a practical issue,” he said. “I didn’t want to not be able to vote.”
American University student Nick Clayton, 20, said he also feels it is important to vote local, but for different reasons. Clayton, who is originally from Kansas, changed his registration to D.C. one year ago.
“Neither D.C. nor Kansas has any chance of becoming swing states any time soon, and therefore my vote in either place on the national level was not really going to have an impact,” said Clayton. “I did want to be able to vote on local D.C. issues because I had lived there for about two years and frankly no longer really cared about farm subsides, road work or any of the myriad of other local Kansas issues anymore.”
D.C. voting rights are a contentious issue right now, in part because they are closer to becoming a reality than ever. The D.C. Voting Rights Act, which would give the District one voting representative in the House, passed the House in April 2007 but was stalled with a filibuster in the Senate months later. All three major candidates for the 2008 presidential race have made statements on the issue, with Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton speaking in favor of the bill, and Republican John McCain speaking against.
Nonetheless, some new D.C. residents avoid the whole controversy by staying registered in their home state. AU junior Mike Kerman, 20, is currently registering to vote for the first time – in New York.
“Right now even though I only live in New York about two months a year, I still consider that my home address,” said Kerman. “I guess the point where I'd change it is when I'm not financially dependent on my parents.”
Kerman did add, however, that he would not mind changing his registration to D.C. if he were planning on living in the District longer. “If I changed my registration to D.C. it wouldn’t really affect me, because I don’t vote in local elections,” he said.
On the other hand, some young voters maintain registration in other states because they feel that their vote is worth more there.
“I’d never register to vote in D.C., even if the District received legitimate congressional representation,” said writer and Ohio native Ben Breier, 23. “I will keep voting in Ohio due to its status as a battleground state in order to maximize the possible impact my meager single vote can have. I'll help keep Ohio blue as long as I can.”
Nonetheless, D.C. Vote Outreach Associate Nell Schaffer, 23, said she sees young people as an important part of the D.C. voting rights movement.
“If you look historically at different social movements, students really do play an important role,” said Schaffer. “Their brains are still open to something different, not accepting everything as it is.”
D.C. Vote is an advocacy group founded in 1998 dedicated to securing full voting rights for D.C. residents. The organization has a subgroup called Students for D.C. Vote, which organizes awareness events with different colleges and high schools in the city.
A native of D.C., Schaffer attended college in Connecticut but said she maintained her registration in D.C. “A large part of it is symbolic,” she said. “[The lack of rights] is essentially saying you’re a second class citizen.”
According to Schaffer, there is a difference between students who grew up in D.C. and those who moved there to attend college. “People from here genuinely care, but this is the way it has always been for them,” she said. “It’s more of a shock to students coming from out of state.”
D.C. voting rights are even a shock to students who don’t attend college in the District, according to Schaffer. She described one student who saw D.C.’s non-voting House representative, Eleanor Holmes Norton, on the popular television show “The Colbert Report” last year. The student contacted D.C. Vote and said she wanted to start a chapter of Students for D.C. Vote on her own campus – Wichita State University in Kansas.
“Many people don’t even know D.C. doesn’t have rights,” said Schaffer. “But most of them support it once they know.”
Most students at AU come from out of state, but there is currently not an active chapter of Students for D.C. Vote on campus. Freshman Frank Poppe, 18, said he wants to change this.
Poppe first learned about D.C. Vote when he participated in Discover D.C., a university-sponsored Welcome Week program in which incoming freshmen are given tours of different D.C. neighborhoods. Poppe’s group visited the former D.C. Vote office on U Street, and he has been volunteering with the organization ever since.
“A lot of people say, ‘I believe in [voting rights], but it’s not my No. 1 priority,’” said Poppe. “But if you take that attitude it’ll never get done.”
Poppe most recently participated in D.C. Vote’s Tax Day efforts on April 14, delivering information pamphlets to different offices in the Senate. Other volunteers handed out postcards and signs at Union Station and a local post office.
Poppe, who is registered to vote in New York, said he will probably change his registration to D.C. after the 2008 presidential election. “It’s selfish for me to stay registered in New York,” he said. “I don’t feel like losing my vote in Congress, but I would do it so I can sympathize [with D.C. voters] even more.”
Poppe said that he thinks many AU student are uninformed about D.C. voting rights, which is why he wants to start a chapter of Students for D.C. Vote next semester. “There are a bunch of little things people don’t do that they could do,” he said. “It’s not a hopeless cause. It just needs to be focused on more.”
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