In response to the recent opinion published in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette regarding DC voting rights:
We believe there is a way for the people of Washington DC to get a house seat that is consitutional (other than by amending the Constitution.) Congress is now trying to create a Congressional District for the District of Columbia - but the Constitution is clear that Congressional Districts come from States and are to be apportioned every 10 years to equalize population.
Here is the way to do it: Since the District of Columbia is a federal enclave carved out of the State of Maryland and Congress took away BY STATUTE our right to vote in Maryland’s federal elections, Congress could restore the right by statute of DC residents to vote in Maryland’s FEDERAL elections and thus provide DC residents an apportioned Congressional District in Maryland. Congress could similarly allow DC residents to participate in the election of the Maryland Senators. (It is worth noting that Congress allows the residents of all other federal enclaves to vote in the State from which the enclave came, and also allows citizens living overseas the right to vote in the federal elections of the last State they can claim a relationship to, even if they are not a resident of that State.) If this law were to be upheld, DC residents would have federal voting rights equal to that of all other American’s. Isn’t that, after all, the goal?
A bill (HR665) ‘The District of Columbia Voting Rights Restoration Act of 2009′ to provide these federal voting rights for DC residents has been introduced in Congress by Rep Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)and should be seriously considered.