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Voting Rights, Dictrict of Columbua, USA

In particular, citizens of the District of Columbia (i.e., the city of Washington, D.C.) have only limited representation in the United States Congress. Formerly, District residents had no participation in the federal government at all, but they have participated in presidential elections since passage of the 23rd Amendment in 1961 (in practice, since the election of 1964). Citizens of Washington are represented in the House of Representatives by a non-voting delegate who may vote in committee and participate in debate but cannot vote on the House floor. D.C. does not have any representation whatsoever in the United States Senate (see Shadow congressperson).

A "DC Fair and Equal House Voting Rights Act of 2006" attempted to address this issue by giving D.C. a voting member in the House, but not in the Senate; however, the bill failed. Its sponsors have reintroduced the bill in January of 2007. There are many arguments for and against this legislation giving the District of Columbia a Vote in the House of Representatives.

A separate yet related controversy regards the lack of an intrinsic right for D.C. residents to govern their local affairs.

For more on this, see District of Columbia home rule.

While the District's official motto is Justitia omnibus ("Justice to All"), the words "Taxation Without Representation", echoing the Revolutionary slogan, "Taxation without Representation is Tyranny!", were added to D.C. license plates in 2000 (although alternative plates featuring the D.C. website URL are available on request), and there was briefly a movement to add the words "No Taxation Without Representation" to the D.C. flag. Advocates who have supported these changes have said that they are intended as a protest and to raise awareness in the rest of the country. These measures in particular were chosen because the D.C. flag is one of the few things under direct local control without requiring approval from Congress. Critics noted, however, that the phrase was unlikely to raise much awareness.

In January 2001, President Bush ordered the removal of the "Taxation Without Representation" license plates on the presidential limousines, replacing them with blank Washington, D.C. plates. This came shortly after President Bill Clinton had placed the new license plates on the limousines. Bill Clinton waited until his final weeks in office before ordering the new license plates to be placed on his limousines. [1]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_of_Columbia_voting_rights