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Voting rights of citizens in the District of Columbia differ from the rights of citizens in each of the 50 U.S. states. The United States Constitution grants each state voting representation in both houses of the United States Congress. As the U.S. capital, the District of Columbia is a special federal district, not a state, and therefore does not have voting representation in the Congress. The Constitution grants the Congress exclusive jurisdiction over the District in "all cases whatsoever." In the United States House of Representatives, the District is represented by a delegate, who is not allowed to vote on the House floor but can vote on procedural matters and in congressional committees. D.C. residents have no representation in the United States Senate. The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1961, entitles the District to three electoral votes in the election of the President and Vice President of the United States. The District's lack of voting representation in Congress has been an issue since the capital's founding. Numerous proposals have been introduced to change this situation, including legislation and constitutional amendments, returning the District to the state of Maryland, and making the District into a new state. All proposals have been met with political or constitutional challenges and there has been no change in the District's representation in the Congress. ==History== In 1783, a crowd of disbanded Revolutionary War soldiers angry about not having been paid, gathered to protest outside the building where the Continental Congress was meeting. The soldiers blocked the door and initially refused to allow the delegates to leave. Despite requests from the Congress, the Pennsylvania state government declined to call out its militia to deal with the unruly mob, and so Congress was forced to abruptly adjourn to New Jersey. This led to the widespread belief that Congress needed control over the national capitol. As Madison wrote in The Federalist No. 43, "Without it, not only the public authority might be insulted and its proceedings interrupted with impunity; but a dependence of the members of the general government on the State comprehending the seat of the government, for protection in the exercise of their duty, might bring on the national councils an imputation of awe or influence, equally dishonorable to the government and dissatisfactory to the other members of the Confederacy." This belief resulted in the creation of a national capital, separate from any state, by the Constitution's District Clause. The "District Clause" in Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the U.S. Constitution states: In 1788, the land on which the District is formed was ceded by Maryland. In 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act placing the District on the Potomac River between the Anacostia and Connogochegue with the exact location chosen by President Washington. His selection was announced on January 24, 1791, and the Residence Act was amended to include land that Virginia had ceded in 1790. That land was returned to Virginia in 1847. The Congress did not officially move to the new federal capital until the first Monday in December 1800. During that time the District was governed by a combination of a federally appointed Board of Commissioners, the state legislatures and locally-elected governments.〔 On February 27, 1801, only a few months after moving to the District, Congress passed the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801 and incorporated the new federal District under its sole authority as permitted by the District Clause. Since the District of Columbia was no longer part of any state, the District's residents lost voting representation in Congress and the Electoral College as well as a voice in Constitutional Amendments and Congress became the supreme source of all local laws, facts that did not go without protest. In January 1801, a meeting of District citizens was held which resulted in a statement to Congress noting that as a result of the impending Organic Act "we shall be completely disfranchised in respect to the national government, while we retain no security for participating in the formation of even the most minute local regulations by which we are to be affected. We shall be reduced to that deprecated condition of which we pathetically complained in our charges against Great Britain, of being taxed without representation." The following year, the Board of Commissioners was abolished, the city of Washington was incorporated and a local government consisting of a locally elected 12-member council and a Mayor appointed by the President was put in place.〔 In 1812, the District was given greater home rule when the Mayor became an elected official, chosen from among the group of 12 elected council members and 8 aldermen, and in 1820 the Mayor became directly elected. Small modifications were made over the years, but in 1871 the District government was again dramatically modified, this time getting a government more similar to that of the territories. Under this new government, the Governor of the District was again appointed by the President, as were all members of one house of the District legislature. The territorial government was abolished in 1874 and replace by a presidentially-appointed council.〔 In 1878, the District was given a permanent government, still consisting or three-member council appointed by the President. It was later decided that this congressional act constituted the District's Constitution, making the District the only territory that had not been allowed to write its own Constitution.〔 In the 1950s, as part of the larger Civil Rights Movement, interest emerged in giving DC full representation. As a compromise, the Twenty-third Amendment was passed in 1961, granting the District a number of votes in the Electoral College in measure to their population, but no more than the smallest state. This right has been exercised by DC residents since the presidential election of 1964. The District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973 devolved certain congressional powers over the District to a local government administered by an elected mayor, currently Muriel Bowser, and the thirteen-member Council of the District of Columbia. However, the Congress retains the right to review and overturn any of the District's laws. Each of the city's eight wards elects a single member of the council, and five members, including the chairman, are elected at large.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=D.C. City Council )〕 In 1980, District voters approved the call of a constitutional convention to draft a proposed state constitution,〔(Washington, DC Statehood Constitutional Convention Records ), Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University〕 just as U.S. territories had done prior to their admission as states. The proposed constitution was ratified by District voters in 1982 for a new state to be called "New Columbia", but the Congress has not granted statehood to the District.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=DC Statehood: a Chronology )〕 Pursuant to that proposed state constitution, the District still selects members of a shadow congressional delegation, consisting of two shadow Senators and a shadow Representative, to lobby the Congress to grant statehood. These positions are not officially recognized by the Congress. Additionally, until May 2008, the Congress prohibited the District from spending any funds on lobbying for voting representation or statehood. On December 29, 2003, The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States concluded that the United States is violating the District of Columbia's rights under Articles II and XX of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man by denying District of Columbia citizens an effective opportunity to participate in the Congress. The commission reiterated the following recommendation to the United States: "Provide the Petitioners with an effective remedy, which includes adopting the legislative or other measures necessary to guarantee to the Petitioners the effective right to participate, directly or through freely chosen representatives and in general conditions of equality, in their national legislature".〔(Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (Organization of American States) REPORT Nº 98/03 * )〕 A 2005 poll paid for by the advocacy group D.C. Vote, but conducted by the non-partisan polling firm KRC Research, found that 82% of 1,007 adults believed that D.C. should have full congressional voting representation. A 2007 ''Washington Post'' poll of 788 adults found that 61% of those adults supported granting the District "a full voting" Representative. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「District of Columbia voting rights」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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