Disenfranchisement

Yesterday I switched my voter registration from Minnesota to Washington, DC. I've lived in DC for nearly three years now, so why didn't I do it sooner? Well, part of it is because I hate the DMV and it didn't occur to me that I didn't need a DC driver's license to register to vote. The bigger part of it, though, is that I like having representation at the national level. It's hard to give up Representative Keith Ellison. It's hard to give up Senators Amy Klobuchar and especially Al Franken. It's hard to give up having actual members of Congress who can actually vote on bills that matter for the nation. Yes, DC has Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, and she is a helluva spitfire. But the reality of the situation is that her primary job as Representative of the District of Columbia is to try to get DC voting rights. She is allowed to serve on committees, she is allowed to speak on the floor, but she is not allowed to actually vote on the passage of any actual legislation.

Let's just do a quick review here. As of 2011 DC was estimated to have a resident population of about 600,000. Wyoming has less than that, with about 570,000 people (rounded up). Wyoming has two fully voting Senators and one fully voting member of the House of Representatives. DC has zero, on both accounts.

So, I'm glad that I did my civic duty and voted in the special election for my Ward last night. But I'm bummed to have had to give up national representation to do it. And I'm really bummed that I won't be able to vote down the fucking constitutional amendment attempt to ban gay marriage in Minnesota this November.