Barack Obama: D.C. Residents Deserve Voting Rights

September 18, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today made the following statement on the failed Senate vote on voting rights for the District of Columbia. The vote to proceed to consideration of the bill failed to reach the necessary 60 votes.

“Our brave civil rights leaders sacrificed too much to ensure that every American has the right to vote for us to tolerate the disenfranchisement of the nearly 600,000 residents of the District of Columbia,” Senator Obama said. “Those who live in our nation’s capital pay taxes like other Americans and serve bravely in the armed forces like other Americans. Yet they are not afforded a vote in Congress. The right to vote belongs to every American, regardless of race, creed, gender, or geography. I’ll continue to work with Mayor Fenty, Congresswoman Norton, and the sponsors of this bill until the residents of the District of Columbia achieve full representation in Congress.”

Source: Senator Barack Obama