19th Century DC Voting Rights vs Voting Rights Today in DC

District of Columbia Voting Rights
Name:
Institution:

Until the year 1801, the citizens of district of Colombia had their voting rights, since before then they had not become a federal district. This means it had not broken away from the state of Virginia and Maryland. On the wake of the year 1801, the District of Columbia Organic Act was passed in the congress. At this point, the district seized to be part of any state and become a federal district. According to the USA constitution, a district can break away and become federal with reference to the District Clause. At this point, all the residents of Washington lost their right to vote for the president of the United States, congress members and the vice president, given that Columbia was not a state. This was the case until the wake of the year 1963, when the citizens of DC got their right to vote for the vice president and the vice, through the amendment of the constitution, namely the 23rd Amendment. As such the citizens had their chance to elect the president and the vice president during the 1964 elections. Before the 23rd amendment the citizens only had the right to vote in the delegates and party officials to the republican and democratic conventions at the national level (The Leadership Conference, 2014).
However, DC residents still did not have representation in the House of Representatives as well as the Senate. This is quite crucial than it may plainly seem. Due to the fact that the citizens do not have their representatives in the senate and the House of Representatives, they also do not have any influence in the matter revolving around health, guns, budgeting, and governance among other matters that directly affect them. These are rights that are accorded those citizens that are in other districts from recognized states. Later on in the year 1968, the residents of the District of Columbia were granted the right to vote in the election of the Board of Education. Each of the eight wards in the district had the chance to elect a member under the law that created the school board, other than that three would have been elected at large and all the eleven members would serve for a term of four years.
After much effort, the District of Columbia finally got the chance to elect a delegate who would present them in the House of Representatives. This was in the year 1970, when the amendment of the District of Columbia Election Act was amended by the Congress. While the general elections were held later in March, the primaries had taken place in January of the year 1971. However, although the delegate had the right to vote in the committee, he/she did not have the right to vote on the House floor.
In 1973 after the passing of the Home Rule Carter, the Dc residents got the right to 13 members who would serve n the District Council and a Mayor. Much like the members of the school board, every ward had a chance to bring in their own representative, while the chairman ...