Norton Expresses Disappointment After House Passes Anti-Home Rule Bill That Would Overturn D.C.’s Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Today, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) expressed her disappointment after the House passed a bill to overturn D.C.’s Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2022 and prohibit non-citizens from voting in local D.C. elections. Congresswoman Norton vowed to work with Senate colleagues to ensure the bill is defeated. 

“If House Republicans cared about elections or D.C. residents, they would bring to the floor the D.C. statehood bill, H.R. 51, the Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which would give D.C. residents voting representation in Congress and full local self-government,” Norton said. “D.C.’s Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2022 allows D.C. residents who are noncitizens to vote only in local D.C. elections. D.C.’s law is not unique. More than a dozen cities today allow noncitizens to vote in local elections. While the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act applies only to local D.C. elections, there is a long history in the United States, including before its founding, of allowing noncitizens to vote in local, state, territorial and federal elections. Congress should keep its hands off D.C.”

Congressional Republicans have introduced 22 bills to overturn D.C. election laws so far this Congress. Two years ago, the D.C. Council passed the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2022, which allows noncitizens to vote in local D.C. elections. In February of 2023, the House passed a disapproval resolution that would have nullified the legislation, but the Senate never took it up.

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