Credit:Mark Sensen (FOTW Flags Of The World website at flagspot.net)

(Angus Reid - CPOD Global Scan) - Many adults in the United States believe the citizens who live in the District of Columbia should get a chance to elect their own congressmen, according to a poll by KRC Research for DC Vote. 82 per cent of respondents believe D.C. residents should have equal voting rights in the House and the Senate.

The U.S. Constitution places the District of Columbia under the direct jurisdiction of Congress. The area's citizens are currently represented in the legislative branch by non-voting delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton of the Democratic Party.

A constitutional amendment—the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment—was proposed in 1978, but failed to be ratified by 38 state legislatures before the August 1985 deadline.

Since 1964—when D.C. residents were first allowed to vote in presidential elections—no Republican has emerged victorious in the area. In 2000, Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore only received two of D.C.'s three votes in the Electoral College, after elector Barbara Lett-Simmons decided to cast a blank ballot to protest D.C.'s lack of representation in the U.S. Congress.

Polling Data

Nearly 600,000 U.S. citizens live in Washington, D.C. They pay full federal taxes and fight in every war. But, unlike citizens who live in the 50 states, they do not have voting representation in Congress—neither in the House of Representatives nor in the Senate. In your opinion, should D.C. citizens have equal voting rights in the House and the Senate, or not?

Other poll highlights: Awareness of the District of Columbia's political status, taxation, reasons to support a change in voting rights.

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