The Examiner reports that voter turnout in the metro area last week was not historically high. The DCBOEE was predicting about 63 percent voter turnout this year in the District once all absentee votes were counted. In 1984, when Walter Mondale was running for president, voter turnout in D.C. was up at 77 percent. Virginia and Maryland similarly fell short of setting records this year. That seems pretty weird, considering the long lines we saw......

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DCist Music Editor Amanda Mattos snapped some photos of the various 'I Voted' stickers represented in her office. D.C.'s sticker seems kinda lame compared to most of the rest of these, doesn't it? And don't forget to take advantage of the many freebies available around town today if you're wearing an 'I Voted' sticker. UPDATE: Elevated from the comments: the Post reports that all those giveaways targeted at people sporting an 'I Voted' sticker may......

"Did you vote?" a co-worker asked me. "No," I sheepishly replied. "I'm not a U.S. citizen." With lines snaking around many a polling places and voters excitedly talking about the potential for history being made today, not being able to vote is something of a downer. Those of us not casting ballots today -- the non-enfranchised, if you will -- will spend the rest of the day looking for a stray "I Voted" sticker, both......

Your tweets are still rolling in to our #dcistvote Twitter feed, but first here's some dispatches from the DCist staff on their polling place experiences this morning. My wife and I voted at Precinct 87 (Payne Elementary) this morning on Capitol Hill. We got there a little before 9 a.m., and the line was not that long, not even outside the auditorium (not all that much longer that it has been in previous presidential elections).......

According to alarmists from both sides of the aisle, all hell is going to break loose depending on which candidate emerges from the ashes of tomorrow's presidential election. Pestilence, Famine, War, Death -- think your typical Adams Morgan Saturday night minus the jumbo slice. But before the world comes to a fiery end come Wednesday morning, be sure to first vote, then take advantage of the slew of freebies available on election day. Caffeine, Fried......

We brought it to your attention this morning, but in case you're a visual learner, flickr contributor DC Metrocentric brings forth visual proof of the long lines at the Courthouse voting location. If you're out and waiting in line, feel free to document your experiences and send them to us.......

The D.C. Republican Committee sent around word late yesterday that a registered Republican living in Ward 2 was mailed an absentee ballot that is missing candidates and includes a candidate from another Ward. Take a close look at the ballot at right. This voter lives in single-member district 2F03, but the ballot includes the Ward 6 school board seat instead of the Ward 2 spot, and is also missing the Ward 2 D.C. Council member......

You may have read in the Washington Post this morning that today is the first day that District residents may cast "in-person absentee" ballots, up until Nov. 3. All you have to do is show up at the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics headquarters at 441 4th St. NW, Suite 250N, to request an absentee ballot and vote right then and there. Sounds great, right? Especially if you think you might be out......

The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics finally posted the official report of their internal review into the primary election result irregularities on their web site today. You can download a PDF version of it for yourself. The relevant passages can be found on pages 10-14. In the report, the committee blames most of what caused over 4,000 erroneous votes to be initially reported on employees who were in charge of vote counting trying to......

Today is our local primary election, the day when registered Republicans and Democrats in the District head to the polls to decide the outcome of the more or less symbolic general election (seriously, if you actually care about local politics and you're a registered Independent, you ought to think about picking a party just for the sake of having your vote matter). My precinct in Shaw only had one other voter in it besides me......

If constantly counting superdelegates has started to wear thin, public voting for the RAMMYs may provide a much needed respite from politics for the gourmands in us. Until this Friday, May 30, area diners can voice their opinions and mark their ballots in four categories of this year's Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington RAMMY Awards. Aside from the marquee awards for Chef of the Year and New Restaurant of the Year, among others, the public can......

The city opened up online voting for residents to choose their preferred design for the official District of Columbia quarter at the end of last week. You can vote for your preference between the three proposed designs, which depict Frederick Douglass, Duke Ellington and Benjamin Banneker, at this web site, with voting open between now and June 18. The U.S. Mint's Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee recommended earlier this month to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that......

Now that the 2008 presidential primary season has officially begun, it's time to make sure you're registered to vote. The District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia will all hold their presidential primaries on Feb. 12, which means voter registration deadlines are looming. In D.C., you must register to vote 30 days before election day, so your registration form will need to be postmarked by Jan. 13 (which is a Sunday, so make that Jan. 12......

Over at Huffington Post, Andrea Batista Schlesinger of the Drum Major Institute has a nice roundup of what she thinks are the best public policy initiatives of 2007. Number six on her list is the D.C. Voting Rights Act, and she has a solid grasp on why congressional representation for the District is so important:Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C's indomitable delegate, can debate with the best of them, but without the D.C. Voting Rights Act, neither......

When in the closing days of 2006 we looked back on the year in D.C. voting rights, we optimistically hoped that 2007 would finally be the year that saw some movement on enfranchising the District's residents. Movement, yes; resolution, not so much. So as we wind down 2007, we're again left hoping that maybe the coming year will be the one. The primary mover in the D.C. voting rights movement in 2007 was legislation......

Earlier this month the Post revealed that the majority of mail sent from the District is bastardized with a postmark reading "SOUTHERN MD." or "SUBURBAN MD.," a practice imposed soon after a 2001 anthrax attack in a D.C. postal facility. District officials and voting rights activists were none-too-pleased -- after all, if they take our postmark, what's next? Our women and children? Today, the Post Office relented. Under pressure from D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton......

Hilda Mason, 91, who served more than 20 years on the D.C. Council, died yesterday at Washington Hospital Center. The Post has an obituary up (which perhaps unsurprisingly but a little creepily appears to have been largely written some time ago, as it notes at the bottom that one of its authors passed away in 2006), which details Mason's status as the grand dame of local D.C. politics, having served on the Board of Education,......

It was 234 years ago Sunday that American colonists dumped tea into Boston Harbor as part of a symbolic protest against being taxed by the British while not having a representative in the Westminster Parliament. Yesterday District voting rights activists remembered the event by holding their own tea party, this one to protest the union's last standing example of taxation without representation. Though the wind whipped across the Potomac River, about 80 activists and......

Remember those billboards that popped up in the 1980s that counted up the national debt, dollar by dollar? Pretty scary, huh? Well, District voting rights activists want something similar for their cause. Today the D.C. Council held a hearing on legislation that would allow the city to place two large LED billboards -- one outside the John A. Wilson Building and the other outside the new Washington Nationals stadium -- that would display the amount......

If the powers that be think we're going to go easily or quietly, they're wrong. The Post today exposed a devious little plan to chip away at the District's identity, starting with phasing out the city's postmark and replacing it instead with one bearing the name of our northern neighbor, Maryland. According to a Post study, of 235 letters mailed from every quadrant and zip code within city limits, only 24 -- 10 percent --......

Sure, it's December and we're all preoccupied with holiday cheer and making plans for that one New Year's party that will finally be worth the all the hype. But even though they've suffered some setbacks this year, D.C. voting rights activists are pushing the cause through the holiday season. On Thursday, December 6, the D.C. Council will hold a hearing to consider legislation that would place large electronic billboards outside the John A. Wilson Building......

One of these guys might be the next president, so it's good to try and parse where they stand on District voting rights. At least that was the thinking over at D.C. Vote, who recently recorded and sent in a number of videos of District residents asking the presidential candidates from the Republican Party where they stood on D.C. voting rights. The videos, eleven in all, were submitted to CNN for the upcoming CNN/YouTube......

>> The Senate might have to work all weekend, in advance of a possible vote on Sunday on whether to take up a $50 billion war funding bill that calls for a troop withdrawal from Iraq in 12 months, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) warned. Be prepared to hear all your Senate staffer friends complain about this at happy hour tonight. [The Hill] >> Foxhall Road will be closed to traffic between MacArthur Boulevard......

Good morning, Washington. Make it to the polls yesterday? If so, we hope you did so before the sun went down — it got cold in a hurry last night, as the area rapidly moved from warmer-than-usual temps to colder-than-usual ones. CapitalWeather is saying that the weekend should be warmer, at least. Election 2007: The results are in, and it looks like it was a good night for Virginia's Democrats. The Dems picked up......

When the City Museum closed its door in late 2004 after a mere 18 months in existence, the one place to go for a comprehensive history of Washington, D.C. disappeared. But for those of you interested in the city's history, the next few days should be quite satisfying -- it's time for the annual Washington Studies Conference. The conference, now in its 34th year, kicks off tomorrow at The Carnegie Library building (801 K Street,......

Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) has decided not to seek the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) next year. The Post is reporting that Davis will announce formally on Thursday what his plans are, but sources have indicated that he won't look to take on a number of potential Republican contenders or former Governor Mark Warner for the seat. Davis reportedly doesn't want his run to overshadow a tough re-election contest faced by......

It's not often that two hippos chase down a presidential candidate. But today two did and survived to tell the story. Voting rights activists protested outside the Washington Hilton this morning, hoping to catch a glimpse of John McCain and express their displeasure at his recent vote against cloture on voting rights legislation that would have moved legislation forward to grant the District a voting seat in the House. Among the activists were two......

As it gets closer to Halloween for LAist, a contributer recollects her tale of staring down the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker. Must think happy thoughts -- okay, free organic chocolate chip cookies for Los Angeles -- now that's a happy thought. Other happy Los Angeles thoughts include an interview with Jack Kehler of The Big Lebowski (he was the Dude's landlord), a beautiful and magical photographic moment in Venice......

If there are two things most people know about WTOP Political Analyst Mark Plotkin, it's that one, he's not very tech-savvy, and two, he's passionate aboout District voting rights. So passionate, it seems, that he even got himself kicked out of the White House yesterday. According to fellow WTOP reporter Mark Segraves' account of the incident, Plotkin, along with the rest of the D.C. press corps and various local elected officials, attended an event at......