Norton's Senate Count for D.C. Voting Rights Rises to 64 with New Alaska Senator

Press Release

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said, "64 votes and counting," as Mark Begich (D), mayor of Anchorage, Alaska, defeated Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) yesterday. The addition of the seventh Democrat likely will mean 64 votes that Norton can all but count on to support her D.C. Voting Rights Act, which fell just three votes short of passing in the Senate last year. Norton's bill, co-sponsored by then-Sen. Barack Obama, passed the House and got 57 votes in the Senate. The Congresswoman is optimistic that with the election of seven new Democrats to the Senate, she will have 64 votes, more than the 60 required by the Senate to pass her bill in the new Congress. President-elect Barack Obama has promised Norton that he will sign the bill.

Norton's bill is bi-partisan and has strong support from eight Republicans in the Senate, including Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT). In addition to eight Republicans who voted for the bill, she expects support from the new seven Democratic senators: Kay Hagan (D-NC), Mark Warner (D-VA), Thomas Udall (D-NM), Mark Udall (D-CO), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Mark Begich (D-AK), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH). Norton has asked both the House and the Senate leadership for early consideration of the D.C. Voting Rights Act.

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