2020 District of Columbia elections
On November 3, 2020, the District of Columbia held elections for several local and federal government offices. Its primary elections were held on June 2, 2020.[2]
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| Turnout | 66.90%[1] |
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| Elections in the District of Columbia |
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In addition to the U.S. presidential race voters elected one of its two shadow senators, its nonvoting member of the House of Representatives and 6 of 13 seats on the council. There is also one ballot measure which was voted on.[3]
Federal elections
President of the United States
Washington, D.C., has 3 electoral votes in the Electoral College. The district has leaned heavily Democratic in each presidential election since 1964, the first one in which its population was able to vote.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Joe Biden | 317,323 | 92.15 | |
| Republican | Donald Trump (incumbent) | 18,586 | 5.40 | |
| Libertarian | Jo Jorgensen | 2,036 | 0.59 | |
| DC Statehood Green | Howie Hawkins | 1,726 | 0.50 | |
| Independent | Gloria La Riva | 855 | 0.25 | |
| Independent | Brock Pierce | 693 | 0.20 | |
| Write-in | 3,137 | 0.91 | ||
| Total votes | 344,356 | 100.00 | ||
United States House of Representatives
Eleanor Holmes Norton ran for re-election as a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives.[4]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Eleanor Holmes Norton (incumbent) | 281,831 | 86.30 | ||
| Libertarian | Patrick Hynes | 9,678 | 2.96 | ||
| Independent | Barbara Washington Franklin | 7,628 | 2.34 | ||
| Socialist Workers | Omari Musa | 6,702 | 2.05 | ||
| DC Statehood Green | Natale Lino Stracuzzi | 5,553 | 1.70 | ||
| Independent | David Krucoff | 5,017 | 1.54 | ||
| Independent | Amir Lowery | 5,001 | 1.53 | ||
| Independent | John Cheeks | 2,914 | 0.89 | ||
| Write-in | 2,263 | 0.69 | |||
| Total votes | 326,587 | 100.00 | |||
| Democratic hold | |||||
Shadow Senator
Incumbent Paul Strauss was re-elected to a sixth term as a shadow senator.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Paul Strauss (incumbent) | 251,991 | 81.17 | ||
| DC Statehood Green | Eleanor Ory | 31,151 | 10.03 | ||
| Republican | Cornelia Weiss | 24,168 | 7.78 | ||
| Write-in | 3,154 | 1.02 | |||
| Total votes | 310,464 | 100.00 | |||
| Democratic hold | |||||
Shadow Representative
Incumbent Franklin Garcia declined to run for re-election. Democrat Oye Owolewa, independent Sohaer Syed, and Statehood Green Joyce Robinson-Paul competed for his open seat.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Oye Owolewa | 240,533 | 81.60 | ||
| DC Statehood Green | Joyce Robinson-Paul | 27,128 | 9.20 | ||
| Independent | Sohaer Rizvi Syed | 22,771 | 7.72 | ||
| Write-in | 4,341 | 1.47 | |||
| Total votes | 294,773 | 100.00 | |||
| Democratic hold | |||||
District elections
Council
In 2020, a general election for Council of the District of Columbia was held on November 3, and a special election was held on June 27. Elections were held in four of the districts and one at-large. The Democratic Party retained its control of the city council and the council became majority female for the first time since the 1998 election.[6]
Jack Evans resigned from the city council, causing a special election. Evans unsuccessfully ran for his seat which was won by Brooke Pinto. Incumbent councilors Robert White, Pinto, Vincent C. Gray, and Trayon White won reelection. Janeese Lewis George won election to the city council after defeating incumbent councilor Brandon Todd while David Grosso retired and was succeeded by Christina Henderson.
This was the first city council election to have public campaign financing with $3.4 million being given to candidates and George being given the most at $281,055 during the campaign.Ballot measure
Initiative 81, titled the Entheogenic Plants and Fungus Policy Act of 2020, aims to decriminalize noncommercial cultivation, distribution and possession of psychedelic plants, including psilocybin mushrooms, iboga, cacti containing mescaline, and ayahuasca.[7]
Polling
| Poll source | Date(s) administered |
Sample size[lower-alpha 1] |
Margin of error |
For Initiative 81 | Against Initiative 81 | Undecided |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FM3 Research/Campaign to Decriminalize Nature DC[upper-alpha 1] | August 16–24, 2020 | 620 (LV) | ± 4% | 60% | 24% | 16% |
| FM3 Research/Campaign to Decriminalize Nature DC[upper-alpha 1] | March – April, 2020 | – (V)[lower-alpha 2] | – | 51% | 27% | 22% |
Result
| Choice | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
 Yes |
214,685 | 76.18 |
| No | 67,140 | 23.82 |
| Total votes | 281,825 | 100.00 |
| Registered voters/turnout | 517,890 | 54.42 |
| Source: [5] | ||
Notes
- Key:
A – all adults
RV – registered voters
LV – likely voters
V – unclear - Not yet released
- Partisan clients
- Poll sponsored by Campaign to Decrminalize Nature D.C., which had supported the initiative prior to the poll's sampling period
References
- "Election Statistics". District of Columbia Board of Elections. December 2, 2020.
- "Municipal elections in Washington, D.C. (2020)". Ballotpedia. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
- Sakellaridis, Faye (September 18, 2020). "60 Percent of DC Voters Support Plant Medicine Decriminalization". Lucid. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
- "Live: District of Columbia State Primary Election Results 2020". New York Times. June 3, 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
- "General Election 2020 - Certified Results". electionresults.dcboe.org. December 2, 2020.
- "These Women Will Turn The D.C. Council Majority-Female For The First Time In Decades". WAMU. November 19, 2020. Archived from the original on June 28, 2021. Retrieved June 28, 2021.
- Moyer, Justin (August 5, 2020). "D.C. residents to vote on decriminalization of 'magic mushrooms' on November ballot". Washington Post. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
Further reading
- Rebecca Tan (September 11, 2020), "Hundreds of ballot drop boxes are coming to the D.C. region. Here's what to expect.", Washington Post
- Michael Brice-Saddler (October 9, 2020), "After disastrous primary, D.C. elections board chair prepares for biggest test yet", Washington Post
- Michael Brice-Saddler (October 15, 2020), "How does D.C. verify a signature on a ballot? Here's how it works", Washington Post
- Michael Brice-Saddler; Erin Cox; Antonio Olivo (October 16, 2020), "When to expect election results in the Washington region", Washington Post
External links
- DC Board of Elections
- Government Documents Round Table of the American Library Association, "District of Columbia (D.C.)", Voting & Elections Toolkits
- "District of Columbia: Election Tools, Deadlines, Dates, Rules, and Links", Vote.org, Oakland, CA
- "League of Women Voters of the District of Columbia". (Affiliate of the U.S. League of Women Voters)
- Washington, D.C. at Ballotpedia
- "State Elections Legislation Database", Ncsl.org, Washington, D.C.: National Conference of State Legislatures,
State legislation related to the administration of elections introduced in 2011 through this year, 2020