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2020 District of Columbia elections

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Turnout	66.90%

Elections in the District of Columbia
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Ballot measures 1998: Initiative 59 2014: Initiative 71 2016: Advisory Referendum B 2018: Initiative 77 2022: Initiative 82
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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.

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.

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.

United States House of Representatives

Eleanor Holmes Norton ran for re-election as a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives.

Shadow Senator

Incumbent Paul Strauss was re-elected to a sixth term as a shadow senator.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Polling

Result

Initiative Measure No. 81
Entheogenic Plants and Fungus Policy Act

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:

Notes

1. Key:
   A – all adults
   RV – registered voters
   LV – likely voters
   V – unclear
2. Not yet released

Partisan clients

1. ^ Poll sponsored by Campaign to Decrminalize Nature D.C., which had supported the initiative prior to the poll's sampling period

References

1. "Election Statistics". District of Columbia Board of Elections. December 2, 2020.
2. "Municipal elections in Washington, D.C. (2020)". Ballotpedia. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
3. Sakellaridis, Faye (September 18, 2020). "60 Percent of DC Voters Support Plant Medicine Decriminalization". Lucid. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
4. "Live: District of Columbia State Primary Election Results 2020". New York Times. June 3, 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
5. ^ "General Election 2020 - Certified Results". electionresults.dcboe.org. December 2, 2020.
6. "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.
7. Moyer, Justin (August 5, 2020). "D.C. residents to vote on decriminalization of 'magic mushrooms' on November ballot". Washington Post. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
8. ^ FM3 Research/Campaign to Decriminalize Nature DC

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

• 2020 elections in Washington, D.C.
• 2020 elections in the United States by state
• 2020 United States local elections