It was nearing summer temperatures on this early June primary voting day outside a polling station in Washington, DC. Lisa Rice, official Proposer of Initiative 83, is wearing a sandwich board with the message, “Ask Me Why I Can’t Vote Today?” “Why can’t you vote today?” asks a woman on her way to vote. “Because I’m an independent,” Lisa replies. “ I'm not affiliated with the Democratic party or the Republican party and we're barred from voting in the primary…”

“All day people came up to me and asked at every polling place,” Lisa tells us in this extended episode introducing several members of the Make All Votes Count DC team. “So people definitely wanted to know why and it was great conversations all day long.”

We also meet Philip Pannell, Make All Vote Votes Count Treasurer, on this episode. A long time Democratic Party official and activist, Philip was widely recognized at the Capital Pride Parade where we met him. Yet despite his storied credentials, Philip’s encountered no small amount of negative reaction to his support for Initiative 83 from longtime Democratic Party colleagues.

“Independents are pretty much left out of the decision making because all the action is pretty much in the Democratic Party,” Philip tells us, adding he still believes the Democratic party is the best vehicle for opportunity and justice. “They like to say that if you want to participate in our primary, you have to be a Democrat. That's not forward of thinking, that's not bringing more people in.”

Kenyatta Smith is a District Outreach Coordinator for the predominantly African American areas in East D.C, where gentrification creates added challenges for Initiative 83 outreach. “I want to keep it black too,” Kenyatta confides. “I want us to be in power still. I feel strongly about that. But I also want to challenge my community to educate themselves on something new.”

Meet these and other members of the Make All Votes Count DC team this episode, another in our series on the record number of non-partisan election reform initiatives in play for the 2024 election. And learn how leadership and teamwork have come together behind the Initiative 83 effort, now in its final stages of signature collection for the November 2024 Washington DC voter ballot. 

SHOW NOTES

Our Guests:

From Make All Votes Count DC: Lisa D. T. Rice (Proposer of Ballot Initiative 83), Philip Pannell (Treasurer), Kenyatta Smith (District Coordinator), Miguel Deramo (Steering Committee Member), and Nate Roseboro (Volunteer Petitioner). 

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Additional Resources / Fact Checking:

Ballotpedia – Initiative 83

Wikipedia – Initiative 83

Party affiliation among adults in the Washington, DC metro area. Pew Research Center (2014). 

About Us. Make All Votes Count DC. 

Registrant Disclosure for Make All Votes Count DC. The District of Columbia - Office of Campaign Finance E-Filing. 

End Taxation Without Representation Tags. DC Department of Motor Vehicles. 

Phillip Pannell, Longtime LGBTQIA+ Activist, Leader, Emphasizes Continued Advocacy for Local Communities. Washington Informer.