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]

2020 District of Columbia elections

← 2018 2022 →
Turnout	66.90%[1]

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

Main article: 2020 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia

See also: 2020 District of Columbia Democratic presidential primary and 2020 District of Columbia Republican presidential primary

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.

2020 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia

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

Main article: 2020 United States House of Representatives election in the District of Columbia

Eleanor Holmes Norton ran for re-election as a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives.^[4]

2020 United States House of Representatives election in the District of Columbia^[5]

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

Main article: 2020 United States Shadow Senator election in the District of Columbia

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

2020 United States Shadow Senator election in the District of Columbia^[5]

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

Main article: 2020 United States Shadow Representative election in the District of Columbia

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.

2020 United States Shadow Representative election in the District of Columbia^[5]

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

This section is an excerpt from 2020 Council of the District of Columbia election.[edit]

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[a]	Margin of error	For Initiative 81	Against Initiative 81	Undecided
FM3 Research/Campaign to Decriminalize Nature DC[A]	August 16–24, 2020	620 (LV)	± 4%	60%	24%	16%
FM3 Research/Campaign to Decriminalize Nature DC[A]	March – April, 2020	– (V)[b]	–	51%	27%	22%

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: [5]

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.

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