Eleanor Holmes Norton spoke to the Democratic National Convention on August 26, in support of voting rights for the District of Columbia in Congress. Norton is the elected Delegate to the U.S. House from D.C. She is not permitted to vote on the House floor.

On a related note, ever since 1999, the U.S. Mint has been issuing quarters honoring a particular state. Each year, five more quarters have been released. This year marks the last year in which state quarters are being issued. But in 2009, there will be quarters for the District of Columbia and the U.S. populated overseas possessions. Generally, each state has been the sole judge of what its quarter should show. But the U.S. Mint is not letting the District of Columbia control its own quarter. The D.C. government asked that its quarter contain the words, “Taxation Without Representation”, but the U.S. Mint is refusing to honor that request. The Mint says D.C.’s request would be “controversial” and therefore unfit for a coin.

At the Alaska primary on August 26, two ballots were available for voters who wished to vote for candidates. One contained only Republican candidates, and could be chosen by registered Republicans and registered independents. The other ballot contained the nominees of the Democratic, Libertarian, and Alaskan Independence candidates, and could be chosen by any voter.

The Alaskan Independence Party candidate for U.S. House, Don Wright, received 8.67% of the vote on the ballot he was on. Since most voters using that ballot were Democrats, that is an impressive showing. There were also two Democrats running for U.S. House on that ballot. Ethan Berkowitz received 53.97% and Diane E. Benson received 37.36%. No Libertarian ran for U.S. House. In 2006, Wright had only received 2.24% in the primary as a candidate for Governor.

In the U.S. Senate August 2008 primary, Alaskan Independence Party candidate Bob Bird got 5.39%, and Libertarian candidate Frederick Haase received 1.71%.