Councilmember Wells has been working with the DC Board of Elections and Ethics over the last several months to add a new voting precinct for downtown neighborhoods. Currently, residents in Penn Quarter and some other downtown neighborhoods share a voting precinct on Capitol Hill. The result creates barriers to the poll for many residents. So rather than waiting for the next census and redistricting to take place in 2011, Tommy asked the Board to look now at this problem as the number of residents in the downtown neighborhood continues to grow quickly.

You can read one of Tommy's letters to the Board here.

Now there's good news to report on this front. The Board is planning to take final action on Wednesday, May 7th, regarding the creation of Precinct 143 in Ward 6 -- the District's newest voting precinct -- essentially splitting the current Precinct 130 into two parts.

The proposed boundaries are (click here for a map of the proposed new boundaries):

Beginning at the intersection of H Street and North Capitol Street, N.W.; thence south on North Capitol Street, N.W. to the intersection of North Capitol Street N.W. and Louisiana Avenue, N.W.; thence southwesterly to Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.; thence west on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. to 9th Street, N.W.; thence north on 9th Street, N.W. to E Street, N.W.; thence east on E Street, N.W. to 6th Street, N.W.; thence north on 6th Street, N.W. to K Street, N.W.; thence east on K Street, N.W. to 3rd Street, N.W.; thence south on 3rd Street, N.W. to H Street, N.W.; thence east on H Street, N.W. to the meeting beginning point of North Capitol Street, N.W.

Anyone can submit comments to the Board for consideration and should do so by sending a letter to the Board of Elections and Ethics, 441 4th Street, NW Suite 250N, Washington, D.C. 20001. Comments are requested to be received by the close of business on Tuesday, May 6th. If you want to attend the Board meeting in person, it will be held in room 280-North of the One Judiciary Square building at 441 Fourth Street, N.W., May 7, 2008 at 10:30 a.m. For further information, please call the Board at 202-727-2525 (TDD: 202-639-8916).

UPDATE: Want to email DCBOEE? You can email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .