Remember those billboards that popped up in the 1980s that counted up the national debt, dollar by dollar? Pretty scary, huh? Well, District voting rights activists want something similar for their cause.

Today the D.C. Council held a hearing on legislation that would allow the city to place two large LED billboards — one outside the John A. Wilson Building and the other outside the new Washington Nationals stadium — that would display the amount of taxes paid by District residents to the federal government. The point? To highlight the double indignity faced by all District residents: not having a voting representative in the Congress while still paying federal taxes.

During the hearing, Council Chair Vincent Gray noted that District residents currently pay more in federal taxes than seven states — Delaware, Maine, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Vermont — and almost as much as four other states. Council member Kwame Brown (D-At Large) pointed out that the District has paid $40 billion in federal taxes since Home Rule was achieved in 1973.

A number of voting rights activists, including the District’s Shadow Delegation and Ilir Zherka, president of D.C. Vote, advocated for the signs as a creative means to highlight the city’s plight to visitors and tourists. Paul Strauss, the District’s Shadow Senator, argued that while many people are aware of the city’s lack of voting rights, “By quantifying it numerically, we turn it into an issue that cannot be ignored.” Shadow Representative Mike Panetta echoed that view, noting that the large audiences during the 2009 Presidential Inauguration and during baseball games would promote awareness of the District’s longstanding disenfranchisement.

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