D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton read the District of Columbia’s nominating votes into the record in Mayor Adrian Fenty’s absence.

Drama during the roll call! As head of the D.C. delegation, Mayor Adrian Fenty was supposed to be the one to read the District’s vote into the record at the Democratic National Convention — but Fenty didn’t turn up until at least 10 minutes after D.C. was called upon to cast its votes. D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton subbed for the absent mayor, giving impromptu remarks harkening back to the voting rights themes from her speech on Tuesday while doing so. (In fact, since a lot more state delegates were actually here during the roll call, Norton got many more cheers from the crowd than she did when she was at the podium yesterday).

Norton submitted 33 votes for Barack Obama, and six votes for Hillary Clinton.

When Fenty finally showed up to the delegate section, he told Norton she did a great job, and then promptly headed down to walk through the crowded arena floor.

D.C. Democratic Party Chair Anita Bonds said that the roll call had gone much more quickly than she had expected, which she argued helps to explain why the mayor was tardy. Also tardy: superdelegate and Shadow Sen. Michael D. Brown, the last D.C. delegate to sign the official vote tally sheet. Bonds had to delay the Democratic Party official who came by to collect the vote tally from D.C. until Brown signed.