Quantcast

LEGAL NEWSLINE

Friday, March 29, 2024

Report: Council -- again -- votes to delay D.C. AG election

Paulzukerberg

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) -- The District of Columbia Council has voted for a second time to postpone the District's attorney general election.


On Tuesday, the council voted 7-6 in favor of putting off the election until 2018, according to the Washington City Paper.



The vote now sends the bill to Mayor Vincent Gray for his signature, the newspaper reported.


The council members who voted in favor of delaying the election said they had too many concerns.


"We could have an attorney general that really just turns this place upside down," at-large council member Vincent Orange said, according to the newspaper.


The council voted 8-5 in July to delay the election until 2018.


The District's Democratic primary was set for April 2014.


The vote comes a day after Paul Zukerberg, a Washington, D.C., attorney who specializes in defending marijuana possession cases, filed a lawsuit against the District of Columbia Board of Elections and the council for delaying the election.


Zukerberg, who ran unsuccessfully for an at-large seat on the District council, filed his suit in the District of Columbia Superior Court Monday to "secure the rights" of District voters to elect an attorney general in 2014.


"If the council can cancel the election for attorney general, they can cancel the election for mayor, or their own election, and we will be left with nothing but tyranny," Zukerberg said in a statement on his website.


"This suit is about respecting the will of the people, and the right of District voters to choose their own elected officials."


The lawsuit seeks to restore the election to the 2014 ballot.


From Legal Newsline: Reach Jessica Karmasek by email at jessica@legalnewsline.com.

More News