Photo by PoPville flickr user Carly & Art

From DC Board of Elections:

Out of 505,698 registered voters, 49,869 or 9.86% voted for:

ANITA BONDS 16,054 32.19%
ELISSA SILVERMAN 13,740 27.55%
PATRICK MARA 11,367 22.79%

The Budget Autonomy referendum passed with 83.09% of the vote.

From an email:

DC Vote and the DC Budget Freedom Committee take their series of Budget Freedom Happy Hours to CAUSE (1926 9th Street, NW) The Philanthropub on U Street,Thursday, April 11 from 5:00 – 8:00PM. DC United Coach Ben Olsen will host the event to show his support for the budget autonomy referendum.

Photo by PoPville flickr user beaufinley

Thanks to Beau for sending:

“There’s a big immigration rally going out on 12th St SW outside ICE right now. They have drums, signs, and are pretty well organized. Traffic doesn’t seem to be effected.”

Muriel Bowser with then Mayor Adrian Fenty at the Ribbon Cutting for Chezy Billy on Georgia Ave

From a media advisory:

“Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser announces that she is a candidate for Mayor of the District of Columbia at her childhood home in Ward 5’s North Michigan Park. Saturday, March 23, 2013″

‏@stephcherkezian tweets the photo above and writes:

“Holy 15th & P NW! @PoPville any intel? Police were holding up a white sheet to block the inside ATM at the bank.”

@mcbyrne replies, “NoKXL protest.” [Protest against "Keystone XL" pipeline]

and @xMPoly shares a bit more detail:

“Demonstrators inside, took off their clothes in the ATM vestibule, around 6:45-7:00 this morning.”

After a week off, Let’s Choose DC this week asked the candidates for their positions on DC’s zoning update proposals—removing parking minimums, allowing accessory dwellings, and corner stores. We also have the results of your votes on their responses on school truancy.

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Only 2.5% of voters gave Michael Brown positive marks for his response on ethics this week on Let’s Choose DC (a partnership of PoPville, Greater Greater Washington, and DCist). Elissa Silverman took the top spot in your judgment, with Matthew Frumin second.

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DC might criminally charge parents whose kids miss school. Is that the right approach? What else should DC do about truancy? This week, Let’s Choose DC asked the at-large candidates this question:

Last year DC Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson said that DC schools are suffering from a “truancy crisis.” The DC Council is now debating a bill that would increase penalties on parents for kids who chronically miss school. Should parents be held to account for when their kids miss school? How can DC ensure that students attend school consistently?

View responses and vote here.

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A reader writes:

“FYI – There is a huge “anti-greed” protest going on at 19th and L. 200 people gathered and large blow up pig.”

We’ve heard a lot of ideas for rules that will clean up DC’s political culture, from the backers of Initiative 70, from multiple DC councilmembers, and from citizen groups like DC for Democracy. What do our at-large candidates think?

This week, Let’s Choose DC, a partnership of PoPville, Greater Greater Washington and DCist, asked the candidates running in the April 23 special election to take a stand on 6 proposals from last year:

• Ban or limit outside employment
• Eliminate or constrain constituent service funds
• Ban corporate contributions to campaigns
• Ban “bundling” from multiple entities controlled by the same person
• Ban contributions by contractors and/or lobbyists who do business with DC
• Forbid free or discounted legal services, travel gifts, sports tickets for councilmembers

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Last week on Let’s Choose DC (a partnership of PoPville, Greater Greater Washington and DCist), we had responses from the candidates on how they would spend DC’s $417 million surplus. But before you rated the candidates on their responses, we asked you for your own views.

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Are bike lanes destroying DC by making it impossible for “real people” to move about? Are cars evil monsters that should be banished? If you ask the candidates for DC Council at-large on April 23, the answer is no to both.

Despite what you might assume if you listen to AAA’s Lon Anderson, Gary Imhoff’s introductions in themail, or certain Adam Tuss NBC broadcast segments, DC leaders of many ages and backgrounds just aren’t interested in more conflict concerning our roadways.

We asked the candidates,

Residents who walk and bicycle often feel our streets are not sufficiently safe for them. Others feel that projects to accommodate bicycles and pedestrians have impeded quality of life for those who must drive. Is there a way forward that can bring peace among all road users? What would you say to each of these groups?

You can vote on the candidates’ responses to this question until midnight Monday, February 18. Meanwhile, stay tuned for the results of last week’s question, on how to spend the surplus, later this week.

The District’s budget has a $417 million surplus. If you were on the DC Council, what would you do with it?

Let’s Choose DC (a partnership of PoPville, Greater Greater Washington and DCist) asked the 8 candidates for the April 23 at-large special election. All replied except for Anita Bonds, and we have their responses online at LetsChooseDC.com.

But first, we’d like to know what you think. When you start voting on Let’s Choose DC, it will first ask you about a set of budget priorities, from the rainy-day fund to social services to tax cuts, which one or more candidates mentioned in their statements. After that, you can look at, and rate, individual candidate responses.

You can vote until midnight Monday, February 11. After that, we’ll do some analysis to try to not only figure out whose responses was most popular, but how people with different sets of budget priorities felt about the candidates.

Meanwhile, stay tuned for the results of last week’s question, on DC’s growth, coming later this week.

Residents who voted at Let’s Choose DC, a project of PoPville, Greater Greater Washington and DCist, gave top marks to Matthew Frumin and Elissa Silverman for their views on the future of education in DC. Matthew Frumin slightly edged out Elissa Silverman in a close finish. John Settles placed third, followed by Patrick Mara, Perry Redd, and Paul Zukerberg much farther behind.

71% of voters gave positive reviews to Frumin’s answer, compared to 70% for Silverman’s.  Silverman had more people rating her answer “very persuasive”—38% versus 30%—but also fewer people thought her answer “fully” answered the question—46% versus Frumin’s 65%. 14% of voters said she did not answer the question at all, while only 1% had that reaction to Frumin’s response.

It’s Tuesday, and that means another Let’s Choose DC question is ready for you to vote on! This week, Let’s Choose DC (a partnership of PoPville, Greater Greater Washington, and DCist) asked the candidates their views on the District’s growth:

Mayor Gray has set a goal of growing by 250,000 residents in 20 years. Previous mayors had similar goals. GMU studies suggest we need over 122,000 new housing units (each of which might hold multiple people) by 2030. How can and should the District accommodate this growth?

Paul Zukerberg, Matthew Frumin, Elissa Silverman, and John Settles provided responses, and Perry Redd this morning promised to get one to us tonight. We did not receive responses from Anita Bonds, Michael Brown, or Patrick Mara. All of the other candidates have withdrawn from the race or did not file their petitions with the requisite number of signatures.

Check out the answers here.