residents. Political career She was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention starting from the 1970s until her death in 2012. She ran unsuccessfully for the Council of the District of Columbia in 1982 and 1984. Lett-Simmons helped lead a 2004 petition effort to recall D.C. mayor Anthony A. Williams. In 1990, she failed a bid to become District of Columbia's nonvoting delegate in Congress which she lost to Eleanor Holmes Norton. Faithless elector A Democratic elector from the District of Columbia in the 2000 United States presidential election, she abstained from voting in the Electoral College rather than vote for Al Gore for president and Joe Lieberman for vice president as was expected, in protest of the District of Columbia's lack of a voting representative in Congress. Lett-Simmons's Electoral College abstention, the first since 1864, was intended to protest what Lett-Simmons referred to as the federal district's "colonial status". Lett-Simmons described her blank ballot as an act of civil disobedience, not an act of a faithless elector; Lett-Simmons supported Gore and said she would have voted for him if she had thought he had a chance to win. Family She was the widow of Samuel J. Simmons, who died in 2003, former Assistant Secretary for the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She was married to Samuel J. Simmons for 53 years. Both of her sons, David C. Simmons, the chief administration law judge of the District of Columbia Commission on Human Rights and Robert A. Simmons, both work in Washington, D. C. She had a brother and granddaughter. Death Lett-Simmons died on December 22, 2012 at age 85 in Washington Hospital Center. Her son, David C. Simmons said she had a heart ailment. On January 3, 2013, many people gathered at Shiloh Baptist Church to pay tribute to Lett-Simmons. Mayor of the District of Columbia, Vincent C. Gray urged people in the gathering to follow Lett-Simmons example, stating, "If you want to celebrate Barbara’s legacy, do it by standing up and fighting until we get statehood." References External links Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity 1927 births 2012 deaths African-American people in Washington, D.C., politics Faithless electors Members of the District of Columbia Board of Education Western Michigan University alumni 2000 United States presidential electors Washington, D.C., Democrats Candidates in the 1982 United States elections Candidates in