Barbara Lett-Simmons

Barbara Lett-Simmons (born 1927) is an American politician.

A Democratic elector from the District of Columbia in the 2000 U.S. Election, she abstained from voting in the Electoral College rather than vote for Al Gore as was expected, in protest of the District's lack of a voting representative in Congress. Although D.C. does have a non-voting delegate to Congress, Lett-Simmons's Electoral College abstention, the first since U.S. presidential election, 1832, was intended to protest what Lett-Simmons referred to as the federal district's "colonial status." (See faithless elector.)

Lett-Simmons is an alumna of the University of Michigan, and the widow of Samuel J. Simmons, former Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Lett-Simmons served on the District of Columbia's Board of Education from 1974 to 1986. She was also a delegate to the 2000 Democratic National Convention. More recently, Lett-Simmons helped lead a 2004 petition effort to recall D.C. mayor Anthony A. Williams.

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