The Twenty-third Amendment
Presidential voting in Washington, D.C.
Gave residents of the District of Columbia electoral votes in presidential elections.
Ratified 1961 · 3 minute read
Published by Quasi-Legal Institute · Report an error
The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct: A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.
In plain language
How many electors
D.C. is treated as if it were a state when counting electors, but with a cap.
Why it was needed
The Constitution gives electors to states. When the capital was created in 1800, residents of the District of Columbia lost any say in choosing the President. By 1960, hundreds of thousands of people lived in Washington, D.C., and paid federal taxes without any electoral votes.
Congress proposed the amendment in 1960, and it was ratified in March 1961. D.C. first voted in the presidential election of 1964.
What it did not change
The amendment concerns presidential elections only. D.C. has no Senators and elects one delegate to the House of Representatives who cannot vote on final passage of bills. Whether D.C. should have full representation in Congress, through statehood or another route, is a continuing political debate.
That debate is also linked to the amendment itself. If D.C. became a state, the amendment would remain in the Constitution unless it were repealed, so any plan has to address what happens to it.