Amendment XXIII
Ratified: March 29, 1961
Summary
Grants Washington, D.C. electoral votes in presidential elections.
Full Text
Grants the District of Columbia electors in the Electoral College.
History and Context
For more than 150 years, the citizens of the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., were in a bizarre political limbo: they were subject to federal laws and paid federal taxes, but they had no voice in electing the President who signed those laws. The Twenty-third Amendment was a step towards correcting this injustice. It granted the District of Columbia electors in the Electoral College, as if it were a state, though never more than the least populous state. It was a recognition that the growing population of D.C. deserved a say in their own national governance.