Twenty-Third Amendment
Election Mechanics · Gave the nation’s capital a presidential vote it had never had
Ratified in 1961, the Twenty-Third Amendment gives Washington, D.C. electoral votes for President and Vice President — despite the District having no voting representation in Congress at all, a real, standing asymmetry the amendment doesn’t resolve.
The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint…a number of electors…equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives…to which the District would be entitled if it were a State.
Twenty-Third Amendment, ratified 1961
The text
Section 1. 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.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Spelling and punctuation as transcribed by the National Archives.
A Real, Standing Asymmetry
The amendment fixed one gap, not two
Before 1961, D.C. residents had no vote in presidential elections at all, despite otherwise being subject to federal law and taxation. This amendment fixed that specific gap — but D.C. still has no voting representative in the House and no Senators, an asymmetry this amendment doesn’t touch and that remains a live, ongoing political debate today.
D.C.’s electoral votes are capped, unlike a real state’s
A common misconception is that this amendment treats D.C. exactly like a state for electoral purposes. It doesn’t — the text explicitly caps D.C.’s electoral votes at no more than the least populous state would receive, regardless of D.C.’s actual population. This is a deliberate, textual limit, not an oversight.