The Twenty-third Amendment

Because the Constitution assigns presidential electors only to states, residents of the District of Columbia could not vote for President for more than 150 years after the capital moved there in 1800. The Twenty-third Amendment, proposed on June 16, 1960, and ratified on March 29, 1961, gives the District as many electors as it would have if it were a state, but no more than the least populous state. In practice that means three electors.

District residents first voted for President in 1964. The amendment did not give the District voting representation in Congress, where it has only a nonvoting delegate in the House, and it did not make the District a state. Congress, which holds exclusive legislative authority over the District under Article I, granted it limited home rule in 1973, allowing an elected mayor and council, though Congress can still override local laws and controls its budget.

In 1978 Congress proposed another amendment that would have treated the District as a state for purposes of representation in Congress and the Electoral College, but only 16 states ratified it before its deadline expired in 1985. Supporters of statehood have since sought to admit most of the District as a state by ordinary legislation, which passed the House in 2020 and 2021 but stalled in the Senate. Opponents argue that statehood would require repealing or amending the Twenty-third Amendment and conflicts with the framers' design of a federal district.